Many large and powerful creatures are unfortunately rather stupid. Even some otherwise quite intelligent creatures act stupidly now and again because they are readily confused or distracted, or perhaps because they are drugged or have been knocked insensible. The Stupidity rules represent the sort of slow wittedness or dumb behaviour which some especially stolid or stubborn beasts are prone to. Creatures that are stupid are indicated in the Armies books and include such monstrous creatures as Trolls.
Stupid creatures must make a test at the start of their turn to see whether they overcome their stupidity. Make a test for each unit of stupid troops. If you pass the test by rolling their Leadership value or less on 2D6 then all is well and good - the creatures behave reasonably intelligently and the player may move and fight with them as normal. Nothing untoward has occurred beyond a bit of drooling and the odd spontaneous cackle.
If the test is failed then all is not well. The following rules apply until the creatures' following turn when they must test once more to see whether they are overcome by stupidity.
If already in hand-to-hand combat half of the stupid creatures suddenly stop fighting. They stare around blankly and wonder where they are. If the unit has an odd number of models or if a stupid creature is fighting on its own then roll a D6. If the result is 4 or more the odd model fights; if not it stands around vacantly. Note that only stupid creatures are affected. If a unit contains stupid creatures and other creatures (a unit of Trolls led by a Goblin chieftain, for example) then the other creatures are not affected.
If not in hand-to-hand combat the unit momentarily forgets what it is doing. Roll a D6 to determine how the unit moves this turn. This is compulsory movement and so occurs before other movement but after charges have been declared (see the Movement section). Any non-stupid creatures with the unit must also move as described - thev are carried along by the movement of the rest of the unit and risk being trampled and squashed if they attempt to do otherwise.
D6 | Result |
1-3 | Move the unit directly forwards at half normal speed. Any enemy troops encountered are automatically charged. If there are friends in the way both units blunder into each other and their ranks become confused, in which case both units are pinned in place for the rest of the turn and neither may move further. |
4-6 | The unit stands around in a confused and ineffective manner. It will do nothing for the remainder of the turn while the stupid creatures stare about them, squabble, or lie down for a bit of a rest. |