Absence of warcry ability

So why was "warcry" ability disabled for the barbarians (or some of the more "civilised" soldiers, which I am sure used it as well)? I would prefer if someone from the EB team actually answered this question, if it is possible of course, not just a person with an opinion - there is a lot of people with a lot of different opinions, which may not all be accurate. If raising the attack of the unit was an unlikely bonus for warcry, then couldn't it raise something else, such as morale, and for a longer period of time (if all of this is not hardcoded).

Thanks in advance.

The effects of unit abilities is indeed hard-coded. I imagine it was disabled because warcries and similar were hardly unique to barbarians, and they would have been used without prompting from the general.

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Originally Posted by Ludens

warcries and similar were hardly unique to barbarians.

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Which is why EB team could have enable it for the civilised soldiers as well, right?

They could have enabled it for civilized soldiers, but as Ludens said, soldiers would have shouted warcries without prompting from the general. Besides, whenever you order a unit into the fray, you'll notice they shout out warcries as they charge anyways.

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Originally Posted by Aemilius Paulus

Which is why EB team could have enable it for the civilised soldiers as well, right?

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Personally, I find it ridiculous that a chant would affect the soldiers fighting ability. Do you think soldiers would strike their enemy less hard because they did not use a warcry before battle? If the attack bonus was related to morale, I could understand, but it's not. All that matters is whether the unit uses warcry or not. I can image a warcry boosting morale, but that cannot be modded, so it's better to disable it entirely. Also, I imagine that all ancient soldiers went through some morale-building routine before battle, whether their general commanded it or not. Tying it to a button would only add to micro-management.

I guess you're right. :yes:

As I know only the obvious from my experiences with the abilities what exactly are the effects of BI´s war cry, besides the increased attack, and if it is not too far off the topic what are the effects of the shield-wall ?

Warcry doesn't seem give you anything but the 30 second attack bonus.

The shieldwall gives you:
overall defence bonuses
extra defence bonus against cavalry
extra vulnerability to flanking
possible bonus versus missile fire
tendency to switch on secondary weapon

Thank you, but I guessed as much myself, you wouldn´t have any exact numbers for the defensive ability of shield-wall would you ?

No one knows the exact numbers. No one but CA. They had a research thread in Ludus Magna about the shieldwalls, but it mentioned no numbers. Pretty much everything we know about battle bonuses and penalties is rather sketchy, with no exact numbers.

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Originally Posted by Ludens

Personally, I find it ridiculous that a chant would affect the soldiers fighting ability. Do you think soldiers would strike their enemy less hard because they did not use a warcry before battle? If the attack bonus was related to morale, I could understand, but it's not.

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Personally, I think any sort of chant would raise moral or fervor. Even today, most sports team start some sort of chant before a game of a race, and at least for the teams I've been on, every athlete comes out more energized and rid of a lot of excess anxiety.

Wow, that was kind of pointless.