Morale of your troops. What's the use?

[Lord_Guilherme]

How does morale works? The only thing I know is that when it is too low your units get out of the battlefield and they are likely to run from the fight. But, what are the other uses of it?
Can a squad of peasants beat a squad of feudal knights if the peasants are with 30 morale and the feudal knights with 3?

[Sir Turylon]

doubtful that peasents can take out a squad of feudal knights unless you have like.. 8 squads vs the 1 of knights.

Morale works like this... Your troops will survive longer on the field if their morale is higher. They are also less likely to flee if facing tough opposition. this is why a marshall with level 3 dread and level 3 leadership is so powerful. Morale also comes into play in naval engangements and sieges. If your troops have higher morale during a siege, they can usually beat a large sieging force.

I've yet seen the effect of morale when it comes to flanking attacks and rear attacks... It might be nice if units loose morale faster if they are flanked or assaulted from the rear.

[Lord_Guilherme]

It would be better if i had a more accurate information. Once Frujin said that morale was the most important thing on the battlefield (or one of the most, must check...). I think those informations wont help so much knowing that morale has something more.

[Sir Turylon]

well. Morale is definitely the most important factor when you are engaged with equal types of troops. Any marshalls having bonuses to morale will fair better. Dread skill, which lowers it 1 point per level, is also a very good skill to max out.

Different troops also have different morale settings. Templars will have higher morale than regular swordsmen, for example. Peasents are the weakes... and from what I've seen from the skills.. I think any bonuses to them max at +9 or +12 (+12 and +15 if lvl 3 dread is used... since it lowers enemy by 3 thus theoretically raising your morale 3)

As I said before.. morale also has effects on naval engagements AND sieges. higher morale in sieges is a definite bonus. Naval engagements are dependant upon morale.. if I remember what the devs said once correctly.

morale facts I've seen in demo:
basic combat
4 swordsmen with a marshall with lvl 1 leadership can take out a 8 peasent army with unskilled marshall
8 sworsdmen and marshall with lvl 1 leadership and lvl 1 dread can take out a 8 swordsmen army whose marshall has no bonuses.
4 swordsmen and 4 archer army, led by a marshall with lvl 2 leadership (+2 morale) can take out a 8 peasent army with a non-skilled marshall.

sieges
a 4 highlander, 2 archers, 2 swordsmen army led by marshall with lvl 2 dread and lvl 2 leadership can annihilate out a city with 4 swordsmen, 3 town gaurds, 2 pikemen, and 3 peasents lead by a marshall with no skills. (there was a marshall in there with the 2 pikemen and 3 peasents)

If you notice the "bars" above the battle info window... you'll see how the overall morale of your army is doing. You'll also see how as the siege progresses, the morale of each side can fluctuate... If your marshall has morale bonuses, your side tends to stay higher for much longer.

[Wynche]

I have found morale very useful myself.
Since my battles are led by the AI, there is not tactical thinking that can compensate me for a smaller army than my adversary. The only way I could possibly win in this situation, is if my army has better morale than them.
In equal armies or even if the adversary is weaker than me, it is still a good think to have high morale, because then less of your people get killed (battle ends earlier because the other's troops flee). This is a good thing cause you don't have to run to the closest city to refill :)
Morale-skills (dread and leadership) and speed are the skills I find most worthy to upgrade first.

I do not know about the effect of religion on morale, cause I don't usually hire troops of other religion.

[Sir Turylon]

I do not know about the effect of religion on morale, cause I don't usually hire troops of other religion.

there is one skill which raises your morale against other religions. I do not think there is a "religious" affiliation for a unit though. It might be funny to see a Calif using Templars from a merc camp and the Templars revolt and attack the Calif's marshall in a battle. hehe