.com.unity Forums - Upkeep Question

Copied over from the DomII boards - I don't have DomIII, but imagine this would work the same way in both games.

My understanding of lack of upkeep plays out as the following:

- If you have not enough gold to pay all upkeep, units begin to desert. The order of desertion is based on morale of troops. Lowest morale troops desert first.

This makes sense, and is a pretty logical way for the game to decision which units desert if, say, only 50% of the needed gold is available.

My question is, exactly how does this work? Is it a morale check for each unit that is determined to be unsupported by upkeep? This makes it possible that you will not have any desertions (granted, that's a longshot). If it's a guaranteed effect - no upkeep, no troops - that's a far bigger deal. Driving other players' income down would result in certain loss of troops and becomes a viable strategy. The second they lose money enough to pay troops, those troops are gone (in a no morale check version of things). This becomes a compelling strategy, especially with nations who have low morale, capital only mages. Time to recoup your losses to this impact would be significant. Anyone know for sure which it is?

Put another way: if you've ever been on the receiving end of Utterdark, for example, did you lose all troops requiring upkeep that you did not have gold for or only some on each turn ie units failing morale checks?