Units that scare the enemy

**Eccentric** · February 16, 2008, 10:08 PM

Just a question, lets say you have more than one kind of unit that scares the enemy, like screeching women, night raiders, berserkers, and wardogs, does it lower the enemy morale more if you have all these units on the battle field at the same time then if you only have one kind?
EDIT:Sorry, I should have posted in general discussion.

**Selifator** · February 17, 2008, 03:22 AM

Don't worry, this is a battle tactics topic. I think each of those units affects nearby enemy units, so if you spread them out you will affect more units. I don't know if the effect is greater though.

**Eccentric** · February 17, 2008, 10:54 AM

Cause if it did you would probably have an almost instant rout, even urbans would run like crazy to save their skins, and Germans have all these units.

**Xavier Dragnesi** · February 17, 2008, 11:11 AM

I think the answer to that is yes if you have all those units compacted and attacking say maybe just one or two units of the enemy, you might get an instant rout. But say you have a full stack, and so does the enemy and you send each of your units to attack one of theirs, then I think the effect is about the same, it's just more spread out.

**Selifator** · February 17, 2008, 11:19 AM

But having a lot of units on one or two units, except spartans/praetorians/etc, will shake or waver those units anyway.

**Xavier Dragnesi** · February 17, 2008, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by Selifator

But having a lot of units on one or two units, except spartans/praetorians/etc, will shake or waver those units anyway.

Yes I know, but you might not get an instant or almost instant rout like what hannibalbarc wants.
@hannibalbarc: Yes basically you can do that. You can have normal troops like say a Germanic phalanx or something attacking head on, then two groups of "scary" units hitting flanks, and I think you should be able to roll up your opponent on three sides. You can also hit them with cavalry from the back, then they're goners.

**Eccentric** · February 17, 2008, 11:20 AM

So you could position all those units on one flank to get a rout, allowing you to flank them, btw thanks guys.

**Fox Sterlingworth** · February 18, 2008, 10:35 AM

I've never found any of the war-cries/screeches any use, the enemy fight just the same.

**Xavier Dragnesi** · February 19, 2008, 12:42 AM

Don't know about that one. I think they give your warriors more of a morale boost than frighten the enemy.

**Athreios** · June 24, 2008, 02:15 PM

Well if I were surrounded by 500 screeching barbarians I sure would be more scared than if there was only one...

I also think that WarCry gives a bonus to your troops instead of frightening the enemy. There are also other units that only through their presence have an effect on the enemy morale (Elephants e.g.)

**General Decius** · June 28, 2008, 09:47 AM

True Elephants, Flameing Arrows or Chariots are the ones i can think of off the top of my head.

**Pontifex Maximus** · June 28, 2008, 09:51 AM

With those kinds of units ot's all about timing and use, and who you are using it against.

Elephants obviously scare the enemy more than screeching women, that is another thing to be taken into consideration, some units aren't as good as others in scaring the enemy.

I never send those kinds of units into the fray first.

Take wardogs for example, they do an okay job at scaring the enemy, but I wuold never throw them in first. Send in an infantry unit to loosen the enemy up, then send in the dogs. The combined fatigue of the battle and the fact the wardogs are coming will probably force a route, unless the unit is elite like chosen swordsmen, but even then they might rout.

**HeroSK** · July 06, 2008, 06:21 PM

I think that fear effect is cumulative. For example, while using Britons, using chariots and head hurlers at the same time in most cases (if not always) gives a mass rout. An I don't think 1 chariot have same fear effect with five chariots.

**NobleNick** · July 10, 2008, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by HeroSK

I think that fear effect is cumulative...

I agree. Take Gaul, for instance. I cannot count the number of times that a war cry from my front line swords, combined with the chanting of my Druids and the flaming arrows from my Foresters has routed the enemy before they could make contact with my front line.

There was one memorable battle in which a full Roman stack marched against my group of about 8 Chosen Swords + 6 (experienced + gold sword) Foresters + 2 Druids + General and a few cav units. The Swords were lined up with the Foresters behind (set on "no skirmish" + "fire at will"). The general in the middle. The Druids were 1/4 of the way in from each end of the line, behind the swords, set to chanting at the very beginning of the battle, and never moved. The Foresters took out lots of enemy as they advanced. When the enemy line was about 20 seconds away from closing, I set one unit of Forresters on my left flank to "Flaming arrows" and targeted them at an enemy unit approaching the right end of my line. At 7 seconds until meeting, I set every Chosen Sword to "War cry." The entire front line of Romans routed almost instantly. Within seconds, the entire Roman stack was in flight, getting slaughtered by the 17 or so attack value of the Foresters' arrows. I raced my cav up the sides, WELL AWAY from the Foresters' line of fire, and slew virtually all of the routers. Every Forester unit got well over 100 kills. All of the Chosen Swords COMBINED got ZERO kills.

I have not played as Germania; but seems that you could work a plan where many fear factors were used together to achieve a cumulative effect similar to the one I described.

**Lord Thesaurian** · December 26, 2008, 02:18 PM

yeah, if u have more than 1 unit that scares the enemy the only advantage i can forsee is if u spread them out for more widespread effect. I doubt stacking these units will have any greater effect on 1 area than 1 unit, but i dunno:hmmm:

**AqD** · December 31, 2008, 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by Eccentric

Just a question, lets say you have more than one kind of unit that scares the enemy, like screeching women, night raiders, berserkers, and wardogs, does it lower the enemy morale more if you have all these units on the battle field at the same time then if you only have one kind?
EDIT:Sorry, I should have posted in general discussion.

Yes, but only before engagement.

**Lord Dakier** · December 31, 2008, 09:36 AM

1 unit that scares can defeat the bravest of soldiers. I remember using Uber Immortals in my Mess about RTW folder and the Napoleons ran like little school girls in the middle of a WW2 warzone complete with a bombing run of B22 bombers!...

basically they didnt turn back and ran like hell...!

**AqD** · December 31, 2008, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by Lord Dakier

1 unit that scares can defeat the bravest of soldiers. I remember using Uber Immortals in my Mess about RTW folder and the Napoleons ran like little school girls in the middle of a WW2 warzone complete with a bombing run of B22 bombers!...

basically they didnt turn back and ran like hell...!

Nah. I give all axe-wielding hillmen the frightening ability, but they couldn't even beat the cheapest bronze shield in 1 vs 1 battle. AI soldiers were terrified initially, but once the battle begins, they would soon realise the hillmen are just bunch of

and fight even more bravely until all of my useless hillmen are routed.