Morale and Support¶
Your realm has two moods, each a number from 0 to 100. Popular Support is what your people think of you. Military Morale is what your army thinks of you.
Both start at 100 when you found your realm. Military Morale never rises for free. It falls when you go short, and the only way back up is to pay for it at the maintenance stage each turn. Popular Support also rises by itself each turn while your tax rate is low. See Taxes, Support, and Riots.
What they do¶
Popular Support:
- sets how much tax you collect (see Taxes, Support, and Riots)
- sets your Coastal (tourism) income, which collapses when Support is low
- sets how many people your regions can hold
- when it drops under 10, it starts pulling Morale down with it
Military Morale scales how hard your army fights, both attacking and defending. A full-morale army fights above its paper strength. A broken one fights at about half. When Morale falls under 40, troopers, jets and tanks begin to desert each turn, and the lower it goes the more of them leave. Bombers, carriers, and turrets never desert over Morale — but underpaying your armed forces' upkeep deserts turrets too, along with troopers, jets and tanks, whatever Morale reads.
Auto-Pay Maintenance pays your bills without asking only while both numbers read exactly 100, you hold no Waste regions, and you have the gold to pay in full. If any of these fails, you answer the maintenance prompts by hand that turn.
What lowers them¶
- Underpaying your armed forces costs Morale. Underpaying your region upkeep, the Queen's tax, or your people's food costs Support. Underfeeding the army costs Morale.
- A riot from high taxes costs Support.
- Declaring war on a ruler you hold an agreement with costs you nothing. Attacking that ruler without declaring war first ends the agreement too, and costs you support and morale.
- A chemical or biological strike on your realm hurts both. The plague is far worse for your army than the gas is.
- Enemy agents can lower either one directly. See Stir Revolts and Demoralize Forces.
Paying them back¶
At the maintenance stage the crown asks for gold to buy back up to fifteen points of each. Support is priced by the size of your population, Morale by the size of your army — troopers, turrets and tanks cost most, jets least, bombers and carriers nothing. Units you have listed on the Trading Market still count.
What you pay buys points in proportion, so paying half the request buys about half the points. You may pay up to half again as much as is asked, and the extra buys more than fifteen points. Neither number can pass 100, so overpaying a nearly-content realm wastes the difference.
Nothing changes the moment you pay. The points you buy reduce what this turn's unpaid costs take away. Morale changes right after your food is paid out, before any of your menus open. Support changes at the end of the turn. So Morale bought this turn is the Morale your army fights with this turn.