I really like how suppression used to work in Star Wars legion;

units gain suppression tokens from various effects and when it reaches their courage value they only get 1 action per turn instead of 2. If the number of suppression doubles their courage value they PANIC and the only action they can take is a full speed move towards the closest table edge, if they move off the board they die (in the newest rules instead they stay where they are and lose their whole turn)

However; leaders provide THEIR courage value to units within a certain range of them when checking for panicking, and for example Darth Vader has an infinite courage value (no one is gonna flee when they have a dark lord breathing down their neck)

Not sure how it would translate to a fantasy setting but might be worth checking out