Frighten and Terror confuse instead of scaring

[Saxon]

I have a quick question on Fear.

I looked at Frighten in the manual, which says one square gets hit with a Fear +15 attack. Terror on the other hand, hits multiple squares, but is said to have a Fear +10 attack.

However, the manual also says that there is no modified to a Fear attack, the + value just indicates the number of squares effected. As such, I am confused. Do these values mean anything?

Also, the manual indicates that a squad can only check morale once a round. Once they are damaged enough (or the army is) they check every round. Based on that, once an enemy army is beat up fairly badly, the fear spells and effects are a bit pointless.

Can any one clear this up for me?

[sum1lost]

Fear doesn't make them suffer a morale check, it makes them more likely to fail it by hurting their morale.

[Saulot]

Entire post corrected for clarity/completeness so that there is one complete explanation on just one post:

According to page 80 of the manual, a squad takes a morale check when:
"The squad has been subjected to a spell causing Fear (e.g. Terror)"

So, to clear this up, there are two situations. Fear the unit ability, and Fear from spells.

(A) Unit Ability Fear works as such:
The fear targets X squares, where X equals Fear strength + 6. The morale check the creature takes is the difficulty of 10 + (Fear/5 rounded down).

Ex. A POD which has Fear +19 (Basic Fear +10, plus an additional +9 from 9 levels of death), would have a fear aura that covers 25 squares, and makes creatures take morale checks at 13.

(B) Fear Spells:
Fear spells work the same way as the fear unit ability but they only cover an area as specified per spell.

Ex. So, a Fear +10 attack (such as the one from the terror spell) requires them to pass a morale check against 12.

(C) Bonus: Both fear effects (including spells such as terror) lower morale of the units under the fear effects (though I'm unfamiliar with the formula, perhaps a dev would chime in?)

[sum1lost]

Perhaps I'm getting it confused with something else, but I'm pretty sure spell effects that lower morale. Perhaps it also forces a fear check.

You are, however, definitely wrong as to the area. The area is X, where X is listed in the spell. Fear is area 1.

[Saulot]

Yes, that area refers to the fear ability which is different from the area for the spells (which is always specified in the spell).

[MaxWilson]

Saulot,

I know the manual says Terror just forces a morale check, but I've observed that hitting units with Terror lowers their morale, whereas I don't know of anything else other than starvation that affects morale. There was a recent thread on Terror effects, and someone posted that they've seen units rout without even taking damage, only Terror, so it definitely does cause a morale check. But it also lowers morale directly, somehow.

-Max

[Saulot]

I've observed that morale lowering effect as well, both in terms of the fear unit ability (such as is found on a POD), and the terror spell.

What I haven't figured out, or have seen a formula for, is how exactly that morale lowering aspect of fear works.

[llamabeast]

I can confirm both Frighten and Terror both reduce morale and cause morale checks. You can see people end up with negative morale quite quickly. Then they run away. They're quite effective spells.

[Ironhawk]

Are you sure about that llamabeast? I thought I recalled KO saying that Frighten lowered morale but didnt cause a morale check. But that Terror did.

[llamabeast]

Later on in the thread he said it did cause a morale check after all I think.

I'm pretty sure because in one MP game my expansion just consisted of about 6 mages casting frighten and a meatshield. Several times the enemy ran away without ever reaching my troops (and I had no archers). Of course I could be misremembering.