New Developer Blog: AI and Battles

[Puzz3D]

An annoying thing with RTW default (or even large) settings is that you can end up having a handful of men still in the fight if they manage to avoid annihilation by any cav giving chase. In earlier games of the series that was the exception for logical morale settings. Sure, you could end up with that odd cav or 10 inf men, but not so often as to hurt any suspension of disbelief.

In MTW, there is a global morale penalty for level of decimation of the army. It helps prevent a battle from being dragged out by a handful of units which have suffered heavy casualties. I don't know the level of decimation at which this penalty is incurred. I don't think this penalty was in STW because all units routed towards the original entry point on the map so it's much easier to chase off a defeated army. MTW introduced routing away from the threat which makes it a lot harder to mop up after a battle, and I think that's why the level of decimation penalty was introduced.