Mechanics
Morale and rout
Next to its HP, every unit has morale. HP says how long a unit will last; morale says how well it fights. A new unit starts at 6 morale, that is, at full morale. The selected unit's panel shows its morale, its rank and — if it has any — its discipline and its shock; the shock line appears only on a unit that carries shock.
Three states
- Steady — power multiplier 1.
- Shaken — at 2 morale or below, a unit fights at 0.75 times its power.
- Routed — a unit whose morale has dropped to 0 defends at 0.5 times its power and cannot attack.
The multiplier applies both in attack and in defence, and it looks at morale before the fight; morale falling during the fight does not change that fight's numbers. The full formula is on the Combat page.
Attack power = attack × (HP ÷ max HP) × shore multiplier × morale multiplier
Defense power = defense × (HP ÷ max HP) × terrain multiplier × foothill multiplier × type multiplier × fortify multiplier × morale multiplier
Type multiplier = the pairing's multiplier when the defender has the edge over the attacking type (Spearman against Raider ×2, Spearman against Sipahi ×2, Raider against Archer ×2, Janissary against Archer ×2, Archer against Spearman ×2, Sipahi against Pioneer ×2, Sipahi against Siege ×2, Sipahi against Archer ×2); 1 for every other pairing. The edge only applies on defense.
Fortify multiplier = 1.5 for a dug-in unit, 1 otherwise.
Morale multiplier = 0.75 for a unit at morale 2 or below (shaken), 0.5 for a unit at morale 0 (routed), 1 otherwise. It reads the morale before the fight.
Foothill multiplier = 1.25 for a unit defending on a tile next to a mountain, 1 otherwise. Shore multiplier = 0.85 on the attacker's power against a unit on a tile next to water, 1 otherwise. Both read the tile the defender stands on, not the direction of the attack, and neither applies to a city.
Damage to the target = attack power × 4 × attack power ÷ (attack power + defense power)
Counter damage = defense power × 2 × defense power ÷ (attack power + defense power) × counter share — only if the defender survives. In an adjacent attack a unit always strikes back in full (share 1) and a city never does. In a ranged attack a unit strikes back in full if the attacker is within its own reach and it can fight; a city strikes back with a share of 0.5.
Results round to the nearest whole number, halves up. There are no hidden variables: the preview is the real calculation.
How morale falls
Both sides can lose morale in every fight. The loss from a single fight:
- Damage — every 4 damage taken (rounded up) costs 1 morale.
- Flanking — every other combat-capable unit of the attacker's owner adjacent to the defender costs 1 more morale; this share is at most 3. A defending city is never flanked.
- Shock — some attackers' strike adds an extra share; the share comes from the attacker's type, only the defender pays it. Sipahi and Forlorn Hope carry shock (a 1 and a 1 share), every other unit's shock is 0.
- Discipline reduces the loss: the unit holds back as much morale as its discipline.
- Entrenchment — a fortified defender holds back 1 more morale. If the owner of the fortified defender knows Fieldworks, this share grows by 1; even if the defender is a rival, the grown share shows up on the entrenchment line of the combat preview (Research and the tech tree).
If there was any damage or flanking, the loss is at least 1; discipline cannot reduce it to zero.
A unit that kills its opponent in a fight gains 1 morale (without exceeding its ceiling). This gain is applied before the rout check: a unit that kills its opponent does not rout even if its loss brought its morale down to zero.
A friend falling beside you
When a unit dies in a fight, every unit of the same owner adjacent to it loses 1 morale. A unit with discipline of 2 or higher, and a unit that is already routed, is spared. The combat preview shows this loss on a separate line too: how many neighbours are affected and how many of them will rout. The preview only counts units you can see; a neighbour hidden in the fog is not shown there.
Discipline
Discipline comes from a unit's type and its rank; the total is at most 4. Most types start with zero discipline; the Spearman starts with 1. Ranks are on the Experience and promotion page.
A player who knows The Hearth has their infantry (Spearman, Janissary) gain 1 discipline — this too is a passive addition on top of the type-given base, it does not change the ceiling. A rival knowing this node shows up on the discipline line of the preview of a fight you enter with your infantry (Research and the tech tree).
Rout
A unit whose morale is 0 at the end of a fight routs. A routed unit:
- Cannot attack — its attack command is rejected with the reason "This unit is routed".
- Projects no zone of control — a rival walking past does not halt.
- Does not count towards flanking.
- Still halts in rival zones of control when it moves itself.
A routed unit is not destroyed; it has to fall back until it rallies.
Rallying
At the start of every turn, each unit gathers morale without exceeding its ceiling:
- Adjacent to an enemy (a truced side does not count), it gathers none.
- Inside its own territory it gathers 2, outside it 1.
- Fortified inside its own territory, it gathers an extra 1.
- If an unrouted Standard-bearer is adjacent, it gathers extra recovery — this does not require a region, it works anywhere on the map as long as it is not adjacent to an enemy (Standard-bearer). If the city in its own region carries a Hospital, it gathers still more; if both are present, they add up.
A unit whose morale rises above 0 is no longer routed. A bandit's territory is the tiles at most 1 steps from its camp.
On the board
Shaken and routed units carry a mark showing their state; a steady unit has no mark. The combat preview shows where both sides' morale will go, the items of the loss and whether the unit will rout — these numbers are exactly the ones the engine will apply.
The numbers on this page are read from the game’s balance tables.