Dawn of War: Morale

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This article is part of the Dawn of War Player's Guide.
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Morale Overview

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is very distinct from other strategy games due to the fact that its infantry units must account for morale level in addition to their own health levels.

A unit's morale level is displayed in blue, as compared to the green color of their health. Visual indicators of the squad's morale are displayed underneath the squad leader when moused over, as well as in blue numbers underneath the squad's health when selected individually.

When any member of a squad receives damage, the entire squad's morale level drops. If the unit's morale level drops to zero, the squad "breaks" and its combat efficiency drops tremendously until it rallies and unbreaks.

Taking Morale Damage

Most weapons do moderately low morale damage per hit, while weapons designed to break morale, such as a Flamer, tend to do high morale damage per hit as well as have an Area of Effect.

Since Area of Effect weapons such as Flamers or artillery can hit multiple units with each attack, their morale damage is multiplied that many times over since each squad member's damage contributes to the whole squad's morale damage taken.

When a squad member dies, the squad takes a large hit to its overall morale. Several squad members dying in quick succession will greatly speed up the process of breaking the squad.

These properties mean that smaller squads such as Tankbustas or Scouts are much harder to break than large squads such as full Chaos Space Marine squads or Imperial Guardsmen squads who have more members taking morale damage simultaneously.

When checking to see how much morale damage weapons do keep in mind that squads have morale armor. This is almost universally set to 50%, except Terminator Squads and Assault Terminator Squads who only take 25% morale damage, Scout Marine Squads, Pathfinder Teams, XV15 Stealth Teams, and Missionaries who take 70% morale damage, and Ecclesiarchal Servitors who take 100% morale damage. This armor protects from all sources of morale damage including weaponry, squad member death, and caster self-damage (such as the Psyker). Weapon morale dps values and squad morale death penalties already factor in morale armor, including the non-standard morale armor for Terminators and Scouts. The squad morale death penalties for commanders are adjusted for the commander's morale armor, so attaching the commander to a squad with a higher or lower morale armor will likewise reduce or increase the death penalty inflicted.

Effects of Being Broken

When a squad is broken, the following effects are typically associated.

1) The accuracy of all the weapons in the squad drop to 20% of their original value.
2) The maximum speed of the squad increases by 20%.
3) A pulsing red cursor appears underneath each member of the squad to serve as a visual cue.

These effects last until the squad rallies.

There is one exception to that rule in the form of Chaos Horrors. When Horrors are broken, they do not receive the speed bonus nor the accuracy penalty, but rather, they take 50% more damage from all weapons.

Warp Beast Packs, in addition to the effects listed above, will turn against themselves, attacking their own squad or other nearby Dark Eldar units until their morale restores.

Also note that artillery-type weaponry cannot miss, which includes if the squad's morale is broken. More information can be found in the DPS article.

Broken Imperial Guard squads can man bunker and Chimera guns without any penalty. Bunkering them while their morale restores, assuming you have no Commissars around who can use Execute to instantly restore their morale, is a good way to continue to get some use out of them until their morale restores.

Each squad must spend a certain minimum amount of time broken, specific to each squad. After that minimum time broken has passed and the squad has regenerated enough morale to reach the minimum threshold for unbreaking, the squad rallies. The minimum threshold to restore morale is likewise dependent on the squad and is the third value listed for the morale for squads in the wiki.

Recovering Morale and Mitigating Morale Damage

Units recover morale naturally as time passes. The amount of morale regenerated per second varies from squad to squad, and can be found on the individual unit's data page.

Attaching squad leaders or Commanders to squads can either boost the squad's overall morale level, boost the squad's morale regeneration rate, or add special abilities which impact morale. The Chaos Lord in particular possesses an ability to greatly increase morale regeneration rate of a squad when attached.

Certain abilities are present to either rally troops or lower morale damage taken. Space Marine Sergeants and Commissars can either Rally or Execute troops respectively to unbreak their squads. Chaos Aspiring Champions can trigger the Berserk Fury ability to increase both physical damage given and physical damage taken while reducing the amount of morale damage taken. The Orks, in great numbers, achieve bonus from their Waagh! ability which either boost morale regeneration rate or even grant morale immunity when a large enough bonus is achieved. Sisters of Battle Seraphim Squads can use Angelic Visage to restore nearby units' morale and make them temporarily immune to morale damage. Sisters can also use Laud Hailers from buildings and Rhino Transports to boost allied morale. The Eldar Avatar, on the other hand, grants immunity to morale damage to all units in its vicinity.

Units in cover also receive bonuses to morale regeneration. In general, Heavy Cover grants a 100% boost to morale generation (to a total of 2x original value), while Light Cover only grants a 50% boost to morale regeneration.

Also, units in melee receive extra protection from morale damage. When a squad is in melee, its members only receive 10% of the listed morale damage from ranged attacks. Morale damage from melee weapons and from squad members dying is unaffected.

