panic

Nope. Panic is what happens when your morale is too low. You need a bigger army or get natural leader trait.

Using intimidating, I panic a lot of my enemies late games, never let it happen to me though.

Edit: Did you take cruelty by any chance?

yeah, I thought that might be the case. Thanks for the clarification. I was trying to adjust for my lack of organization. What do you recommend as a good solid beginning sov?

So how should I compensate now that I am @ turn 180? Bigger army?

So then when I had no weaknesses and what I thought was a kick ass army (4 cats 3 spellcasters, 2 giants, squad of scions) the huge panic attack I experienced was due to morale? I was just facing an opponent with high intimidation? Is there any way to determine what you potentially face before battle? Sometimes I think I got it locked but then find out I'm out gunned.

Well first of all, cruel is really really bad, never ever take it. Morale might not be noticeable in most cases, but when you are built to use it, with intimidate, it is very powerful. Cruel is the opposite.

The solution, if you already have it, is to never use your sovereign (or your children of same gender) in battle. Imbue all his essence away and sit the rest of the game at home.

As for sovereign picks: Cowardly, despite giving the enemy bonus morale, and giving you way more points isn't anywhere as bad as cruel. If you have to pick a negative, go for that one (doesn't work well with intimidate, obviously). Insane and Inefficient are also good if you are never in a city.

Ouch. Sounds grim:/ me & my progeny---grrrreeeeaat. Live and learn! Thanks for the tip though. It helps; i appreciate it.

Morale is broken.  My Sov is cruel & insane, and in fights against a Sov with intimidate we panic as soon as they use their first attack.  Nothing else seems to matter:   not army size, not killing their units, nada.  I was attacking their sov, I had about 12 units, most of them champions with a few summoned giants, and had killed every enemy unit on the first turn except for the Sov (was saving him for last), and as soon as he got an attack my army stood still for the rest of the fight.

Nevermind that I had already taken out 1 faction, and I had this current faction down to 1 city; nevermind that I had taken almost the entire continent I was on, nevermind that my attack power was so much greater than the enemy army's (before I killed their units), nevermind that I had a dragon.  Apparently morale is effected by Sov's starting skills, and so far as I can tell nothing else.  Yeah, morale is indeed broken.

Going by what Kalin said, 2 posts above, then I'm guessing the Sov's cruel ability only effects your army when he is actually in it?  I didn't know that...   Maybe I should keep my Sov's ass parked in a level 5 city somewhere, along with his sons.

Well, since your sov and son are also insane, I don't recommend parking in a city, especially a nice one. Best thing is to send them to a corner, raise mountain on the 8 tiles around him, and hit fortify, heh.

But yes, morale is pretty broken when it is at the extremes. Nothing else will matter. This is why intimidate is such a powerful trait late game. If you have intimidate + an army size advantage, you can panic enemies very easily, just walk in a take everything you want. In your case, Cruel mimic the army size bonus and intimidate took care of the rest. It's a very bad combo.

That's why I said a level 5 city, so a prestige hit wouldn't matter because they ain't growing.  Unless, having too many insane people would actually make people leave, causing a negative prestige.  Hmmm, haven't thought of that...  Guess they should be 'spread around.'  Or fortified in the mountains, as you said. 

On a side note, why does the cruel ability also effect the Sov himself?  "I'm so friggin' mean I scare myself!"

And that dragon should be immune to both cruel & intimidate.  Like some Sov would intimidate that dragon, which is supposed to be one of the most (if not the most) rare & powerful beasts in the world.  'specially a wimpy sov like that Capitar guy

So panic is NOT a spell, correct?

To get extra points ugly is also a really good negative trait to take for extra points.  It actually seems to be broken right now because you will still end up with 4 kids.  Every sovereign I make is currently ugly, insane, and inefficient because he never goes in a city (except to heal) and honestly by the time my 4th kid grows up the games pretty much over anyway (large map) so even if it worked I'd still take it.  Also consider if your sovereign will melee/use a bow ever.  If not then reduce strength to 5.

Personally I always take royalty because I play kingdom and really love the +2 mana regen building for a level 5 city (tower of Ereog?).  So I want to get that out asap.  I don't bother with the enchant spellbook, you can research that one easily and it saves another 3 points right there.  The rest is kind of up to you based on how you want to play.  I usually go with 15 essence and 15 intelligence now that magic/shards work.  I don't spend anything on equipment because, well it's cheap now and gold is easy to get compared to stats/abilities.  Without organized+movement increase skills I've been trying out different abilities and have no strong favourites yet.

No, it's what happens when your morale hits zero.  They may or may not have to take damage first to panic, mine always panic after getting hit with blizzard or something.  Although, iirc there is a spell called 'panic', but the panic it does something else.