Question about Frighten and Terror

[Dedas]

I've been reading up on the subject of fear and morale quite a bit but there is one thing that I can't figure out. Consider this:

* A squad can only take one morale test per turn according to the rules book. (p.80)

* The spell Frighten "Inflicts a Fear +15 attack on the occupants of one square." (p.239)

* The spell Terror "Performs a Fear +10 attack in a wide area..." (p.241)

So which one is better? Terror sure looks better due to its area effect. But if you think about it you would have to hit several squads for it to be effective, considering the rule that individuals in a squad do not test for morale only the squad as a whole. Or am I wrong on this part, maybe there is some hidden rules not stated in the rulebook?
If we for a moment assume that there isn't, then it would seem that Frighten actually beats Terror on several critical points as a better "scare away" spell:

1. It is cheaper to cast - fatigue 5 versus fatigue 10.

2. It is lower level - level 1 versus 4.

3. It has longer range - 50 versus 25.

4. It has better precision - 5 versus 1.

5. It doesn't need more than D1 versus D3.

6. Last but not least, it is "scarier" - fear +15 (check versus 13) versus fear +10 (check versus 12).

However, it is only true that Frighten is superior to Terror if you don't want to hit several squads at once.

All of this could be wrong of course if there is some rule that I'm unaware of. So please enlighten me Kristoffer or someone else with the knowledge.

[silhouette]

There was very recently another thread about this exact question. It ended up with more open questions than it started with.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...&Number=534508

Sill

[Dedas]

I missed that one. Thank you for linking!

Oh my, after reading that I'm even more confused. It certainly would be nice to have these things cleared out some. That would help when scripting mages and creating good army compositions.

[NoPJag]

Maybe the effects of fear and terror stack up and are calculated/checked at the end of the turn ?

[Dedas]

Maybe, maybe not? Without looking at the code it is hard to know.

[Saint_Dude]

I suspect that NoPJag is correct. Terror and Frighten have a negative effect on moral and require the targeted squad to make a moral check at the end of the round irregardless of whether or not the squad sustained any damage. Ultimately only one moral check is made per squad however. So if the squad takes damage, is targeted by Frighten and again by Terror, it will only make one moral check, albeit at a greatly reduced moral.

As for which spell is better, I would say Terror hands down. Remember it is a squad that makes a moral check, not an individual unit. The check for the squad is vs. the average moral for the squad (and squads are typically much larger than 1 hex). Frighten is very likely to decrease the moral for a small number of units, but the effect on overall squad moral (after averaging) is not that great. While Terror is less likely to affect individual troops, and will produce less of a moral decrease in the troops it does affect, the overall impact is likely to be much larger because so many more troops in the squad are targeted.

[Kristoffer O]

NoPJag & Saint Dude are right.

[Dedas]

Thank you everyone! Now I can sleep easy again.