Dominions 5 – Morale & Rout
Morale is a measure of how likely a squad is to keep fighting after taking casualties. Each unit has a morale value, but the morale value that is checked is the morale level of the entire squad. Each squad has a morale level, which is the average of all the morale ratings of the members of the squad.
Morale bonuses A unit can have a number of modifiers to its morale. For example, Sacred units can be blessed, which increases their morale by 1, and spells like Sermon of Courage (+1) and Song of Bravery (+1) can increase morale also. In addition, all units can gain the following bonuses:
+1 for fighting in friendly dominion
+1 for fighting in a unit’s home province (the province where it was recruited)
+x for a commander’s leadership bonus (click on Leadership attribute) This is further modified by the formation in which the unit is fighting, how many squads the commander is leading, etc.
+1 for every level of the Inspirational ability the squad’s commander has (can also be negative)
+x if there is a unit with the Standard ability in the squad, where x is the bonus from the highest Standard
Rout During combat, squads will have their members killed and wounded, and eventually, they will take flight from the field. This is called routing and happens to the entire squad.
Rout is checked by the squad. A squad that fails its morale check routs. A squad will check morale if:
● The squad has suffered “heavy losses” since the last morale check, and its overall casualties are at least 20%
● The squad has four or fewer units left in it and at least one of the units has taken damage this round
● The squad is near a monster causing Fear (e.g. an Abomination)
● The squad has been subjected to a spell causing Fear (e.g. Terror)
● The entire army has taken 50% or more of its total hit point value in casualties. In this case, morale will be checked every turn for the remainder of the battle. Retinues are excluded from this “greater than 50% of army hit points” if there is nothing more than one creature and its retinue. This is a special case.
“Heavy losses” is one wound for every two members of the squad. A “wound” is simply 1 or more hit points of damage that reduce a unit to 80% or less of its normal hit points. So a unit with 25 hit points that is undamaged and suffers 4 points of damage does not count as having suffered a “wound” for these purposes. The next point of damage, however, will reduce him to 80% of normal, and every hit thereafter (even if for 1 point) will continue to satisfy these criteria. Units are very enthusiastic at the beginning of the battle, but less so after taking damage.
No matter how many times the above conditions are satisfied, a squad cannot have its morale checked more than once a turn.
Army rout Once an army has taken 75% of its total hit point value in casualties in a battle, it will automatically rout.
Morale check A morale check consists of two numbers, the morale roll, and the fear roll. If the fear roll is greater than the morale roll, the squad routs. If not, the squad keeps fighting. Although it is called the “fear roll,” it applied to anything that checks morale, not just fear.
Morale roll: squad morale + DRN + survivor bonus
Fear roll: 13 + DRN
The survivor bonus ranges from 0-5, depending on how many of the squad’s original members are still alive. The smaller the proportion of survivors, the smaller the bonus. An intact (or almost intact) squad will get a bonus of 5. A squad that has been almost wiped out gets no bonus.
Rout effects A routed unit will use all of its action points each turn to move towards its own side of the battlefield and off the friendly edge.
A routing unit suffers a -4 penalty to its defense skill. Fast units can be very effective at picking off enemy units that are routing, as they have a better chance of catching them before they exit the map.
Once a routing unit reaches the map edge, it is safe, and on the turn after the battle will appear in a province adjacent to the battle (see Retreat rules on page [80]). If a unit retreats to an enemy province, it is destroyed. A routed army may scatter to multiple provinces after a battle, requiring a commander to go collect it. Routed units suffering from profuse bleeding, poison, burning, decay, or other special damage will have the remainder of that damage applied once they get off the map edge and may not survive. This represents the unit successfully fleeing the battle but expiring of its wounds before finding help.
Units in a victorious army can rout off the map as well since a squad can rout while others are winning the battle. If the battle ends before the routing units exit the map, at the end of the battle they remain with the victorious army. If they rout off the map before the battle ends, they scatter to adjacent provinces.
Mindless units Mindless units need to be under the control of a commander. If there are no unrouted commanders on the battlefield eligible to command mindless units, remaining mindless units on the field are automatically subject to mindless dissolution.
If all eligible commanders (i.e. commanders who can command mindless units) have been killed or routed, the mindless beings become immobile and have a 33% chance each turn of dissolving and vanishing from the battle. They will not move but will attack adjacent units.
Magic beings and undead These units have special leadership requirements, such as magical leadership or undead leadership. If such units are on the battlefield without proper leadership, they will rout. If a unit is both an undead and a magic being (such as the manikins of Asphodel), it requires undead leadership to lead. Demons require undead leadership to lead.
