So, I have been wanting to share this for some time, mainly because there have been complaints about morale on the larger 25 player historical before, with some people implying that the system is broken and needs to be fixed. This is, of course, my own solution to the supposed ‘morale problem’ on these larger maps, and I recognise that some of the other folks here might have their own solutions. What I do want to emphasise here, by doing this, is that
The aim, of course, is to keep morale in distant provinces high enough so that they will not revolt, and this can be easily achieved by exploiting two elements in the game system.
If you look at the way the map is set up, you will see that most major cities have a defensive perimeter around them, with only three or four points that are directly linked to them. So, for example, Cusco in Peru is surrounded by Espinar, Ayacucho and Shintuya. You can actually fortify all of these points and this is in fact a very strong defensive technique against a determined opponent, because you can stack the central point with artillery and AA, and place infantry or militia in all the surrounding points (all fortified, of course). Any attacking army will only be able to get to the central city by first taking one of the outer fortifications, which you can make very difficult with artillery in the central point.
In addition, these complexes also have a cumulative effect on morale. This is because when you raise the morale of each fortified point, it will have a flow-over effect on the morale of the others through the ‘Neighbours’ effect on morale. The net effect is that if you build these fortress complexes, you will be able to boost the morale of all these provinces, plus many of the neighbouring ones. Of course you are never going to get your morale up to Green by doing this, but then, you do not need to. All you need is to get your morale up to Yellow so that they will not rebel. If you switch to the morale view on your map, what you will see is that these fortress complexes will give you islands of lighter yellow in a country what is mostly orange, and so forth.
In the case of a country that is very far away from your capital, you can just build the fortifications of the central city to higher levels, and this can boost morale by up to 25% (I think) at level 5. In practice, I never had to do this, and only had level 3 fortifications at the highest. Reserving these higher level forts for the central city is also good because it will boost the resource production of that city, due to its effect on morale.
If you build a series of these fortress complexes, you will be able to boost morale in faraway provinces sufficiently to keep them from rebelling without having to keep boosting morale by conquering enemy capitals, and without even the need to garrison them (although I always keep some troops, in case of nuisance attacks by bitter players who you have had to destroy along the way). The downside of course is that the resource cost of doing this is high, especially in terms of Metal. But if you have spent enough time and resources building up the industries in your core, plus repairing infrastructure in conquered provinces close to your core, you will be able to afford this quite comfortably at this stage of the game.
So that, in brief, is how I have dealt with the supposed 'morale issue' on the larger maps. Questions and suggestions welcome.
- It is possible to maintain an empire on other continents, without having to repeatedly boost morale by conquering enemy capitals, which can be in short supply in the end-game
- You can definitely win the 25-player by getting up to 2,025 points solo, by holding enough provinces across the globe. In my own games, I have had my capital in Europe and had provinces in South America and Southeast Asia, maintaining morale just by using these ‘fortress complexes’.
The aim, of course, is to keep morale in distant provinces high enough so that they will not revolt, and this can be easily achieved by exploiting two elements in the game system.
- A fortress will boost morale by 5 points, and each level increase in fortifications will boost it by 5 more points.
- There is a flow-over effect, whereby increasing the morale of one province will automatically increase morale in all its neighbours.
If you look at the way the map is set up, you will see that most major cities have a defensive perimeter around them, with only three or four points that are directly linked to them. So, for example, Cusco in Peru is surrounded by Espinar, Ayacucho and Shintuya. You can actually fortify all of these points and this is in fact a very strong defensive technique against a determined opponent, because you can stack the central point with artillery and AA, and place infantry or militia in all the surrounding points (all fortified, of course). Any attacking army will only be able to get to the central city by first taking one of the outer fortifications, which you can make very difficult with artillery in the central point.
In addition, these complexes also have a cumulative effect on morale. This is because when you raise the morale of each fortified point, it will have a flow-over effect on the morale of the others through the ‘Neighbours’ effect on morale. The net effect is that if you build these fortress complexes, you will be able to boost the morale of all these provinces, plus many of the neighbouring ones. Of course you are never going to get your morale up to Green by doing this, but then, you do not need to. All you need is to get your morale up to Yellow so that they will not rebel. If you switch to the morale view on your map, what you will see is that these fortress complexes will give you islands of lighter yellow in a country what is mostly orange, and so forth.
In the case of a country that is very far away from your capital, you can just build the fortifications of the central city to higher levels, and this can boost morale by up to 25% (I think) at level 5. In practice, I never had to do this, and only had level 3 fortifications at the highest. Reserving these higher level forts for the central city is also good because it will boost the resource production of that city, due to its effect on morale.
If you build a series of these fortress complexes, you will be able to boost morale in faraway provinces sufficiently to keep them from rebelling without having to keep boosting morale by conquering enemy capitals, and without even the need to garrison them (although I always keep some troops, in case of nuisance attacks by bitter players who you have had to destroy along the way). The downside of course is that the resource cost of doing this is high, especially in terms of Metal. But if you have spent enough time and resources building up the industries in your core, plus repairing infrastructure in conquered provinces close to your core, you will be able to afford this quite comfortably at this stage of the game.
So that, in brief, is how I have dealt with the supposed 'morale issue' on the larger maps. Questions and suggestions welcome.