Morale Issues - Defender

While morale effects on the attacker during a long siege can be severe, they are much more profound are on the defender. The consequences to morale of being out of supply have been discussed in an earlier section. There are many other factors that come into play, however.

The following table lists morale modifiers that apply to the besieged garrison. These modifiers are cumulative (except where common sense dictates otherwise), and are applied to every Morale Check made by any defending unit while the conditions of the modifier(s) are in effect.

-1	Defenders have cannon while the attackers do not.
-1	Attackers have used magic, while defenders have no spellcasters.
-1	Siege is taking place in winter.
-1	Attackers have flying troops (whether or not defenders do also).
-1	Defenders have tried to break encirclement with a sortie, but failed.
-1	At least one sortie has suffered 50% casualties.
-3	he attackers are known (or believed) to have performed “atrocities” on prisoners in the past.
+1	Relief troops allied with the defender are expected to arrive within 24 hours.
+1	Defenders have cannon while attackers do not.
+1	Defenders have spellcasters while attackers have (as yet) used no magic.
+1	At least one sortie has inflicted casualties on the attackers without suffering more than 10% casualties itself.
+2	Relief troops allied with the defender are surrounding or challenging the attackers’ position (includes double encirclement).

In addition to the factors above, the length of the siege carries with it its own modifiers. The following table shows how the length of the siege (in days) affects the morale of the attackers:

Length of Siege	Morale Modifier
0-30 days	0
31-80 days	-1
81-100 days	-2
101+ days	-3

As stated before, all of these modifiers are cumulative. For example, an elven garrison has been encircled by an orcish force for 45 days. The orcs have no spellcasters among their number, while the elves have a handful of mages. Unfortunately, the orcs have a number of cannon, and have been reinforced by a unit of evil bandits mounted on griffons. An elven sortie, in an abortive attempt to break the encirclement, inflicted casualties on the orcs, but suffered grievous harm itself: only one in ten of the elven troops returned. On the bright side, a small force of elven cavalry has arrived from elsewhere, and is harrying the orcs’ supply lines. The elves’ morale is suffering, but not much: each Morale Check made by an elven unit suffers a penalty of -2.