Morale issues...

[Mythos]

Anyone have any tips for keeping morale high? I'm planning on striking out on my own, and so I figure I'll need a big army. There's a slight issue here... My army is effectively capped at around 90 units, because if I go much higher morale tears my army apart. What am I supposed to do?

 

[Adrius]

Hmm... you'll just have to fight as much as possible.

Thing is, without high pathfinding skill you'll have trouble hunting those small scout and bandit packs to keep your morale up, at least with such a big army.

Here's what I do: I just dump my army at one of my castles/towns and run out with a few elite units and/or companions, the low number of soldiers will make me look attractive to bandits and other lowlife who I can easily kick the living hell out of. After that I just run back with my restored 99 morale

 

[Mythos]

So the only way is going on constant murderous rampages? I've been trying to do that, and failing at it... I'd prefer to get a larger army before taking on a castle. I've taken castles before, but I lost quite a few men. Considering how I'd also have to protect it against a massive assault from the pissed off nation I took it from, without a bigger army I'm screwed.

 

[Blankin]

You should have a big leadership if you want to control many soldiers. If you want to take a castle, go straight for your objective, otherwise your moral will be low and you won't be able to siege the castle without some men deserting.

There was a building in a city also, that let the moral high... I am not sure if in this mod drinking wine in the tavern gives a morale boost...

 

[Lord Samuel]

As leader of your own faction, your leadership capacity should be, like, doubled. This is a nice feature in this mod.

(Look at the 'Minor changes' section of the v.550 description thread :

"Party morale penalties and sizes have been adjusted to allow for larger player parties.  If the player becomes monarch of their own kingdom the limits jumps a LOT."

 

[bobross419]

You can easily conquer a castle with low number of troops.  Keep your eye on the game messages and when you see a castle get conquered go hang around it until all lord parties have dispersed, then lay siege to it.  Usually these castles won't have more that 50 defenders at the most.  Once you've taken the castle just start dumping a lot of low level troops into it.  200-300 troops in garrison will deter most attacks.  Then you can start recruiting new troops to upgrade or just cycle through the troops in garrison for upgrades.

 

[SanDiego]

That's a nice plan, but there's a major flaw - when a castle is conquered, one lord usually stays and guards the castle. As for the morale: boost your leadership, have as large variety of food as possible (try to have all kinds, that should boost morale like nothing) and win battles. Try aiding your parties in battles, as battles don't run away from you.

 

[Blankin]

Not really... I have taken many castles with 20~30 soldiers without any lord inside... Sometimes they patrol the area, but i think it has nothing to do with the low soldiers in the garrison.

 

[ThunderClaw]

Lords remaining behind to guard castles is kind of a toss-up.  If one lord's party was particularly chewed up in the fighting, he'll decide to call it a week inside the castle they just sacked.  If they're all generally healthy, they'll just move on.

Anyway, the two main constants for sustaining morale are Leadership and food variety.  Food variety can be extremely expensive to handle if you don't have good Looting - with good Looting, you can just save some leftover suits of armor or swords and barter them for food.  Don't overlook hardtack; people will eat some hardtack even if you have much better food and stretch the variety bonus longer.

Truthfully, the way I have dealt with it in my most recent game is to get very high agility quickly (I started the game with 21), pumped agility to 27 and took 9 Looting.  Then I pumped Cha up to 27 and took Leadership up to 9.  Then I bought Life of Alexinus The Great, which gives +1 leadership when read.  While reading the book, I bumped agility up to 30 and maxed out Looting (and Riding).

I get so much crap now it's not even funny.  Any one suit of armor I get from a fight is more than enough to wipe out any merchant's cash reserves.  When buying food, butter, cheese, and ale/wine from the village elders, I just give them a sword or the 80th 'reinforced great helm' i got from mercenary war parties, so keeping a big variety of food is literally cost-free.  Even at 303 men, the only time I have morale problems is right after recruiting 30+ prisoners.