Greyhawk Wars

Greyhawk Wars was part of TSR's push to reinvigorate the Greyhawk line in the early 90s. Taking on Carl Sargent, the company had decided that after Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms had filled similar niches in the genre of fantasy, something had to be done to push Greyhawk forward. According to Jeff Grubb, fellow TSR developer Douglas Niles took his suggestion to "burn it to the ground" literally (spawning the myth that Grubb had it in for the venerable setting), and TSR decided an epic shakeup was in order, giving birth to Greyhawk Wars and producing the From the Ashes boxed set.

The game Greyhawk Wars has gotten someting of a bad rep in Greyhawk- and old school-circles, with grognards claiming that Wars blew up the setting and saw it drifting permanently away from Gygax' original vision.

I disagree.

Greyhawk was always a war-heavy setting, having been developed from a miniature wargame and the pages of Dragon magazine saw reports of troop movements and army strengths. Gygax inevitably led the nations of the Flanaess to war. True, a fantasy world war is maybe a bit of a stretch, but the conflicts - between Iuz and Furyondy, Nyrond and the Great Kingdom, the hidden danger of the Scarlet Brotherhood - were present even in the original Folio-edition.

Now the game itself surely has its flaws. But it is an enjoyable wargame. Last sunday, a few of the D&D-group came over early to try their hand at dominance over the Flanaess.

I set out the map, country cards and counters the evening before the game. As I let the players choose the countries that they played, I set out all the options: 

• Iuz and the Horned Society
• Furyondy and the Shield Lands
• Great Kingdom and the Sea Barons
• Nyrond and Almor
• Scarlet Brotherhood and the Sea Princes
• Keoland

Of all the starting countries, Keoland is by far the weakest, and Scarlet Brotherhood allied with the Sea Princes is a close second. As I had tree friends coming over, it was to be expected that they chose Iuz, Furyondy and Nyrond as starting countries. I was left with the Great Kingdom.

It is interesting to note that there is a great disparity in starting forces. Great Kingdom for example, has a large number of troops at the start of the game, while Furyondy and the Shield Lands have to scrounge the lands for defenses. 

We set the victory condition for the game: 20 countries per alliance. Whichever side, Good (Furyondy and Nyrond) or Evil (Iuz and Great Kingdom) managed to control 20 countries first and hold them at the end of a turn would win the game. We never arrived there because of time constraints, but it was nevertheless a good game - though it only lasted two turns.

Observations

What follows is some observations about the game:

• The game is actually two games: a western front and an eastern front. The war is fought between Furyondy and Iuz and between Nyrond and the Great Kingdom. There is little interation between the two halves of the map. Only the forces of Iuz (operating out of Stonefist on the eastern front) enter a little bit on the war between the Aerdy kingdoms. 
• It is a race over territory. Only in the second turn did we discover how easy it is to conquer countries and add them to the number of countries controlled by your alliance. By raising armies, splitting forces, occupying areas and declaring them conquered, one can easily expand one's empire. As the Great Kingdom, I discovered the entire eastern seaboard open to my troops (ferried across the Solnor Ocean by Sea Baron shps). To the west, Furyondy's player, after allying with Keoland, Celene and two Ulek states, had enough forces to waltz across Geoff, Sterich, Bissel, Gran March and the rest of the West.
• Hero Actions are important but not decisive. During the Action Phase, hero counters can engage in diplomacy, fight monsters and discover treasure, or recruit mercenaries. But all of these have a significant chance of failure. Even with friendly states, the chance of alliance is 50/50. Defeating a monster happens only on a lucky roll of the dice. And if you draw a mercenary card of the opposite alignment, then the action is lost. Yet if an alliance, a treasure hunt or a recruitment succeeds, it is significant. During our game, Nyrond conquered both North and South Province and subsequently allied two Iron League states, surrounding my Aerdy forces. Furyondy succeeded in allying with Keoland, Celene and Ulek, providing the western forces of Good with a significant advantage in numbers. 
• Be careful with your armies. A rash battle can result in the destruction of a significant number of troops, which take two turns to compensate in relation to enemy players. The game gives you the option to retreat at the end of every combat round. A wise empire-builder knows when discretion is the better part of valor.