The Dawn of War Player's Guide

The Dawn of War Player's Guide - Thought of the day: Knowledge is power, guard it well.
Space Marines	Chaos	Eldar	Orks	Imperial Guard	Tau	Necrons	Dark Eldar	Sisters of Battle
Infantry Servitor Scout Marine Squad Space Marine Squad Assault Marine Squad Grey Knights Terminator Squad Assault Terminator Squad Skull Probe Apothecary Force Commander Librarian Chaplain	Infantry Heretic Cultist Squad Chaos Space Marine Squad Raptor Squad Khorne Berzerker Squad Horror Squad Possessed Squad Obliterators Chaos Lord Chaos Sorcerer Daemon Prince Bloodthirster	Infantry Bonesinger Guardian Squad Ranger Squad Howling Banshee Squad Dark Reaper Squad Fire Dragon Squad Warp Spider Squad Harlequin Farseer Seer Council Avatar of Khaine	Infantry Gretchin Slugga Boy Squad Shoota Boy Squad Stormboyz Tankbustaz Nobz Squad Flash Gitz Mega Armoured Nobz Mad Dok Big Mek Warboss	Infantry Techpriest Enginseer Guardsmen Squad Heavy Weapons Team Kasrkin Ogryns Command Squad Commissar Psyker Priest Vindicare Assassin	Infantry Earth Caste Builder XV15 Stealth Team Vespid Stingwing Strain Fire Warrior Team Kroot Carnivores Kroot Shaper Pathfinder Team XV88 Broadside Battlesuit XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Kroot Hound Pack Tau Commander Ethereal Shas'Ui Bodyguard	Infantry Builder Scarabs Necron Warriors Wraith Flayed Ones Immortals Pariahs Necron Lord Essence of the Nightbringer Essence of the Deceiver	Infantry Tortured Slave Mandrake Squad Warrior Squad Hellion Squad Scourge Squad Wych Squad Warp Beast Pack Archon Haemonculus	Infantry Ecclesiarchal Servitor Missionary Battle Sister Squad Seraphim Squad Celestian Squad Death-Cult Assassin Sister Repentia Squad Canoness Avenging Angel Confessor Living Saint
Space Marines	Chaos	Eldar	Orks	Imperial Guard	Tau	Necrons	Dark Eldar	Sisters of Battle
Vehicles Rhino Land Speeder Dreadnought Hellfire Dreadnought Land Speeder Tempest Predator Whirlwind Land Raider	Vehicles Chaos Rhino Defiler Chaos Predator Hell Talon	Vehicles Falcon Grav Tank Vyper Wraithlord Nightwing Shuriken Grav Platform Brightlance Grav Platform Fire Prism	Vehicles Wartrukk Wartrak Killa Kan Fighta-Bomma Looted Tank Squiggoth	Vehicles Chimera Sentinel Hellhound Basilisk Marauder Bomber Leman Russ Baneblade	Vehicles Devilfish Troop Carrier Skyray Missile Gunship Drone Squad Drone Harbinger Barracuda Hammerhead Gunship Krootox Greater Knarloc	Vehicles Tomb Spyder Attack Scarabs Destroyer Heavy Destroyer Lord Destroyer Restored Monolith	Vehicles Reaver Jetbike Raider Talos Raven Ravager Dais of Destruction	Vehicles Rhino Transport Immolator Lightning Fighter Exorcist Penitent Engine
Space Marines	Chaos	Eldar	Orks	Imperial Guard	Tau	Necrons	Dark Eldar	Sisters of Battle
Buildings Stronghold Listening Post Plasma Generator Thermo Plasma Generator Chapel-Barracks Armoury Machine Cult Sacred Artifact Orbital Relay Heavy Bolter Turret Mine Field	Buildings Desecrated Stronghold Listening Post Plasma Generator Thermo Plasma Generator Chaos Temple Chaos Armoury Sacrificial Circle Machine Pit Daemon Pit Heavy Bolter Turret Mine Field	Buildings Webway Assembly Listening Shrine Plasma Generator Thermo Plasma Generator Webway Gate Aspect Portal Soul Shrine Support Portal Support Platform Mine Field	Buildings Settlement Da Listenin' Post Generator Bigga Generator Waaagh! Banner Da Boyz Hut Pile O Gunz! Da Mek Shop Mine Field	Buildings Field Command Listening Post Plasma Generator Thermo Plasma Generator Infantry Command Tactica Control Mechanized Command Mars Pattern Command Heavy Bolter Turret Mine Field	Buildings Cadre Headquarters Listening Post Plasma Generator Thermo Plasma Generator Tau Barracks Path to Enlightenment Kroot Shaping Center Vehicle Beacon Kauyon Command Post Mont'ka Command Post Coalition Center	Buildings Dormant Monolith Obelisk Plasma Generator Thermo Plasma Generator Summoning Core Forbidden Archive Greater Summoning Core Energy Core Gauss Turret	Buildings Kabal Fortress Tower of Loathing Plasma Generator Thermo Plasma Generator Slave Chamber Hall of Blood Haemonculus' Laboratory Dark Foundry Wych-Cult Arena Soul Cage	Buildings Ecclesiarchal Chapel Listening Post Plasma Generator Thermo Plasma Generator Adepta Sororitas Convent Pristine Sanctuary Manufactorum Holy Reliquary Shrine of the Living Saint Inferno Turret Purgatus Mine Field