Kingdoms Idea: Fanatacism

[gull2112]

I was thinking for Kingdoms scenarios it would be cool to have an ability called fanaticism.

Fanaticism would work like this:

An unit with fanaticism would take a morale test as normal during the courage phase. If vs. ranged only, it would simply automatically pass. If engaged, it would not rout, but for every point it failed the check by it would take one damage, and the opponent would also take that much damage, divided however he chooses between any units engaged with the fanatical unit.

There would be two ways for players to incorporate fanaticism into their Kingdom's game. The first would be to each mark one unit with an "F" to signify it as having Fanaticism. As an alternative an objective could be ruled as granting Fanaticism to any unit engaged with any unit, if either unit has at least two center points on the objective.

Comments

In keeping with the Kingdoms tradition of giving both sides the same benefit I have made it so both sides have Fanaticism. It would be interesting to have just one side be fanatical (as in a homeland defense scenario), but that would require some playtesting to figure point cost. Of course, in a game that was played "just to see how it went down," just one side could be given Fanaticism. Or in the example above regarding objectives, one unit could be given Fanaticism when fighting on the objective (such as Umenzi shamans when fighting on a holy shrine).

Finally, this is a nod to the fact that when a unit routs it is not necessarily because they suddenly got cold feet, it could be a very rational realization that if they stayed they would die. This is the situation where fanatics don't run, but they often pay a heavy price. At the same time, an opponent who fights to the death is a much deadlier opponent than one who bravely runs away, therefore the cost to the attacker. Note that with this damage, only a unit that has not already had to test morale this phase would suffer a courage test due to damage.

[Torrg]

Here is a slight twist originally for Dwarf Slayers I had submitted to YMG, this morale was thought up by Andrew Gross.

Frenzy:
For rout checks, it works as follows:
If a Slayers unit passes a rout check, nothing happens.
If a Slayers unit fails a rout check, instead of routing, its orders are immediately changed to Close with the unit that caused the rout check.  This order can't be changed.

So, in melee, this would basically mean it couldn't fail rout checks.
But, if shot at by missile troops, or hit with a magic spell that caused it to take a rout check, or breathed on by a Dragon, there would be a chance they would disobey orders and
go charging after the unit that had the temerity to mess with them.
The big benefit of not being able to fail rout checks in melee would then be at least partially offset by the chance that an opponent might be able to force them to go
charging willy-nilly across the table chasing after a dragon or a unit of bowriders or whatever.

[gull2112]

That would indeed be fun.