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Morale & Siege: New Warfare Mechanics

It introduces the concepts of unit morale and city morale (in the form of siege duration), aiming to make unit combat less homogeneous and to provide additional advantages for long-term sieges.

In military history, brilliant battles are not only about numbers, but also about morale. Liu Xiu defeated 400,000 troops with only tens of thousands at Kunyang, picking them off one by one. Li Shimin won at Qianshuiyuan and then at Bai Bi, waiting for the enemy to grow weary before launching decisive strikes — sometimes even ending a country in a single campaign. Napoleon’s Italian campaign saw him outmaneuver a larger force over a year, turning the tide — not just through brilliant tactics, but also through the shifting momentum of morale.

Yet in Civilization VI, battles remain isolated. Tactical victories rarely translate into long-term strategic gains, often turning into a simple contest of strength. Nowhere is this more evident than in siege warfare: until your ranged units are strong and numerous enough, cities become an impassable wall — a frustrating barrier to any tactical maneuvering.

The Morale & Siege mod aims to change this by introducing new dimensions to combat: the concept of Unit Morale, and the concept of Siege Duration for cities. These new mechanics are supported by a new UI system, better integrating them into the overall combat experience.

This mod adds an additional morale bar for units, displayed alongside the health bar. By default, the morale bar is hidden when a unit's morale is at 0 (similar to how the health bar works). The bar's color gradually changes from deep blue (at +10 morale) to white (at -10 morale).

Morale changes are triggered by the following events:

When a unit deals more damage than it receives in a melee attack, its morale increases by +1.
When a unit is killed, all units within two tiles of the killer on the same side gain +1 morale, while enemy units in the same area lose -1 morale.
At the end of every even-numbered turn, all units’ morale values move 1 point closer to 0 (e.g., -3 → -2, +2 → +1).
Accumulated morale directly affects combat strength: +1 morale = +1 Combat Strength (this ratio will be made configurable in future updates).

The concept of morale also extends to siege warfare:

When a city enters a besieged state, its siege duration is set to 1 turn.
Each turn the city remains under siege (as long as the siege is not fully lifted — retreating and re-engaging doesn't reset the count), the siege duration increases by 1.
When attacking a besieged city, the siege duration is converted into a +2 bonus to attacker’s combat strength per siege turn (this ratio will also be made configurable in future updates).

These mechanics provide players with more strategic depth during conquest, and offer a more engaging and historically grounded alternative to dealing with "stack-of-doom" situations. If the AI is too weak to mount an attack, the siege duration system allows players to use prolonged sieges to break through otherwise overly resilient cities — balancing both gameplay and historical immersion.

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Reaching 80 likes will trigger an update: a sister mod to Morale & Siege called Elite Units. This is inspired by the historical phenomenon across long periods where unit types became increasingly specialized and linked with elite status. The mod will introduce a new dimension — "elite tier" — allowing different types of units and units from different eras to gain enhanced combat abilities when they become elite. However, development takes time, and making mods like this — where various technologies stack up quickly — also requires positive feedback. So if you think this mod is well-made, please support it with a like!

Reaching 50 likes will trigger an update for customizable values in the morale system, such as the amount of morale gained from advantageous attacks, and the ratio at which siege duration translates into combat strength. I’ve found that listing all parameters in a table for easy tuning is a great idea — and even allows for unique abilities for specific civilizations or leaders. Around this like count, I will also continue further optimization (though I’ve been doing that all along). I’ve noticed the AI doesn’t really make use of this system, so there can be an option to disable morale mechanics for AI when they are not at war.

Reaching 30 likes will trigger an update for UI compatibility fixes... Currently, the siege duration counter is displayed on the city “banner” area, which actually conflicts with some mods that also modify the city banner. It doesn’t crash — the siege duration system still works — it just doesn’t display on the city banner. I think it can be made compatible. These kinds of complex mods are really time-consuming to write, and small details haven’t been fully polished yet — so I uploaded it early.

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CQUI adapted