Handgunners and morale

I finally got some handgunners. My first chance to use them was against some rebels outside Zagreb. I moved them up to pointblank range from some Croat axemen and had them open fire. After a couple volleys, the axemen broke and routed. The handgunners didn't cause many casualties but they opened a nice hole in the rebels line.

I am assuming the handgunners cause a substantial morale drop of targets as they were new weapons just appearing. But does the morale effect ever go away as the world gets used to having firearms on the battlefield? Is there only a short timeframe in which the novelty has a morale impact?

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I am assuming the handgunners cause a substantial morale drop of targets as they were new weapons just appearing. But does the morale effect ever go away as the world gets used to having firearms on the battlefield? Is there only a short timeframe in which the novelty has a morale impact?

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Interesting thought. I am now wondering if Enemy Handgunners, Musketeers and Arquebusiers would feel the morale drop. Guns wouldn't exactly be a strange new weapon to them now, would it?

I think the moral-breaking thing about gunpowder weapon is not essentially, that they are new, but that they make a lot of noise, smoke and you can't even see the bullets coming. I think even today professional soldiers would be quite scared by a hundred rifles fired in unison.

All gunpowder units cause large morale damage...and if close, nice death count as well..It never changes, they are morale killers only

It's not so much because its new, so much as because one moment you hear a loud bang, then you look to your left, and Joey is missing most of the right side of his face. Now Joey wasn't a pretty man before, but he's certain to be single for the rest of his life now, that is if he weren't laying on the ground right now with what seems to be his brain seeping out onto your shiny new boots.

Neat isn't it? I had a unit of portuguese Handgunners to use for the first time, and they were charged by French Dismounted Feudal Knights... they were a bit slow loading their guns and i was starting to worry they would get creamed in melée, but BANG, came the first round, the French stopped on their tracks and turned their backs and ran the other way.

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Originally Posted by Darius

It's not so much because its new, so much as because one moment you hear a loud bang, then you look to your left, and Joey is missing most of the right side of his face. Now Joey wasn't a pretty man before, but he's certain to be single for the rest of his life now, that is if he weren't laying on the ground right now with what seems to be his brain seeping out onto your shiny new boots.

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lol had me laughing for sometime
gunpowder unit don't cause much damage I rarely see them kill one target they just scare the enemy

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Originally Posted by Darth Revan

lol had me laughing for sometime
gunpowder unit don't cause much damage I rarely see them kill one target they just scare the enemy

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I've found the Arquebusiers do a fair amount of damage, at least 10 kills in a fairly short amount of time ... then the unit runs :)

Makes sense i didn't use Arquebusiers but handgunners since i didn't develop my tech enough

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Originally Posted by Darth Revan

Makes sense i didn't use Arquebusiers but handgunners since i didn't develop my tech enough

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Niether did I lol! Merceneries have their uses hehe

Cossack musketeers, gentlemen. Those boys shred units quite effectively, have long range, and decent melee. I usually don't have to worry about melee unless I screw up and let some enemy cav get too close; with some careful movement they can mow down charging enemy cav before the horsemen even reach the cossacks...

So are gunpowder units adversely affected by rain still?