Morale
Units have a courage or cohesion value that, when broken by casualties, being flanked, or losing a leader, causes them to rout, flee, or fight ineffectively. Morale models the psychology of combat: in Total War and Company of Heroes, battles are often won by breaking the enemy's will rather than killing every soldier, which makes flanking, shock, and leadership tactically decisive. Designers use morale to make battles feel human and dynamic, to reward maneuver over attrition, and to create dramatic swings (a routing flank cascades into total collapse). Key decisions: what affects morale (casualties, positioning, nearby losses, hero presence), rout behavior and whether units can rally, morale as a soft factor versus a hard break point, and feedback so players can read a wavering unit. Pitfall: morale that's too swingy makes battles feel random and robs players of control, while morale that's too sticky makes it a non-factor — the tuning must let skilled maneuver trigger collapses without making every fight a coin-flip on nerve.
- Dev effort: Medium
- Timing: Real-time
- Common in: strategy, wargame
Seen in
- Total War: Warhammer III
- Company of Heroes