A few basic questions

[NoTalent]

hi there,

I'm fairly new to this game, I'm playing with the VI pack. Normal difficulty and GA/early. As the Danes. I've read Frogbeasts fantastic guide to this game, but I have a few questions:

1) What is the morale penalty for being under fire from arrows/crossbows, does the units morale only dip while under fire, and does it go back to normal levels after?

2) What is the morale penalty for being attacked from the front + the rear. Or from the front + the side.

3) How much of a moral drop can unit take before it routs.

4) I've read that swords get +1 vs spears, and spears get +1 att, +4 def vs horse/camel. Any other type of unit vs unit bonus I need to know?

5) Polearms. Please clarify the bonus a unit would get vs a set of knights. Chosse any example you want, i can apply it to all situations.

6)When swords wrap around a spear unit, does that count as flanking the spears, so they lose some of their rank bonus.

A good few questions, I'd reall appreciate some help.

cheers

NT

[Kongamato]

Remember that rout point is -18 in VI.

Cut and pasted from MizuYuuki:

Impetuous: 10 and above
Steady: 2 to 14
Uncertain: -5 to 5
Wavering: -14 to -5
Routing: Less than -6

Rout point is -16 in MTW v1.1, and probably moved to -18 in VI for MP. Routed units will keep routing until their morale rises to -6 or above.
Hitting the rally key pumps +8 morale into the unit.

Impetuous units will pursue enemies for longer, and may disregard orders to hold position. Some troop types may charge without orders.

Uncertain or wavering units which are not fighting are less likely to charge, and those who are fighting are more likely to fall back.


Negative

Loose or disordered formation: -2
Outnumbered 2 to 1: up to -4 (range = about 75 meters)
Outnumbered 10 to 1: up to -12 (range = about 75 meters)
Outclassed in quality and speed: modifies the outnumbered penalty.
One flank threatened: -2 (range = about 60 meters)
Two flanks threatened: -6 (range = about 60 meters
Charged in flank: -4
Infantry charged by cavalry in flank or while disordered: -6
Charged in flank by unit hidden in forest: -8
General's death (for first few seconds): -8 to all his units except highly disciplined units
General's death (after first few seconds): -2 to all his units except highly disciplined units
Routing Friends: up to -12 for seeing 2 equal or higher level friendly units routing. Elite and disciplined units consider lesser types as 1/2 a unit for this calculation.
10% of unit is dead: -2
50% of unit is dead: -8
80% of unit is dead: -12
Taking casualties from enemy missle fire: -2 for a duration less than the reload of the firing unit (additional -4 for gunpowder weapons)
Unit is very tired: -2
Unit is exhausted: -6
Unit is totally exhausted: -8
Losing: Up to -8 (up to -14 if losing to cavalry)
Skirmishing without ammo: -6
Skirmisher pursued for a long distance by equal speed unit: -6

Positive

Two flanks protected: +4
No retreat possible (usually castle sieges): +8
No enemies around: +4
Two enemies routing: up to +8
Uphill Position: +2
Winning: up to +6
Unordered charge: +4 (such as when impetuous knights charge automatically)
Outnumber Enemy 3 to 1: +4
General's unit: +2
Within 50 meters of general: +1 morale per command star
Beyond 50 meters from general: +1 morale per 2 command stars

Archer and xbow open fire range = 100 meters (2.5 tiles)
Normal infantry marching speed is 1.68 m/s (speed 6)


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#4: The halberd wielded by Halberdiers, Swiss Halberdiers, and JHI gives you +3 attack and +1 defense against cavalry. It also has the armor piercing bonus, which I do not know the specifics of. Does that handle question 5?

#6: Yes, rank bonuses can be affected by a wrap-around. It can be quite annoying sometimes.

[son of spam]

I think Kongamato has covered all of the morale questions, so I'll try to answer some of the others.

4) Camels get a +2/+4 bonus against all horses, including other camels (I think)

Armor piercing works like this IIRC:

(target inf. armor-1)/2 (rounded down) = bonus added to attack.

As an example, if a gallowglass is attacking a huscarle (armor level 4), then the gallowglass will get an attack bonus of (4-1)/2 = 1.5 =~ 1.

In effect, it makes armor half as effective most of the time, except when the bonus is rounded down.

For cavalry, the formula is (target armor - 3)/2 IIRC

EDIT: Welcome to the org http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

[katank]

son of spam, i think you got armor flipped.

for inf, it's -3 to calculate while for cav it's -4 since the horse always counts as a point of armor.

I think you don't get AP except for 4 or more armor on inf and 5 or more on cav with 1 extra per two armor points.

the swords when wrapping around is considered flanking and even rear attack if sword line is long enough and this applies to cav too.

this is exactly why 1 line cav charges and 2 line sword charges are so effective.

polearms would get a defense against cav bonus that is +2? but they would get AP also. Since you will likely be taking on catholic heavy cav, they would have plenty of armor that the AP can benefit from.

all in all, polearms are far better at killing cav than spears.

still, they have less defense bonuses and no ranks so can have more casualties.

for max effect, use spears to eat cav charge and then flank or rear with polearms.

[NoTalent]

hi

thanks for the replies, still a bit unsure of the bonus for AP units vs cavalry.

For example, if an Polearm unit has an attack of 3. It is up against a knight, with armour of 5, if the knight has a sheild, which adds +2 def, +2 armour (not sure)

Is the modified Polearm bonus, 7-1/2 = 3

Therefore the polearm unit will attack with 6.

A detailed explanation would be appreciated.

cheers

NT

[katank]

well, the shield doesn't count as part of the armour calculation although it does provide for missile protection at least and often in melee as well for bonus to defense provided no bihaded weaponry.

thus, the polearm in your case only gets 5 attack against the knight although it's still substantial.

shields are great and better than armor in most cases due to lack of bonus to opposing AP although shields don't function when hit from the rear and also flanking reduces shield's effectiveness.