Conclusion

In the end, the forces of Good, mainly due to the efforts of the Furyondy-Keoland-Celene-alliance, succeeded in controlling 10 countries at the end of turn two. We had to end the game there because our regular D&D-game was about to start and players were already arriving. Both Iuz and myself are brooding on vengeance, however, so we all expect the Greyhawk Wars to resume somewhere in the next couple of weeks.

Greyhawk Facts: the Howling Emptiness of the Flanaess

 As has been eloquently been put forth before by, among others, Chris Kutalik of Hill Cantons fame and Joeseph Bloch the Greyhawk Grognard, the lands of the Flanaess are maddeningly uninhabited. As part of a series exploring the implied setting of AD&D 1st Edition, Kutalik wrote an enlightening blogpost on the empty land as presented in the Greyhawk Folio: 

"If you actually sit down take all the distances and stated populations at face value and start crunching numbers, your immediate impression will be that the lands of Flanaess aren't just stable, if embattled faux medieval nations, but far more like the edge-of-oblivion points of light societies of a post-apocalyptic world."

And further on:

"In other words, even the wildest places of Europe at the time are orders of magnitude more settled and prosperous than Veluna. Those wide light green clearings on the Darlene map turn out not to be dull vast tracts of farmland peopled by plump, happy yeoman, but barely held little bastions.

It's hard not to conjure up images of isolated little hamlets clustered around a grim watchtower or small castle with miles of wasteland and bramble-grown lost settlements filling the miles between. Even inside these “settled” lands armed-to-the-teeth patrols are making the rounds and a monster or two is not an uncommon daily nuisance."

At Greyhawk Grognard, Joe ties the emptiness of the land to the implied endgame of AD&D:

"In that game system, there are two tensions at work. The first is the need for the players to have room in which to expand to play the famed “end game” of AD&D; clearing land, building keeps and towers, and eventually attracting settlers and taxing them. This, I think, is the reason that most of the small villages that are portrayed in the game are shown outside of the normal feudal system of government; who was ruling over Hommlet before Burne and Rufus decided to set up their fortress? By having hexes that are mostly empty, there is plenty of space for players to set themselves up as described in the DMG.

The second, I believe, is the need of the DM to not be overwhelmed by needless detail. Why are Hommlet and Nulb the only villages in their respective 30-mile-across hexes?

Because from the standpoint of the DM, that’s where all the action is! If there were a historically-accurate density of villages and farms on those hexes, the player characters would be overwhelmed with choice. “Which village with an inn is the one that we should concentrate on? Let’s pick this one! I think the name’s neat!” That requires the DM to then have exacting detail on all those villages or be willing and able to make up such detail on the fly."

So there we have it, the Flanaess is a continent where civilization is confined to heavily armed camps, threatened by bandits, outlaws, humanoid hordes and monsters, providing player characters with opportunities to clear the wilderness and set up domains for themselves.

What does it all mean?

As an exercise, I took the From the Ashes material with which I am most familiar and building of Longetalos work in this thread on EN World, calculated the population density of the various states and principalities of the Flanaess. Only a few realms have a density of more than 1 person per square kilometer. In a vain effort to provide some insight, I photoshopped this map (not my best work). 

Some highlights:

• Irongate and Dyvers are positively urbanized with 8.5 and 3.9 humans per square kilometer respectively. I never imagined Irongate as such a center of civilization. This certainly paints a new picture of Irongate as political, military and economic center of the Iron League. Dyvers, of course, is the old capital of the Viceroyalty of Ferrond and as can be derived, the Kingdom of Aerdy's main colony outside of the old Aerdy heartlands.
• The most heavily populated lands are all east and directly south of the Nyr Dyv. The Great Kingdom (including Almor, Medegia and North and South Province) has a population density of 2.8 humans per square kilometer. Nyrond, the Duchy of Urnst and the lands of Greyhawk follow with a density of 1.8, 1.7 and 1.8 respectively. These settlement patterns are still extremely sparse (and not accounting for the numbers of demihumans, humanoids, roving bandits and leaderless armies traipsing around the wilderness), but they paint a band of relative cultivation on the southeastern Nyr Dyv.
• Ekbir is a stronghold of cultivation in the Baklunish basin, and Veluna is more settled than Furyondy. This provokes an interesting idea, that Zeif (for the Baklunish) and Furyondy (in the western Nyr Dyv lands) are dependent on those two states for their wellbeing. Suddenly, the abduction of Thrommel to prevent a Veluna-Furyondy union makes even more sense, as Furyondy without support from the Theocracy would be weakened considerably economically speaking. One wonders what the dynamic between Ekbir and Zeif is.
• Perrenland is a bastion of civilization in the northwestern Flanaess. One wonders what Iggwilv's contribution to this state of affairs was. Did she build Perrenland up to its current state? Or was Perrenland even more civilized before the reign of the Witch-Queen, on par with the Aerdy heartlands?
• The Sheldomar Valley is the domain of scattered humans living in alliance with the native demihumans.

