Morale

Morale is a measure of how content a unit or city is with your leadership as well as its willingness to follow your orders. It is just as important to maintain morale as it is to improve other stats - most battles and sieges end when morale runs out rather than when one side is destroyed.

High morale, 100% or greater, means your units or cities are operating to the best of their abilities. As morale drops due to increased hostility, enemy actions, or a lack of resources, the target's performance will diminish.

City Morale
A city's morale is a measure of how content its civilian residents are with their leadership. Morale is determined by:


 * Hostility between the native and controlling factions
 * Local garrison and territory force
 * Tax, recruitment and food consumption rates
 * Food supply
 * Hostages recruited in the city and moved elsewhere
 * Upgrades, and generals, and other bonuses

Unit Morale
Morale determines how long a unit will fight before they drop their weapons and rout. Units with no morale cannot be ordered into combat. Unit morale is influenced by many factors, including:


 * Running out of food
 * Killing a member of an enemy unit, or having a member of their unit killed
 * Being flanked in combat
 * Insufficient pay because their faction's expenses exceed their income
 * Stances, generals and officers
 * Hostility between the unit's native and controlling factions

A unit's morale will recover automatically if they are moved into a city or camp, or when the cause of the morale loss is fixed.