What does "group with" mean?

[Innocence]

Ok, two real noob question: I've been reading Blitz' Arcoscophile quick-guide (which is hard since it's very funny to read as well ), and he suggests to "...Stack your mammoths with all your hypaspists and cardaces. This way they don't rout...".

Questions:

• Why does this increase the morale of the elephants?

• How exactly do you stack/group for this morale boost to work? Do I put the Elephants and Hypaspists on the same line/squad under the commander, or can they be separated in different squads?

Originally posted by Innocence:


Questions:

• Why does this increase the morale of the elephants?

This increases the Morale of the Elephants for 2 reasons. 1.) It is the AVERAGE of total morale that a squad uses when doing morale checks. So (1) 5 Morale Unit in the same squad as (9) 10 Morale units would have an average Morale (even for the one with 5 Base Morale) of 9.5.
2.) There is a Morale Bonus for the larger size of squad that you have. So more people in squads means a higher average morale.

• How exactly do you stack/group for this morale boost to work? Do I put the Elephants and Hypaspists on the same line/squad under the commander, or can they be separated in different squads?

They must be in the same squad. So, in the same line.

[Innocence]

Originally posted by Zen:
It is the AVERAGE of total morale that a squad uses when doing morale checks...There is a Morale Bonus for the larger size of squad that you have. So more people in squads means a higher average morale. They must be in the same squad.

A swift and clear answer, thanks . Now I know why I couldn't make it work - I put them in different squads

[NTJedi]

I don't believe the morale of mindless units is averaged into the formula since they have morale with 30 or 50. Otherwise 2 units with 50 morale would unbalance an entire group.

[Innocence]

Heh, when I woke up this morning my first thought was exactly that: Why not group with units that never break?
So how do I know which units count in this equation and which are ignored?

[HJ]

Originally posted by Innocence:
Heh, when I woke up this morning my first thought was exactly that: Why not group with units that never break?

Because, IIRC, if the squad breaks (since they are not figured into the equation), they will dissolve or do whatever they do if there are no commanders for them left on the battlefield. Again IIRC, mindless units (morale 50) do not figure into the morale equations. Don't know about non-mindless non-breakables (morale 30), but I think they don't factor in either. The difference is that they will just flee, and not die from routing. Berserking units (morale 99)also don't count, as their squad can rout but they will keep on fighting.

[Innocence]

Originally posted by HJ:
Don't know about non-mindless non-breakables (morale 30), but I think they don't factor in either.

Ok, but anyone know for sure exactly which unit-types count and which don't?

[LintMan]

Originally posted by Zen:

2.) There is a Morale Bonus for the larger size of squad that you have. So more people in squads means a higher average morale.

Do you mean there is an actual separate bonus for having more units, besides the fact that larger Groups aren't as impacted by a few morale losses?

Do you know what the numbers are (ie: the size of the bonus or the amount of necessary units to get it?)

[HJ]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
That's not true. I regularly would dump the free flags and militia in with the rest of my longdeads, and the flags and militia would simply chicken out independently of the skellies. The longdeads were unaffected by this and kept fighting.

Really? I seem to remember a post from the devs a long time ago that this wouldn't work and that if the squad routs, they will dissolve. Are you sure that the battle Lasted long enough to allow for this to happen? They hardly dissolve right away when, e.g., all undead commanders die either, it takes time.

edit:
Found it http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...=001110#000000 - Kristoffer's post.

[ June 10, 2004, 19:54: Message edited by: HJ ]

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by HJ:
Because, IIRC, if the squad breaks (since they are not figured into the equation), they will dissolve or do whatever they do if there are no commanders for them left on the battlefield.

That's not true. I regularly would dump the free flags and militia in with the rest of my longdeads, and the flags and militia would simply chicken out independently of the skellies. The longdeads were unaffected by this and kept fighting.