Leadership is a property of commanders that allows them to lead units and gives those units a morale modifier.

The leadership value of a commander is the number of troops they can lead. Commanders with high base leadership (80 or above) grant their troops a morale bonus and allow those troops to use line formations.

Beyond the base value, other properties like experience, paths in fire magic, and magic items can enhance a commander's leadership. These enhancements do not provide a morale bonus or allow for line formations.

Commanders can have two special sorts of leadership: undead/demon and magic being. Typically only mages have these. Each point in Death grants +40 undead/demon leadership and each point in Blood grants +5 undead/demon leadership. Each point in Astral grants +10 magic-being leadership while each point in a path other than Death grants +5.

These limits are separate for each type, so a commander with 120 ordinary leadership and 40 undead leadership can lead 120 living troops and 40 undead ones.

If troops are on the battlefield without any unrouted leader of the appropriate type, they will rout (if they have a mind) or dissolve (if they don't). This makes sniping leaders a viable way to get rid of enemy armies.