In play, this map provides a guideline on describing the lands of the Flanaess through which the PCs travel. It is also an interesting aid in chronicling the civilizing influence of the Great Kingdom. For all its current wickedness, the Overkings of yore have actually done a great job in kingdom-building, with great rival Keoland paling in comparison. 

For the campaign I am preparing, I am imagining the Flanaess as a wild land with bastions of order surrounded by a sea of chaos. The lands to the east are more cultivated than the wild west, and Flanaess society, economy and religion is still heavily influenced by the Aerdy powerhouse built by the Overkings. Within these points of light, heavy armor and steel weaponry is available. In the wilderness, a level of technology and organization akin to the European Dark Ages prevails. Travel is dangerous, with monsters, brigands and humanoids on the rise and prowling on trade routes and farmsteads alike. It is a land in need of adventurers to safely guide food, weapons and trade goods between the civilized lands, and to clear out the wilderness and establish new bastions of order.

Greyhawk Facts: Humankind is fragmented and besieged

"Humankind is fragmented into isolationist realms, indifferent nations, evil lands and states striving for good. The Baklunish countries in the northwest have grown in power. Nomads, bandits and barbarians rais southward every spring and summer. Humanoid enclaves are strongly established and scattered throughout the continent, and wicked insanity rules in the Great Kingdom. The eventual result of all this cannot be foretold."

- excerpted from the A Guide to the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting, World of Greyhawk Boxed Set

As I am preparing for my next D&D campaign - which will be set in the World of Greyhawk - I am considering which materials I will use for that campagin. A common question in preparing for Greyhawk is "Which era will I set my campaign in, Gygax original, From the Ashes-reboot or Living Greyhawk-era?" My answer to that question will be: All of the above (and none).

Marvel, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and numerous cartoon adaptations before that, and even the Ultimate Marvel comic book imprint), and movies drawing from either modern or ancient myth do all the time, I will pull inspiration from the primary sources to create my own version of the setting - as Gary Gygax intended when he wrote the original Folio-edition in the first place. As part of this exercise, I will distill my vision of the Flanaess in a few "Things You Need To Know", or Greyhawk Facts, in a number of posts, each post detailing another fact. Today: the degeneration of civilization and the rise of savage humanoids.

Art by Jeff Easley

The Realm of Mankind is beset on all sides by savage enemies, and civilization's light is dying.

The World of Greyhawk is first and foremost a realm of Man. It was envisioned as a humanocentric setting by Gygax, further supported by the passage in the original DMG that D&D was envisioned as a humanocentric game. The Guide to the World of Greyhawk reinforces this fact by summing the human population of a particular state/land and only providing sketchy details on demihuman or humanoid populations. In the original publication, the Elven and Dwarven realms are considered to be fading. It is the Great Kingdom, a human-ruled power, that rose to dominate the Flanaess in recent centuries. Yet that same Great Kingdom has been in decline for the past few decades, being ruled by the aforementioned "wicked insanity".

Overall, the Flanaess is painted as a land of petty human kingdoms and principalities, striving against each other, struggling for survival and even dominance. It is thoroughly medieval in that regard, reminding me of Dark Age Britain, with thinly populated kingdoms fighting each other and the invading Vikings. It also reminds me of the mood of Lord of the Rings, sometimes called "nobledark", where Middle-earth's kingdoms have been frayed and beaten by centuries of onslaughts by orcs and Ringwraiths and are barely holding on. Evil and Chaos are on the rise in the Flanaess, with only a few, battered states, such as Furyondy and Nyrond, trying to combat that rise.

