Forced retreat

[Wings]

First a few words to Kerensky: I saw that you replied to a post that I just deleted. Sorry about that, I wanted to open a new thread instead, but you had replied already.

My question (related to Kerensky's reply); when one of my units is under heavy attack when the AI is playing, it can be forced by the system to retreat. I personally find it strange that "anything" other than me decides whether my army should retreat. I can understand that the AI gives me a good reason to retreat, but I expected the end decision to be mine.
What made the team design it the way it is right now?

[Kerensky]

Sometimes there's no time to wait for orders to arrive before retreating.

On a more serious note, this is how Panzer General games have always worked.

[AgentX]

@Wings, just remember that the AI is playing under the same rules as you. When you attack an enemy unit and force a retreat, the AI didn't have a choice in the matter either. If a unit takes enough damage to force a retreat, it's out of your hands. Besides, it's happening during the AI's turn. Is it supposed to stop it's turn to give you a choice of retreating? Since both of you are following the same rules, then you'd have to stop your turn to give it a chance to retreat. It would really mess up the pacing of the game.

[El_Condoro]

I think of a unit retreat more like a temporary rout - they are panicked and are not thinking straight, much less listening to orders. How else can we explain some of the directions they take when retreating? Seriously, if a unit suffers suppression and damge equal to its strength it retreats (or surrenders if it has no hex into which it can retreat). There's no choice involved - it's a rout until they can gather themselves and reorganise (if given the chance).

[Rudankort]

What made the team design it the way it is right now?

To answer this question, I think that forced retreat/surrender mechanics adds some interesting tactics to the game. On one hand, you can try to surround enemy unit and force it to surrender when it has nowhere to retreat. This can allow you to destroy enemy unit without grinding through all of its strength. On the other hand, if you are not careful, enemy unit can easily escape destruction because of retreat. For example, enemy units on the rivers are vulnerable, but if your attack is not well planned, the unit can retreat, and you can chase and finish it off only by moving your own units onto the river and expose them to enemy counterattacks.

If there were no autoretreats, your crippled units would often remain next to the enemy, and you would not be able to replace them on your turn. Thanks to retreat, you can often fully replace them right away.

Also note that in PzC retreat only happens if a unit has no entrenchment left, so it will not force your units to abandon a good fortified defensive position.

[JatMan]

Also note that in PzC retreat only happens if a unit has no entrenchment left, so it will not force your units to abandon a good fortified defensive position.

Lol, ok, this makes sense. I had several attacks on units where the remaining numbers were surpressed and the unit didn't retreat. Is there any way to reduce entrenchment value of enemy units aside from reducing unit strength??

[Rudankort]

Lol, ok, this makes sense. I had several attacks on units where the remaining numbers were surpressed and the unit didn't retreat. Is there any way to reduce entrenchment value of enemy units aside from reducing unit strength??

Every attack on a unit reduces its entrenchment, even if it does not do any damage. So, use artillery, bombers, fighters, ships etc. to "soften up" your target.