Scare special ability, question on mechanics...

[MythTrip]

My Iceni hordes (actually unfair, barbarians lot more civilized than we think, remember Romans wrote all the history) have troop called Painted Ones, pretty good infantry but no armor. Main ability is scare, which I never even noticed caused its passive, ie no button to toggle on and off.

All of a sudden they look quite valuable as the point of battle is to drop morale and enemy runs, not to kill last man. So is there a scare "aura circle" similar to a commanders area of influence? Or do you just line em up behind your front line spears and they scare the other guys? Or do you charge em, then they scare?

Any tips on best way to use these guys would be appreciated!!

Also, IMHO, vanilla game is perfect with variety of units and abilities. Just right, no need mod it.

[kam2150]

Scare ability in base game has 40 meter radius. It affects all enemy units in range. There are few types of it, tho not sure if game uses them all. There is scare that affects all unit types for -15 morale, scare only for horses for -20 morale and scare elephants for -30 morale.

If you dont really care about history than I guess units can be perfect as they can be both more varied and historical than in base game, especially that some factions have nearly fully made up stuff (I am looking at you Arabian factions)

[Krono]

Yep, abusing the morale debuff is definitely a valid tactic. I used to watch tons of multiplayer battle videos years ago, and using a Scare army was a definite tactic to win battles. The Suebi faction in particular would work for this, as it has several stacking methods of lowering enemy morale. Bring some light cav to mop up the routing enemies and it should work real well in a campaign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LhzlAKOYi4

[Krono]

I can't find the exact video now, but I remember seeing one that had Suebi troops with a passive morale debuff, as well as some Hex-Bearers that have a separate active ability to lower enemy morale as well. That combined with things like rear charges and flaming arrows to reduce their morale further would break most units

[MythTrip]

excellent guys, fantastic answers! That video is great, seems like essential tactic for barbarians vs armored roman legions

[Salty Nobody]

Remember that the video was many balance patches ago and that fear is not nearly as effective in the current game. It is still useful for getting enemies to rout faster but you still have to be winning engagements for most enemies to rout.