I apologize for starting a new thread for this idea instead of putting it in a previously created one.. but I just couldn't resist.
Anyway, I think I may have found a way to analyze the changes in morale in a more objective way that could lead to more conclusive results.
Why argue about broad historical and philosophical themes and talk about morale in a general sense when we have knowledge available that indicates the specific nature of the morale changes made, which can in turn lead to a comprehensive analysis of the effects of these changes.
Anyway, here is my figuring on what CA did with morale:
The morale penalty for getting people killed quickly appears to have been nullified.
The morale penalty for getting people killed in general may have been toned down.. not sure.
There was a serious morale penalty added for when Japanese units see Mongols, so that unless the Japs maintain the upper hand at all times they tend to severely domino rout within the first few formative moments of melee with Mongols (in my experience).
All other factors seem to have remained the same.
I would comment that I have had serious morale problems when using the Japs in the full campaign vs. Mongols (i.e. it is hard to get them to just friggin stand up to the horde except in cases of large Jap numbers advantage).
I would also say that Jap vs. Jap SP campaign seems to work as it did before.
Having not been able to play online (some weird thing where even though I'm registered and have reregistered my online name, neither my original STW or my MI CD key lets me on), I can't comment on the nature of MP games. But from what people say, they seem to have changed substantially.
So anyway, this mainly just starts a discussion rather than draws any conclusions, so please come in and comment and provide more accurate information where I may have erred.
Some of my hypotheses: the changes to morale in relation to getting killed were directed at the Mongol campaign to help balance the Japs very strong innate fear of Mongols. The results of this essentially seem sound. But they carried over these same changes into Sengoku Jidai, which skews things because there is no "oh crap run the Mongols are thinking about charging maybe within the next 5 hours if they feel like it" factor. This may not be evidenced in the relatively smaller and lower-honor battles of SP campaigns (or it could be that the changes were only applied to MP Sengoku Jidai, can't be sure, but the former seems perhaps more likely).
Anyway, there you are.
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Khan7
