Do priests increase army morale?

**SlartyBartfast** · May 19, 2012, 05:08 PM

I read on here that having a priest with your army increases its effectiveness, by giving your troops a morale boost I suppose. I wonder if anyone has tested this claim and can say whether it's true -- or is it just another urban myth, like having a spy with your army means you can see the enemy army setup before the battle begins. (Hint: you can't.)

**Christonikos** · May 19, 2012, 05:28 PM

I know that in Teutonic Order campaign, your clergymen increase the morale indeed. Don't know about priests.

**Aeratus** · May 19, 2012, 06:30 PM

The campaign map priests have no effect on battle morale.

However, there are a few battle map priest units, like the Aztecs Coyote Priests which do affect morale.

**SlartyBartfast** · May 19, 2012, 08:42 PM

Originally Posted by Aeratus

The campaign map priests have no effect on battle morale.

How do you know this? Have you tested it?

**Aeratus** · May 19, 2012, 08:48 PM

No, I haven't tested it, but I see no logical reason why having campaign map priests would have an effect on morale.

**The Useless Member** · May 19, 2012, 08:55 PM

I don't think so.

**tudor93** · May 20, 2012, 04:44 AM

the question has been asked before, the answer was the same: no.

**Sitalkes** · May 20, 2012, 05:51 PM

It's not a myth that spys improve battlefield visibility, I have found that they do make a difference (in addition to protecting your generals from assasination attempts and giving better map visibility to an army)

**SlartyBartfast** · May 20, 2012, 05:56 PM

You have evidence of this? If you are right, then perhaps these people claiming priests make no difference are wrong too. I have yet to see evidence that priests do not provide a morale boost.

**Ishan** · May 23, 2012, 01:57 PM

Originally Posted by SlartyBartfast

I read on here that having a priest with your army increases its effectiveness, by giving your troops a morale boost I suppose. I wonder if anyone has tested this claim and can say whether it's true -- or is it just another urban myth, like having a spy with your army means you can see the enemy army setup before the battle begins. (Hint: you can't.)

Both of them are myths.

Priests are strat map characters & are not physically present on the battle map. What more proof do you need? All battle units can be given the attribute to boost morale called "druid" in the export_descr_unit.txt file, like coyote priests have it. In my mod i changed the sound and animation for it and added this to my dismounted teutonic knights to increase morale during battle.
As for the spy one, you already know keeping them doesn't reveal the positioning of the AI army during battle deployment. There's no mention of spy affecting the army on battle in any battle related files or the .exe code.

Originally Posted by Sitalkes

It's not a myth that spys improve battlefield visibility, I have found that they do make a difference (in addition to protecting your generals from assasination attempts and giving better map visibility to an army)

As you may know the "Wait" option helps us in changing the weather conditions by delaying the battle, that sometimes improves or worsens the visibility of the battlefield. The weather conditions are totally unrelated to spies. So not sure what you mean by "Better map visibility". Only thing he can do is open gates, which has a physical proof within the game & also in the .exe:

Code: