How bad is starving?

[DonCorazon]

Hi, its the noob, DC here. So I am in my first MP game and just dawned on me I was looking at the resources number and not the supply number of the province where my massive army is poised to attack the foul smelling Shinuyamans (sorry, spacht). So now I am wondering how bad are the effects. The description of diseased sounds like you get afflictions every turn. How long can my force remain viable? Is having starving troops fight a bad idea or a way to cull the herd so there is more food to go around for the strong?

Also, if I get them to a province with enough supply, are they instantly back to healthy? By healthy, I don't mean cured of afflictions, as I know those are hard to get rid of, but I mean will they have that one turn cushion of being at the starving stage before the diseases kick in if they set out in low supply lands again?

Thanks, this is a great game, in spite of my stream of dumb mistakes leading to the needless deaths and suffering of many of Ulm's finest...

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Starving is -4 morale instantly. Disease takes a while to kick in. When defending a fortress, starvation can be quite nasty. For both the attacker and defender. When raiding, especially with a disposable force, starvation isn't really a concern, even if its happening.

Starving troops will break and run very quickly. It's kind of hard to cull the herd in that case. But you won't be starving cause your army will be scattered around several provinces.

[Endoperez]

Diseased, living units never heal, and get 1 point of damager/turn. They'll also often get afflictions.

Starvation only kicks in after the unit suffers from it for the second turn. So moving in, starving, and moving out is perfectly safe.

Your own fortresses "radiate" supply lines to provinces near them, so having a fort nearby could save your troops. If you have researched Thaumaturgy 2, I suggest casting Gnome Lore on all provinces near the Shinuyama capital - you might get lucky and get a fortress from a site. Mountains and wastes have better chance of delivering, and searching empty provinces is better than ones which already have 3 of the 4 possible sites.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Can recruit enough indie shamans, you can alleviate your starvation, as well. Not the best idea, but I'll throw it out there. As well, those indie shamans can often forge bags of endless wine for fifty supply.

[DonCorazon]

Thanks guys, very helpful. Btw, is there a hotkey to pickout starving troops, as there is for wounded troops?

[Rathar]

Nay

[Arralen]

Starvation is distributed randomly each turn ... therefore it wouldn't make much sense to pick out "starving" troops.

[DonCorazon]

I want to pick out the starving ones to send them back to a province with supplies and send the ones that are not starving on to fight. The non-starving ones won't have the morale penalty. The province they move into to fight has enough supplies for them. Not sure why that doesn't make sense?

Also, holding down 'S' does pick out the starving troops.

[Endoperez]

Wow, I never knew that! Cool!

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

I agree with Endoperez. But I have to add a
Smack to (my) forehead and say, why didn't I try that?! If w=wound, why wouldn't s=starve?!