When I was a young drummer boy I played a Civil War title called "Robert E. Lee - Civil War General" which had (I thought at the time) a good engine for determining a unit's fighting ability (based on Strength x Order level x Morale - much in the way that indirectly the BG/HPS games do.
Strength was "Number of men" and only ever decreased
Order was a sliding scale (could increase or decrease) - more similar to "Fatigue" rather than a simple Ordered/Disordered on/off switch
Motivation (i.e. Morale) was a sliding scale (could increases or decrease)
Every time something happened to the unit, some or all of these parameters would be affected;
It moves over obstacles - Order decreases
Wins/Loses a fight - Morale increases/decreases
Takes casualties - All three decrease
Rests in a clearing somewhere - Order and Morale recover
At a particular time, any unit could become so worn down that following a morale-check it would tip into Routed... but one thing that would be different vs BG is that a fatigued/disordered unit could hang on non-routing if it had reasonable strength and high morale (i.e. if the unit is constantly "winning" its fights). Conversely a highly Motivated and well Ordered unit could still rout if it was just too low on strength... and so on.
Anyway.. that's just of interest maybe.
The main feature was that each army had an "Army Morale" which was built up from a combination of these factors from every unit.
This "Army morale" would fluctuate up and down depending on progress. The more victories in melee, the more morale... the more defeats or everytime you took casualties, the lower the morale... If Reinforcements arrived (Strength increases) the more morale.. and so on).
Army Morale was used to determine if/when a unit would rout .. (it set the "bar" against which modifiers were checked, so was a variable/unpredictable figure...) The more beaten up the army was, the more easily a unit would rout, even if it was 1500 men strong, well ordered and highly motivated.
Could a similar system be introduced into BG/HPS games as an Option.. with a bit of coding?
I'm thinking about something simple like a "level" at which the troops just decide it's all over, rather than changing the whole way the game calculates fatigue and morale-checks etc.
Our General (if he is perverse) with no historical consideration that he needs to remain in command of the army, not be dismissed.. and ignoring that maybe he will have to fight again with the same troops in a few weeks' time.. may just elect to fight on until every single unit is wiped out. In reality there was a tipping point when the army (not the General) decided that the battle was over.
An "Army Morale" (optional setting?) would be a handy "barometer"... If the General can see he's getting close to it, he might want to wait for reinforcements (+ Strength) or let his troops recover (+Order and +Motivation) before continuing the offense ... or he may need to break off a defence rather than fight to the last man at a particular strongpoint, since doing so would rout his army..
I think it would be an interesting extra dimension and easy to implement (add up some values, apply a formula.. then check the Army Morale at the beginning of every turn. If it drops below "minimum"... the army units essentially rout to the nearest board edge and the game is over. Victory conditions would have to have a "Rout Points" (e.g. -1000pts, working as Objectives) so that the "winner" might rout your army but only still record a minor victory...
Lt Serena