For reasons I will go into in my next post in this series, the Flanaess feels terribly desolate and under-populated. But what if we treat that as a feature instead of a bug? We know that humanoid power is on the rise, with increasing numbers being recruited by states to fight as mercenaries and others raiding and rampaging the countryside. What if the states of the Flanaess not only fight each other, but humanoid incursions as well? The nations of Man are not only divided amongst themselves, they are also, year by year, losing ground to Orcs, Gnolls, Ogres and Trolls. Sterich and Geoff have already been conquered by giants. The Pomarj, Bone March, Lands of Iuz and large parts of the Bone March are already Orc-territory, as are many enclaves in hill, mountains and forests. 

An apocalyptic image, and a world in need of heroes.

Savage West Follow-up

To follow-up on the post of the other day, I am designing the Savage West to scratch several of my (current) itches:

- The Western-genre flavour of D&D-style adventuring: PCs ride into a borderlands town that seeks help, PCs deal with the villain of the day, spend their gold on ale and carousing and ride off into the sunset.

- The genre of flintlock fantasy, where muskets and pistols are the weapon of choice and conflicts carry more meaning than the latest land-grab by corrupt nobility.

- This ties into my third itch, I have started collecting Napoleonic 28mm miniatures. Yes, to simulate and play historical battles (and if you allow me a personal note, as a historian, I find the events and impact of Napoleon's 1813 German campaign, culminating in the Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations, far more interesting than the desperate Battle of Waterloo, at the tail end of the Empire - the Battle of Nations has every element of climactic fantasy battles contained in a frenzied five-day action-packed epic). But also to use in D&D home games. And I have long longed to emulate the roleplaying-wargame-domain game spectrum of the early days of the hobby where dungeon adventures eventually resulted into claiming strongholds and domains and commanding miniature armies across the tabletop.

- To continue this line, I take a note from Dark Sun which was meant to be partnered with the 2e Battlesystem ruleset to allow PCs to command city-state armies, rebellious slave tribe or warlike desert nomads. I am designing the Savage West to accomodate that degree of freedom as well, allowing armies from the nascent Kingdoms or warbands operating out of the wilderness.

- These wilderness warbands, consequently, have far less resources and couldn't hope to contend with the bloodstone-rich armies of the Kingdoms, yet are master and commander of the Wildlands and wastelands. 

- Another secret project I am considering is to collect miniature equivalents of Greyhawk's armies and replay battles of the Flanaess, starting with the Battle of Emridy Meadows. Collecting fantasy miniatures and not using them in a D&D game is a sin, hence the wilderness warbands.

- The Chainmail miniatures revival of 2002 was also set in Western Oerik. I am deliberately lifting elements from that line (like the death of the war god Stratis, albeit a bit different) to incorporate in the Savage West.

- I like the deep lore of the Sunset Realms that me and my homegroup have developed over the past decade. Sure, some of the backstory and mythology is going to get ditched in the transition to the Savage West, but the basics (an age of glory, a draconic empire, [demi-]gods wandering the land, the Tarrasque as harbinger of destruction and tragic hero at the same time) and some names (Aurora) will remain the same.

- I wanted to create more than "just" Western Oerik - even though it's a vast landscape many times the size of Greyhawk's Flanaess. Hence the addition of the Utter West across the Agitoric Sea. I'm flavoring these lands to be oriental in flavour, as in accordance with established Greyhawk lore. But I'm also inspired by Sarlona from the Eberron setting - a totalitarian nightmare ruled by invading telepathic aliens controlling the people through their dreams. Here, I'm going with the more pedestrian - and everybody's favorite tiger-headed - rakshasa.

I'm energized and inspired to throw all these elements into a new mix (and to return to this blog). 

Journey into the West

Western Oerik has been on my mind again lately, emerging once again in a weird way that setting concepts do after months or years languishing on the back-burner. I don't know what triggered it; it happened a few weeks ago after watching de Undeadwood Critical Role series. My mind went to the subject of Murlynd, the paladin-sherrif hero-god of the Greyhawk setting and I found myself asking: "Where did he get those six-shooters?"

I know the formal answer is "From Gygax's Boot Hill home game," or something along that line, but I went in another direction. I thought, wouldn't it be cool to combine my foray into flintlock fantasy with the world already developed here on this blog and in my 5E home game, set it in Western Oerik and add in some more crazy things? So I did.

