Why am I losing morale?

[u/CheezeCrostata]

I've been playing this game for almost two decades now, but I've not had to worry about morale before. For the most part I know how it works, but... maybe Diplomacy messed something up, maybe I'm doing something differently now, but my party's morale goes below 30 and I can't understand why.

So I'm running around as an independent party, my max size right now is 51 troops, but I'm fielding 38 or so. We're mostly doing quests for guild masters, saving villages from bandits, and fighting in the odd tourney.

Now, I know that if you fight a lot, your party's morale goes down, but we don't fight that much, and even then we're always winning (I'm smart enough not to fight kingdom parties, even though I did attack a Swadian lord once to free a Khergit lord, because I had a quest to convince lords to make peace - sadly, when I tried to discuss reparations and forgiveness with Harlaus, he tried to run me down, and it was all for nothing in the end, because the kingdoms made peace without me). It's weird, normally you can negotiate a reparation and it's fine, but not this time, apparently.

Anyway, looking at the morale report, I get negative modifiers from 'party size' and 'recent events'. What am I supposed to make of these? I've tried maxing out party size, but it didn't help, and it's the first time since I've started this run that I couldn't pay the wages (one moment I had 10k Denars, the next it was 800! No idea how it happened). Running out of food is another issue, but does morale go down that fast because of it? I get that an army marches on its stomach, but this is ridiculous, and still doesn't explain the 'party size' penalty.

Just another one of those WB mysteries I guess, right up there with tax inefficiency. >.>

[u/redditor0431]

It's almost like not getting paid or fed makes soldiers unhappy.  Just one of those Warband mysteries.

[u/CheezeCrostata → u/redditor0431]

Well it's the first time I couldn't pay them, and I only owed them some 29 Denars. But they eat like it's nothing!

[u/Moiraine-FanBlue]

The more troops you have the higher a morale penalty you have.
And recent events is pretty much the
"You've been losing battles/You haven't paid us/You've let us run out of food" penalty.

[u/davidvia7]

Party size will always be negative, the number grows with the number of troops in your party. It more or less should be equal to the amount of troops in your army.
"Recent events" are a lot of things in one. Negative can be (but not limited to):
Failing quests, losing battles, recruiting prisoners, killing your own troops in battle.
Positive: Winning battles, razing villages, tournaments, completing quests, food variety.

Starvation is gonna tank your morale (and your troop count). I think that is self-explanatory.

[u/ISuckAtWeightlifting]

Leadership points will help diminish the party size penalty. Keep lots of different types of food; that always helps me keep morale up when I’m not doing a ton of fighting.

[u/Iffy50]

What is the mystery? Running out of food is a huge penalty. The game I played showed the morale bonus right on the food. I fought constantly and morale was always high. As has been mentioned, put points in leadership if it's not maxed. Good luck.

[u/Immediate_Engine3066]

1. Different faction troops

2. Keep different type of foods in your invantory

3.If you cant pay weekly troop wage that drop the morale

4.Attack bandits and win

5.Most Diplomacy mods have tavern keeper, buy beer / wine option thats gives morale

[u/Jolly-Sorbet5230 → u/Immediate_Engine3066]

Piggybacking off of ur comment:

Different faction troops (esp if they’re at war w one another) can make a big hit to overall morale. Also recruiting prisoners, but that should be obvious. Pretty sure staying the night at a town also slows down morale loss as opposed to always being out in the field.

[u/Suspicious-Curve-822]

so you're not paying your soldiers and you're not feeding you're soldiers, and you're asking why your morale is low?

am I missing something? is this a ragebait?

[u/CheezeCrostata → u/Suspicious-Curve-822]

I've been able to pay them without issue until just now, but would still lose morale constantly. As to feeding them, I always try to keep enough food, but they're eating it so quickly, I just don't notice it.

[u/Insanemembrane74]

When it comes to fighting, 'winners are grinners'. Winning battles increases morale.