Generals get the horn -The morale of the story...

[gurachn]

I could use some advice on the use of generals to influence troop morale on the battlefield.

How close does your general have to be to give your boys a morale boost?

How much does it actually affect them (Is there a numerical value for a given unit's morale? Where is this found? How much of a boost does a general give per star?)

Finally, how does rallying with the horn work? I have had my general right in the the midst of broken infantry, he has blown his horn, and nothing seems to happen!
What is the story on this?

Any insights most appreciated.

[Chief Astook]

for me it sometimes stops some of the routers but not others, im guessing it depends on how tramatized they are.

[-Aquila-]

I have never seen it stop routers, I just use it as a charge horn now lol!

I know its rather sad but I like getting the general to blow his horn and then shouting CHARGE!

[Old_Scratch]

The rallying horn seems to give a morale boost to all of your troops, and having the general close to your troops seems to also help, but I haven't heard anything definite. I know general distance definitely made a difference in RTW:BI because it used to tell you the state of their moral, like "Inspired by the generals presence." or something like that. Maybe it carried over to M2.

The rallying horn works great seemingly from any distance for stopping routing troops. If your unit has taken a lot of casualties though, it will be impossible to rally them. IE, You can't rally a unit with only five guys left in it. I will often use the horn to rally routing light cavalry from halfway across the map though.

[tup]

The rallying horn seems to give a morale boost to all of your troops, and having the general close to your troops seems to also help, but I haven't heard anything definite. I know general distance definitely made a difference in RTW:BI because it used to tell you the state of their moral, like "Inspired by the generals presence." or something like that. Maybe it carried over to M2.

Yeah, and when using the horn all units get something like "inspired by the general" or so... I guess it's the same with M2,*but*since there's*no morale text anymore I just use it whenever possible after the fight starts.

[DeaDBolT]

I have never seen it stop routers, I just use it as a charge horn now lol!

I know its rather sad but I like getting the general to blow his horn and then shouting CHARGE!

Same here, except for the shouting part It just sounds cool to blow the horn.

But seriously Old_scratch, for me the horn never seems to work outside of a 30 feet radius and i've rallied many units regardless of the amount of troops left in it.

I wish someone could give some definite answers, because i rarely use it because you just dont know what the horn does, what command stars do, what a general's presence does, therefore i never have the idea any of it is even working while i play, i want tooltips damnit.

[Maniacal]

"Inspired by the generals presence." I'm pretty sure that's in M2.

I'm too busy fighting to use the horn usually.

[Barser]

I have never seen the horn help. Maybe it should give a bigger bonus depending on the amount of command stars?
Is that possible?

[themoob]

Unfortunately CA seemed lax with MTW2 and doesn't give you much info on how morale is doing.

Rome was so much better, as it'd tell you why their morale was bad or good.

[eggthief]

that wasnt always so informative though, my troops would be eager and then the explanation would say "unhappy because of exhaustion" honestly the exhaustion should demoralise their morale but since they were still eager it should have had something like, "glad to win the battle" or whatever that one was.

[gurachn]

Yeah, the lack of transparency in the workings of many of the key functions of the game is pretty frustrating.

I was hoping that one of the modders who had been poking in 'the guts' of the game had come across a file that gave this a bit of explanation.

[ssmarine]

The horn doesnt seem work when the routers are still near the battle lines. Ive seen it work you just have to run your general back off the line and blow it when they are like a mile away from the fighting, usually not worth it really. Though I rallied half of my Lithuanian army one time when fighting a dane army twice my size then came back and won. Most the time I just let them rally themselves or just run off the battlefield.

[Blakdust]

Horn works ok if the routers are not being chased

[SamZi]

The horn does give a morale bonus. When I'm fighting a siege and my men on the walls attacking are shaken i blow the horn (when the general is near them) and their status goes back to eager. When my general doesn't have many command stars I usually take him right up to the wall in loose formation to keep my troops' morale up (the wall gives cover from missile fire) and generally keep him close to my troops.

I don't know if it helps much with routers but when my troops rout I'll be blowing that horn all the time to stop all of my troops from running.

[moosey]

i find that generally as long as you keep youre general around youre troops they will fight more eagerly with higher morale, one thing to note though is the generals chivalry rating as a high chivalry general will keep youre troops morale up but a high dread doesnt, instead dread makes the enemy more likely to lose morale so generally speaking, a high chiv general should stay just behind the troops tooting his horn whereas the dread general will be better used charging into flanks and rears