Recruiting and maintenance of units in the army in Age of Wonders Planetfall Age of Wonders Planetfall guide, tips
Last update: 26 August 2019
As has been repeatedly mentioned in this guide, Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a title in which you see a lot of combat - a peaceful approach and emphasis on diplomacy works well in many situations, but in some cases, you're going to need to come in heavy and use military to get what you want. In this section, you will learn how to recruit troops, how to influence their morale, and what to do to make the units stay in the army.
Recruiting units
Recruiting military units in Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a simple process - all you have to do is to choose one of the available colonies, and then choose the units which you want to recruit from the list of available units. After a certain time (dependent on the value of [Production] of the colony) the unit will be recruited, appearing in the capital of the colony, ready for your orders.
However, this is only the beginning - during the initial hours of the game, you'll only have access to the most basic and weakest level I units. (you can learn more by visiting Unit roles, types, and tiers section in our guide). To gain access to new units, you need to develop them by researching new technologies in the Military section. After developing the technology and constructing the necessary facilities, you will be able to train more advanced and combat-effective units. To learn more about technologies and research, visit Gameplay mechanics -> Research section of our guide.
Note - to learn more about recruiting, healing and managing the military units, visit the chapter Army -> Army Management.
Morale and desertion
Every unit in each of your armies is characterized by a factor called morale. It represents the current "mood" of our unit, and its level is influenced by various factors, such as the current commander, diplomatic actions taken up by the player, and the morale of the unit itself. Morale also affects two different mechanics - damage dealing and a chance of desertion.
When it comes to dealing damage, high morale offers more chance of critical damage, while low morale increases the chance of missing the target, even regardless of high base accuracy. This is as follows:
- 600 morale - 20% critical strike chance.
- 400 morale- 15% critical strike chance.
- 200 morale - 10% critical strike chance.
- -200 morale -15% chance of missing the target.
- -400 morale -30% chance of missing the target.
- -600 morale - 50% chance of missing the target.
As you can see, it has a huge impact on the effectiveness of units on the battlefield. Morale affects the behavior of the unit, influencing it whether to stay in the army or desert. Here are the numbers:
- -200 morale - 5% chance of desertion.
- -400 morale - 20% chance of desertion.
- -600 morale - 40% chance of desertion
A unit with negative morale has a chance of deserting during each turn, which is especially dangerous as if a unit deserts, it simply disappears from the map and you cannot retrieve it in any way.