Fearful Hearts (Dark Summons ~ Lost List): Spell No. 244
"...(H)igh above the city, a faint cry would come, and many who heard it would stand stricken with a passing dread, while the less stout-hearted quailed and wept." (III)
The spells and orders in MEPBM are, in part, supposed to allow a player to recreate the and savor the flavor of Tolkien's work. Unfortunately, without an active imagination, most character actions, taken by themselves fail to do this. Fearful Hearts is more than the exception to this rule. This spell, along with Fanaticism (248), seem to really pull in player back into world that Tolkien wrote about. Just the concept, breaking the morale of the Free Peoples, seems so Nazgul-ish. The Nazgul circling on their Fell Beasts always kept the armies of men just one breath away from fleeing out of sheer fright. In game terms, the spell is not quite as dreadful.
Fearful Hearts can only be learned by the Dark Servants. This seems appropriate, because the Forces of Sauron seemed to be the only side that magically altered the morale of its enemies. The spell must be cast by a character in an army, unless the character is practicing. Successful casting of this spell reduces the morale of ALL enemy ARMIES (Not Population Centers) in the same hex by ten (10) to twenty (20) points. It is important to know that multiple castings are not cumulative, but instead that the best result is chosen and applied. The effects of this spell only last until the end of the turn.Finally, even though some of the Dark Servants start with the special ability to learn this spell, it is one of the Lost List spells. This typically means an artifact that allows learning this spell must first be discovered.
How effective is Fearful Hearts? This is a debatable question. By looking at the Combat Alogrithms, it can be seen that Morale is only one fourth of the Average Army Modifier. Thus, reducing the Morale of that North Gondor army from 100 to 900 only reduces the Average Army Modifier by 2.5%. (Even on a 'perfect' casting, the Average Army Modifier is only reduced by 5%). As a practical example, look at a North Gondor Army of 1000 Heavy Infantry lead by a level 100 Commander. They have 100 Morale and they are fighting in Cool Plains (100 Nation Climate Modifier and Terrain Modifier). Typically, North Gondor's army would have a strength of 10,000. If an enemy mage casts a 20 point Fearful Hearts, the strength would only drop to 9,500. And all of this is BEFORE the army strength is modified a second time for Training, Weapons, Troop Terrain and Troop Tactics. Not very impressive.
This is especially true if you compare this AVERAGE difficulty spell's effect with the Average difficulty spells Deflections (106) and Blessings (108). These spells will absorb (I.E. reduce), 1000 and 1250 points of enemy strength, respectively. Granted, this is only for the first round of combat, but without any random factors, these spells will automatically provide a far better battle effect. Or will it? One has to remember that the average army only has a morale of 10 when it is freshly hired. It takes many turns to increase the morale to any respectable size, especially since there is no order that can be used to accomplis this. Thus, Fearful Hearts, against, say North Gondor, a nation that is constantly hiring new armies, might have a much more pronounced effect.
Either way, the spell will throw off those enemy gamers who number crunch every battle to the last spear. It is a spell that can't really be taken into effect in pre-battle analyis. Further, if teamed up with Fanaticism (Increase your OWN army's morale by 5-15 points), the net effects become more pronounced. Finally, if facing an enormous, extremely rabid (high morale) or timid (low morale) foe, the effects of Fearful Hearts will pay off because the spell is active throughout the battle, not just for the first round of combat.
In conclusion, Fearful Hearts is a colorful, fun spell, that probably won't see much action by the "power-gamer". For its battlefield effect, it really should be classified as Easy, not average. Further, if GSI would expand its effect to Population Center combat, Fearful Hearts could serve a limited useful purpose: It would be useful when attacking a populaiton center (to capture or destroy) and there are one or more enemy armies defending. The number of multiple battles that would be fought throughout the turn might justify casting the spell. Regardless, Fearful Hearts is a fun (although not very effective) trick to throw against the enemy.
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Text Copyright 1998 by Jeffery A. Dobberpuhl. All game mechanics and terms are Copyright 1993 by Tolkien Enterprises, as produced, designed and distributed by Game Systems, Inc.