A thousand years ago, refugees from two dying empires, lands consumed by war, fire and devastation, fled into the wild lands of the west. Encountering jeweled city-states and tribal kings, monsters, orcs, elves and each other, their destructive war continued, on a smaller, more primitive scale. But their new, savage environment demanded more and less of the survivors. In order to live, thrive and survive, the peoples had to adapt to their new home. Over a few generations, their inherited enmity petered out. Struggles for ideology and supremacy faded into the background, devolving into more common conflicts over land and resources. Within a century, the old hatreds had faded, bands of survivors and local tribes intermarried and new towns and alliances developed, coalescing into Nine Kingdoms.

The most powerful of these new towns came to be named Aurora, city of a new dawn. From the westernmost coast of the land, Aurora’s influence spread across the Nine Kingdoms and outposts and trade roads were established. Secrets of a forgotten past were discovered, and magical lore reached new heights. Across the sea, contact was made with the peoples of the Utter West. Many tribes and city-states united under the banner of the Dragon Empire. Yet war continued. 

The War God, Stratis, strode across the Savage West, playing an intricate divine game of dragonchess, setting the Nine Kingdoms comprising the Dragon Empire against one another, sharpening the machine of conflict. Never peace, always war, the Dragon Empire wasn't able to build a sphere of protection and security. 

One man, a priest, sought to change that. His name was Aenarys and it was he - a prophet of peace - that dared to challenge the God of War. He failed even as he succeeded.

Stratis died, but his dying breath changed the land. A red veil covers the land, scarlet shadows bring forth terrible monstrosities and the Dragon Empire crumbled. The Crimson Shroud brought madness and despair to the metropolises of the Dragon Empire. Instead of ushering an age of peace, Stratis' death fanned the flames of war as armies clashed and survivors gathered into warbands. Dragons claimed new territories in the wilderness, reducing the free peoples under their wings to savage slaves. New monsters and aberrations flooded the towns and castles of the Nine Kingdoms, the great Tarrasque among them. Civilization was brought to the brink of extinction, clawing to hold on. Only the heavily fortified cities of the Liga Elves in the interior, and the well-defended band of holdfasts, including Aurora, on the Agitoric coast were spared the destruction.

Now, centuries later, the Nine Kingdoms have rebuilt themselves, in the image of a forever war. Using magic and military might, and the mineral known as bloodstone, the Kingdoms have eked out a perimeter of safety in the vast and savage land. 

This is a land of stark contrasts, savage beauty and howling wilderness. The Savage West is home to a large variety of environments, flora and fauna. From the scorching deserts of the southwest, to the forested mountains of the Agitoric Northwest, to the Great Plains abutting the Redwall Mountains to the east, to the humid jungles of the southeast, every climate and all manner of beasts can be found here. During the day, the sun bakes the interior highlands into searing deserts, while providing a comfortable warmth in the northwestern forests. At night, the pale moon of Raenei sheds wan light on the lands beneath, accompanied in quarterly phases by her aquamarine sister, Kule. 

Ruins and dungeons of the centuries-distant Age of Wonder dot the wilderness. Ancient magic and forgotten lore can be found in the remains, if one is brave enough to face the dangers these expeditions entail. When traveling the Savage West, one can stumble into pockets of high magic, demarcated by an electric buzz playing on the skin and a strange sensation. These Wildlands are pockets of primal magic, connected to dragons, monsters and magic. Most times, these fading lands are wild and beautiful environmennts but sometimes these pockets are shadowy and dark, pulsing with the energy of death. These Shadowlands give rise to spirits, ghosts and the living dead. The Savage West is beset by wild monsters and dark magic. Yet there is hope, for brave adventurers venture into the wild to aid burgeoning towns, fight monsters and establish new outposts. To plumb forgotten dungeons and seek out relics of the past, and to discover and mine veins of bloodstone, to forge into new tools and the foundation of a new age of peace and light. 

The most powerful of these tools are the weapons of the current age, bound to the Crimson Shroud, unable to function beyond the western lands bearing Stratis' curse. Made from bloodstone, yet effective all the same, these Firebrands are  brandished by Legions of wielding soldiers, raining elemental fire and hot lead on the battlefield. Aided by the automaton-cannons known as Pulverizers, armies march across the wartorn landscape, fighting monsters, warbands and enemy nations.

Welcome to the Savage West.

New Blog: Flintlock Fantasy

 "I'm glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee, here at the end of all things."

