Units

Age of Wonders 3 features a massive amount of units that cover a wide range of uses and strengths. With racial units, class units with their racial variations and dwelling units you end up with a colossal amount of choices to make both pre-game and during the game as your troop compositions are one of the most important elements of any grand strategy. Racial units are produced at cities so human cities produce human units and so forth. Class units are also produced within cities but they require the classes unique structure(s) be built first before they can be accessed. Class units inherit the race of the city they are produced in and thus any racial traits as well; this can be an important factor when making class specific units. Dwelling units can only be produced from dwellings though no other unit types (whether class or otherwise) can be produced from these structures.

For information on what structures are required to build a unit, see the unit's details or take a look at the corresponding class or cities page.

Experience[]

See Unit Experience.

Morale[]

Troops also have a morale level similar to City happiness with higher morale leading to increased critical strike chance while lower morale leads to a higher chance of fumbling and very unhappy units may even desert and leave altogether. Note that racial terrain preferences do impact the morale of the units very steeply so bear that in mind when you select where to attack an opposing army.

The following table has the percent chance for a unit to suffer a fumble or make a critical hit as well as the ranges for morale (the same values as happiness for cities). The lower morale percentages are for fumbles, and the higher morale percentages are for critical hits. In the case of the worst morale, there is also a 20% chance of desertion for the unit (applied individually, unit by unit).

Morale
Range	< -599	-599 to -400	-399 to -200	-199 to 199	200 to 399	400 to 599	> 599
% Fumble/ Critical	40%	30%	15%	0%	7%	15%	25%
% Desertion	20%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%

Critical strikes cause the attack or ability being used to inflict the maximum damage that is possible with an additional 35%, while a fumble causes the attack or ability being used to inflict the least amount of damage possible, with an additional 35% malus. An army going up against another can find its effectiveness severely blunted and will find even much lesser enemies harder to deal with if it has poor morale. Handling your terrain and troop condition is as important as is countering your opponent's attempts to lower your army's morale or increase their own, be it by spells or tactics.

The following modifiers apply to units' morale:

Modifier	Description	Duration	When
Variable	Empire Happiness		The Empire Happiness constitutes units' base Morale.
-100	Race Happiness Unhappy	-
-200	Race Happiness Very Unhappy	-
-300	Race Happiness Rebellious	-
-300	Lost 3 Battles in 3 turns	5	The unit has lost 3 battles in a row in 3 turns, regardless of battle size.
+100	Race Happiness Happy	-
+200	Race Happiness Very Happy	-
+300	Race Happiness Cheerful	-
-100	Unit has not received up to 10% of its wage	10	Your treasury contains 0 and your income is negative with an absolute value equals to up to 10 of the wage of your units
-200	Unit has not received 10% - 25% of its wage	10	Your treasury contains 0 and your income is negative with an absolute value equals to 10 to 25% of the wage of your units
-400	Unit has not received 25% - 50% of its wage	10	Your treasury contains 0 and your income is negative with an absolute value equals to 25 to 50% of the wage of your units
-800	Unit has not received 50% - 75% of its wage	10	Your treasury contains 0 and your income is negative with an absolute value equals to 50 to 75% of the wage of your units
-1600	Unit has not received more than 75% of its wage	10	Your treasury contains 0 and your income is negative with an absolute value equals to more than 75% of the wage of your units
+150	Produced in a Cheerful City	10	Cities with Happiness higher than 600 are Cheerful and produce units with higher morale
+200	Unit is in preferred terrain	-	Unit is on a Terrain it likes which is not of a hated climate type
-150	Unit is in disliked terrain	-	Unit is on a Terrain it dislikes
-300	Unit is in hated terrain	-	Unit is on a Terrain it hates. This malus also removes the morale bonus for preferred terrain (so a Dwarf on Blight Mountains will get only -300 and no +200 for the Mountains)