A battlefield – no matter what the average Bestigor might claim – is not a happy place to be in the Old World. What with marauding bands of bickering Orcs, frenzied Chaos Warriors bearing the gifts of the gods, and terrifying dragons, both living and dead, all rampaging around the domains of Man, this is not a good place to be a lowly Imperial trooper waggling a halberd.
So today, we’re going to buckle up our most ergonomic sabatons and make a break for freedom, on our way to discuss how Morale and Psychology work in Warhammer: The Old World.
Morale
Last week, we discussed the nitty-gritty of combat, seeing what happens once that spittle-flecked Chaos Warrior crashes into that ever-so-slightly quivering spear you’re holding. As we saw, it’s quite rare for a round of melee to end in a draw – and where there’s a loser, there are consequences.
The first of these is the Break Test – a Leadership roll modified by how badly you lost the combat with three outcomes: Break and Flee, Fall Back in Good Order, and Give Ground.
In the first case, the losing unit turns and runs in the opposite direction from whatever caused it to flee (and whichever enemy unit had the stronger unit strength if it was a multiple combat). They run 2D6”, pivoting only to avoid impassable terrain, and if any part of the fleeing unit crosses a battlefield edge, it is destroyed.* If the enemy gives chase and rolls high enough on 2D6 to make contact, the fleeing unit is destroyed. If they run through another enemy unit, they take additional wounds as they go. If they run through a friendly unit, however, they’re safe – but that unit may now bear the brunt of the pursuers’ charge. In short: try not to break and flee.
On the other hand, a unit that falls back in good order is still beating a hasty retreat, but they’ve not yet lost that fighting spirit. They can discard the lower of the two dice when they flee, and they automatically rally and reform at the end, ready to receive the charge of their pursuer – or to hit back in the next turn.
Giving ground is the best result when losing combat. The loser simply steps back 2” (terrain permitting), attempting to put some much needed space between them and the foe – unless, of course, the winner chooses to follow up and press their advantage, in which case combat continues next turn.
Running away isn’t the only thing on the minds of the rank and file of the Old World. There’s also a whole world of Psychology.
Psychology
All the classic psychological effects are back – Fear, Terror, Stupidity, Animosity, Frenzy, Unbreakable, Stubborn and Hatred. While in previous games, Psychology was separate from the rest of the Universal Special Rules, it’s all now found in one place in the Core Rulebook. We’ll be looking at other USRs in a future Almanack, but there’s time this week to see how a few of these work.
Units causing Fear, for instance, will have enemies quaking in their boots. If an enemy with lower Unit Strength wishes to charge a Fear-causing unit, it must first take a Leadership test, or its charge will fail. Already in combat with a scary regiment of Skeleton Warriors? Take a Leadership test each round or suffer -1 to hit!
Terror is even worse. If you’re charged by a beast with this effect, you have to take a Leadership test just to be able to declare a charge reaction – if you fail, you flee. And that’s before any dice are rolled to see if the charge succeeds. Terror also applies an extra -1 penalty to opposing units’ Leadership characteristic when taking Break Tests – making a break and flee outcome that much more likely.
Finally, we can touch on Frenzy – this gives models in a unit an extra Attack, and also immunity from Fear and Terror. A Frenzied unit, however, must always charge if able to and can never choose to Flee from a charge.
Next week we’ll click our fingers, and an entire article on Magic will miraculously appear before your eyes. And while the arcane arts no longer have their own phase, you’ll discover that spells are still as impactful on the battlefields of the Old World as ever…
* Note that units can cross the edge of the field and remain in play in other circumstances, such as when performing a manoeuvre.