Posting here at Orange Dragons has been slow, a combination of a responsible job, parenting, and spending scarce hobby time preparing all too few D&D sessions. I've found my ideas for this blog lagging. 

So I have decided to start with a clean slate. A few short weeks ago, I found a new well of inspiration in the genre of "flintlock fantasy" - fantasy stories that move away from traditional medieval settings and embrace a more modern approach. Combined with a new scholarly interest (I'm a historian by training) in the Napoleonic Wars I've decided to build a setting around the concepts of revolutionary wars, economic modernisation, and political experiments in a fantasy world. This blog carries a lot of loose ideas, on the new blog I will be focussing more clearly on the setting of Flintlock Fantasy.

Legacy posting about the current and long-running campaign in the Sunset Realm will continue sporadically, but I will be blogging frequently on the setting of Flintlock Fantasy.

Homebrew: Mass Miniature Battle System

Sooner or later, every adventurer will be confronted by the rigors of mass battle, especially when they are in command of a fief. When armies clash, adventurers often take central stage. The outcome of a mass battle can be determined abstractly, as per this post. Alternatively, the engagement can be played out as an epic miniature battle.

These Miniature Battle Rules use a simplified system, in order to streamline play.

 

Glossary

AB: Attack Bonus
AC: Armor Class
HD: Hits
Hero: An individual miniature representing a single, heroic, individual
ML: Morale bonus
MV: Movement
Stand: one miniature, representing 10 individuals of that type
Unit: multiple stands of the same type, grouped together and performing actions collectively

 

Stat Blocks

Stand and Unit stat blocks are written in the following format:

AB (attack bonus); AC (armor); HD (hits); MV (move); ML (morale bonus); Special rules

Goblin
AB +4; AC 15; HD 2; MV 30; ML -1; Nimble Escape: Disengage as bonus action

Guard
AB +3; AC 16; HD 2; MV 30; ML +0

 

Turn Sequence

At the start of each turn, side initiative is determined. Each side rolls a d20, adding the Charisma modifier of the side’s general. The side that rolled the highest can decide the turn order.

On their turn, a side activates all units one by one. Once activated, a unit can move up to their movement and perform one maneuver. A maneuver is similar to an action in standard D&D combat: melee, ranged attack or spellcasting. Once all units of both sides have been activated, a new turn begins.

 

Movement and Distance

Movement is measured in points. Every inch of distance requires 5 movement points. Conversely, for every point of movement a unit can cross 0,2 inches or 0,5 centimeters. Movement can be broken up to take place before and after a unit’s maneuver.

Disengaging from an enemy within melee range requires an action, unless specified otherwise in the unit’s description. Neglecting to disengage while moving away immediately allows the enemy unit a melee maneuver.

Attacks and Hits

Most of the time, melee attacks are performed by the front stands of a unit. Exceptions are made for units with reach, whereby the second rank of stands is also allowed to make attacks. Ranged attacks can be made as long as the enemy unit that is the target of the attack is within range.

Attacks are made by rolling a d20 for every eligible stand in the unit and adding the unit’s AB per rolled die. For every roll that beats the enemy unit’s AC, a Hit is scored. The total number of Hits is divided by the enemy’s HD, the result is the number of enemy stands slain.

Melee maneuvers are made with Advantage whenever the enemy unit is wedged in between two attacking units.

 

Clashes

Whenever Heroes on opposite sides meet, there will be clashes. In this case, a regular D&D combat is initiated between the Heroes that are involved and 10 regular units of an adjacent stand as preferred by the side in question. After the clash is resolved, the Mass Battle will resume.

 

Morale

Once certain conditions are met, a Morale save must be made by the unit. Base DC 10. Failing the save means the unit becomes Frightened. The second time the unit fails the save, the unit becomes Routed and flees the scene. These conditions are:

After losing 25% of the number of stands
After losing 50% of the number of stands
After losing 75% of the number of stands (save made with Disadvantage)
When a unit’s Hero is defeated in a Clash
When confronted with enemies that have a characteristic causing the Frightened condition

Heroes are exempted from making Morale saves.

Rallying Units is possible by Heroes. As a bonus action, Heroes within 10 can make a Charisma (Intimidation) or Charisma (Persuasion) check against DC 10+the number of turns the unit has been frightened and routed. When the check succeeds, the unit may immediately make a new Morale save.