So one thing that gripes me in most strategy games is the total anhialation effect in warfare. Essentially, when you declare war on someone there is generally an incentive to fight the war until one side is completely defeated unless the war escalates with other factions becoming involved. Unfortunately, this tends to be bad for cultivating national rivalries like that of Carthage and Rome who fought many wars over the course of hundreds of years.
In Civ 4, they added warweariness, but it only ultimately effected the people at home in cities rather than soldiers on the battlefield. 9 out of 10 wars involved the complete anhialation of a specific given party anyway.
So my idea? Now that we know how moral will work, let's bring moral into play. I suggest making troop moral persist even after a battle is over. What do I mean exactly?
Well, I think that moral could stick with a unit from battle to battle throughout a campaign. When invaders are on alien soil, their moral gradually begins to decrease. The longer you are there and the further they are from home, the quicker moral begins to deteriorate. When they win a great victory, moral increases. Win a costly victory and moral decreases. Likewise, occupying a foreign city that has recently been conquered would also inflict a hit to troop moral, even if the war is over. Only after they spend time on home soil does their moral begin to climb on its own accord. Let me illustrate.
Lucius Blight of Aragon leads a campaign into the Acacian Kingdom. Lucius has led his soldiers to victory many times and they have enjoyed all manners of treasure and riches as their spoils. Thus, their moral is very high. They raid an Acacian border town, take whatever they please, and then burn it to the ground. Moral remains high. Then, they march many leagues and many days through the mountains to reach the mountain city of Sespech. The lengthy journey inflicts a mild penalty to the men's moral. Before they arrive they are met by the army of Acacius Dracondros on the Gracian Plataeu. There is a hard fought battle with both sides suffering high casualties. Moral of the invaders suffer yet again as the war has played out not as decisively as they may have expected. What's more, the battle has not yielded the head of Acacius Dracondros, who escaped with some of his best men. The moral of the invaders is beginning to suffer dearly and continues to slip. If they do not win another swift and decisive victory like that at the border town, Lucius may be forced to give up his campaign.
With a now weary army, Lucius marches to the walls of Sespech. The Acacian reserves are called forth and another battle ensues. Though Lucius has the clear advantage, a tiresome campaign has already worn out the will of his soldiers. The Acacians, with no intention of driving Lucius from the field by force, simply entrench and gradually break the will of their rivals. With moral too low to make the campaign worthwhile, Lucius withdraws to Aragon to lick his wounds. Upon arriving home, he contemplates executing 1 out of every 10 of his soldiers for their cowardice, but decides against it. After all, the Acacians are planning a counter campaign and he'll need every soldier he can get.
It will take 30 turns before the soldiers of Aragon will forget their unsuccessful invasion (in other words, 30 turns until their moral will be restored and they can mount another invasion with the same gusto), however, if the Acacians were to invade Aragon their perspective would be very different. Their "defensive" moral would take effect instead, which is much more resilient than an invader's moral.
So you can see how this system would essentially mute the total anhialation effect unless you are mounting a highly organized and successful campaign. Wars between major powers would almost never be utter and decisive, with gains being made here and there over the course of a lengthy period of time. The lull between wars would allow both sides to court new allies and re-examine their military and would also prevent a high frequency of certain opponents growing extremely powerful extremely quickly.
Comments?
