Is attrition lore based?

[Stanley]

I can understand why you may get attrition losses as humans for example in harsh polar weather, but why do skeleton get too? Why do skeletons take attrition dmg in untainted lands? Is it based in the lore?

[Dertin]

well... im not that deep into the lore of warhammer but logic wise (yes.. i know logic in fantasy may not be the right word) it makes sense to me that the skelletons, raised by a necromancer or vampire take atrition in lands that are not corrupted by the dark magic the vampires spread in theyr lands. so the vampire/nacromancer has less magic it can take from its environment to keep them under its will and i can imagine that moving a bunch of skelletons uses a decent amout of magic.

thats the way i see this kind of atrition. they need the dark corrupted magic in the environment to keep them together and have harder times without the magic spread by the villages and cities where rituals and other things happen to provide the area with such magic

[The Mighty Mulletman]

Vampire corruption basically means saturating the land with dark magic. Undead of various types sustain themselves off this ambiant magic. When it's not available alternative souces of energy need to be found or the undead will start crumbling.

[Shirome Artiste]

Chaos warps the land to a sufficient degree that it can hurt mortals, so that part is true. Also it wreaks havoc on an army's ability to live off the land, so to speak. So chaos attrition for mortals checks out.
I am unsure if chaos attrition would truly negatively affect the undead, but I'm fairly certain their necromancer/vampire overlords are affected, so ehhh.... Let's put that on plausible.

Vampire corruption. Sylvania is perfectly(Disregarding wildlife and meandering undead I suppose) traversable for mortal armies in lore, which would make one think living armies shouldn't be affected. Ingame though it could be argued that the extra vampiric corruption you spew out would push it beyond mortals' safe limits. You could make a fairly reasonable case in either direction. It's not hard to prove lands under the dominion of vampires would be bad for mortals to traverse to the point they take genuine army attrition, but you could also argue that armies have little to fear and mortal armies should be able to march through said lands for at least a fair while. Let's put this bit on a "maybe"

Vampires taking attrition from non-vampiric lands.
This is, IIRC, mostly false. It would have made for hilarious vampire books though. Vlad turns up with a couple hundred skeletons because the rest died walking on the way to Altdorf and he couldn't spare the magic to raise more. While undead require "upkeep" so that they don't fall to bits it's perfectly possible for undead armies to march through normal, untainted, lands if they bring enough necromancers/vampires to supply the required magical power to keep their minions around.

[Jebus]

One thing i personally dont understand. What the hell is "mountain pass attrition?"

Someone is gonna say something so blatantly obvious im gonna feel dumb for the rest of the night, But for the life of me, i cant think of a reason that a "mountain pass" would kill hundreds, just from being passed.

[Kaaz]

Trecherous footing / cold are my bets

[The Mighty Mulletman]

Originally posted by Jebus:

One thing i personally dont understand. What the hell is "mountain pass attrition?"

Someone is gonna say something so blatantly obvious im gonna feel dumb for the rest of the night, But for the life of me, i cant think of a reason that a "mountain pass" would kill hundreds, just from being passed.

Hannibal would like a word with you. He lost a big portion of his army(thousands) and most of the elephants to the Alps. Bad weather, slippery footing, narrow paths, cliffs, extreme cold, the loss of packs animals and the supplies they carry. There are many to lose your life in the mountains.

Some passes are more difficult than others as well. Blackfire Pass is an example of an easily traversed mountain pass with established roads

[Malaficus Shaikan]

Is attrition lore based?
Not really.
It has been a recent thing added in total war games and i like it.
Admitly i wish they stop allow us to replenish our losses everywhere and accauly made replace/building troops cost population but that is an other topic all togather.

It does make sense and creative assablme is trying to balance lore vs gameplay.

Most attrition can be wand haved as stuff that happen when marching:
Hunger, disease, local wildlife(especialy in area heavly effected by chaos or undead because that wildlife is alot more deadly) accident, fights, arguements, etc.
The list goes on and on.
There are many thing that can cost you the lives of troops.
Most related to weather, sickness, food and desertion.

[Gnarl]

I thought undead couldn't walk around in daylight but somehow Vampiric Corruption sustains them, like with huge grey clouds that blot out most of the sun's rays.

[Kiruna]

Chaos attrition is due to monsters eating your men, and people leaving the army to join chaos.

Jungle is monsters, malaria, and lack of clean water.

Mountains is due to monsters and weather. Only specially trained Dawi called rangers can traverse them safely. Thats actually why the dwarfholds are underground. Living on the surface is largely impossible.

Vampire corruption is called the Wind of Shyish. It eats away life and empowers undead. Undead are cleased and rot without it. And the monsters living inside it snatches away humans in the fog. There is a building that makes the attrition worse; Awakened battlefield. Rampant corruption gives a leadership bonus to undead.

High seas attrition is also due to Leviathans in the deep sea. Highelves can appeace the gods to get safe passage.

Scaven corruption is pleague and kidnappings for experiments and food.

Lastly there is desert and snow. it goes without saying they are quite obviously due to monsters like the others. Not heat or cold.

[Jebus]

Damn, if you had just waited like half a month you would have necro'd a post an entire year old.

[zefyris]

I know it's one year old but since someone already necro'ed, may as well add my grain of salt in there right?

Originally posted by Jebus:

One thing i personally dont understand. What the hell is "mountain pass attrition?"

Someone is gonna say something so blatantly obvious im gonna feel dumb for the rest of the night, But for the life of me, i cant think of a reason that a "mountain pass" would kill hundreds, just from being passed.

Well, in ww1, hundred of thousand of men died to that atrition due to stupid orders from sveral generals. Moutain (and especially snowy mountains) are not kind to marching armies. Treacherous footing, intense cold, snowstorms reducing the visibility to almost zero that made whole companies of soldier lost in the mountain and then die from the cold without ever encountering a single enemies, and so on, mountain passes for armies are extremely lethal.
In fact, the amount of atrition we get from that in total war is probably far too little, especially considering that in case of warhammer verse there's also monsters roaming around, but we'll just say that magic is helping or something~.