Many large and powerful creatures are unfortunately rather stupid. Even some otherwise quite intelligent creatures act stupidly now and again because they are 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 that most animals instinctively avoid, but which some especially stolid or stubborn beasts may be prone to.
Creatures which are stupid are indicated in the Bestiary and include such monstrous creatures as trolls. Stupid creatures must make a test at the start of their turn to see if they overcome their stupidity. Make a test for each unit of stupid troops. If you pass the test by rolling less than their leadership on 2D6 then all 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 vacant expression. If the test is failed then all is not well. The following rules apply until the start of the creatures' following turn when they must test once more to see if 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 the 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 drooling. 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 (see the Movement section). Any non-stupid creatures with the unit must also move as described - they 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. |
Creatures affected by stupidity are quite unaware of anything happening around them, such is their state of confusion. While overcome by stupidity they ignore all further psychology tests. This means that stupid creatures cannot be affected by panic, fear, etc, but they can still be broken in hand-to-hand combat by failing a break test exactly as normal. Fleeing troops are not affected by stupidity until they have rallied, after which they must take stupidity tests at the start of each subsequent turn.
It sometimes happens that a cavalry model will be riding a stupid creature. For example a Dark Elf riding a Cold One. If a rider's mount is stupid then he will have to test for stupidity at the start of his turn, but the rider's leadership characteristic is used rather than that of the mount. If the test is failed the rider is obliged to hang on while the creature behaves in whatever bizarre manner the rules dictate, but the rider can fight normally if he gets the opportunity.