Practicing Morale Management

[BakaGaijin]

The revelations of the "morale penalties" thread are starting to sink in with me now, but it's just not enough if I want to stop losing so damned much. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif

So, I came up with this question. Does anybody have ideas about how to "practice" management of troop morale, other than the obvious "play lots of games and learn by trial and error" method? Is there some sort of exercise Dojoers use or can think of?

For my part, I thought it might be interesting to try taking a small number of h0 YA with full armour against an AI opponent armed to the teeth with guns. The goal wouldn't be to attack and rout the guns, but rather to maneuver for as long as possible in front of the guns and try to keep your units coherent. A second exercise might involve the same initial conditions, but with the goal being to rout the guns without attacking.

I'm not sure if either of those things is even POSSIBLE, though. Would be interesting if they were.

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"If your soul is imperfect, living will be difficult." -- Ryo Hayabusa, DOA2

[Vanya]

Death is the only reward for your endeavors. All men shall embrace it sooner or later.

Thus, morale is irrelevant and it only clouds the minds of warriors and stands in the way of their performance in battle. And in so doing, hastens their ascent to Nirvana -- or their rebirth into a rat or chicken.

So... the 'moral' here is that the best way is to just play. Play. Play. Play. There is no substitute for playing. Just do what comes naturally... just like they do on the Discovery Channel. Doh! I digress... http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/rolleyes.gif

So... where was I? Oh, yeah! Morals are for petty weaklings that are yellow at heart and lack what it takes to embrace the ultimate destiny...

Bring yourself Death! And you will love yourself for it!

http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/tongue.gif

[BakaGaijin]

*commits seppuku*

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"If your soul is imperfect, living will be difficult." -- Ryo Hayabusa, DOA2

[Puzz3D]

BakaGaijin,

I started looking into this because of the auto-rout/Benny Hill, bug/feature effect. With the variable parameters of WE/MI, it's possible to measure the magnitude of the morale effects. Mainly, I think you want to identify the large effects so you can avoid exposing low morale units to those situations. The large range of 22 points for "steady" does not give you a good feel for where the unit is on the morale scale. If the status report had more steps, players would get a better grasp of the morale system in less playing time. Knowing the numbers means you know where your units start on the scale, but, as the battle progresses, you have to rely on that text status report.

I think it's enough just to realize which of the morale effects are big and which are small. The management is to maximize the negative effect you project while at the same time minimizing the negative effect you incur. Understanding the range of these effects is important as you manuever around with low morale units.

The morale level of even H0 ashi troops is high enough that you cannot cause them to rout simply by maneuvering around no matter how many units you have. You have to cause casualties, and those morale penalties are dynamic. So, you want to maximize the morale penalties you are projecting as you inflict casualties by having as many units as possible in proximity and flanking as much as possible. Don't send low morale units into the h2h fight, but use them to support the fighting units from behind. My own experience is that it's pretty risky to use low morale units for flanking. Always face the enemy to avoid flanking penalties, and to provide morale support to your own units.

MizuYuuki ~~~
Clan Takiyama ~~~

[BakaGaijin]

With time, it seems more and more that my big problems come from that damned rout bug, not mismanagement on my part. It's funny when you've got superior position have decimated several enemy units while keeping most of your intact and then suddenly your entire army routs before even any white flags start flashing. By which I of course mean that it's NOT funny. AT ALL.

*sigh*

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"If your soul is imperfect, living will be difficult." -- Ryo Hayabusa, DOA2