Flexible defence

[Sourdust]

One thing that mildly irks me about the game is that I often myself wishing units would retreat after getting attacked, even if they haven't been fully suppressed. For instance, an infantry unit in a line gets attacked by an enemy tank, takes 7 hits out of 10 strength points ... and sits where it is, waiting to be killed by a second enemy attacker, rather than retreating a hex where it might be safe.

There is some logic behind this, but it also makes for fewer options in building a defence. And of course, frequently in WW2 units adopted a delay or flexible defensive posture, where they would hold for a bit, but be prepared to fall back rather than take grevious losses.

How to implement in PC? 2 options:

1) Add a toggle. Either I can set a unit to "hold at all costs", in which case current rules apply, or "flexible defence", in which case the unit will retreat if it can and if it falls below half strength.

2) Appreciating that the designers don't want additional interface complexity, add in a rule providing for retreats even if a unit hasn't been fully suppressed. For instance, "Infantry and recon will retreat if they are in open terrain, if a retreat lane is available, if they have been attacked by armor, and if they are below 5 strength and/or out of ammo". Or "artillery will retreat after any combat in which it suffers loss, if a retreat lane is open" etc.

By the way, either approach could benefit the AI significantly as well. Some voluntary sensible retreat rules could make AI units much harder to kill!

[deducter]

If your infantry is green, what you described is impossible. For green units, each 2 kills = 1 suppression, so in that case your unit will take 7 killed and 3 suppressed, guaranteeing a retreat. With experience, the 2 kills = 1 suppression rule is decreased, and at 5 stars kills generate no extra suppression.

Edit: Unless your infantry has 2 entrenchment or higher, as units with 2 entrenchment or higher never retreat or surrender.

[El_Condoro]

Any entrenchment ensures they don't retreat.

[deducter]

Since an attack reduces entrenchment by one, if your unit starts with entrenchment 1, it will be reduced to 0 after the attack, which is when the retreat/surrender mechanic takes place. For the purposes of defense calculations, the 1 entrenchment still counts though. So surrender/retreat can still occur if a unit has entrenchment level of 1.

One good trick is to take a look at an infantry in a forest. If it has an entrenchment of 3, hit it once with artillery, attack it, and it won't retreat. Then you can finish it off, or if you still don't like the odds, hit it again with artillery then attack it. If you hit it twice with artillery, the infantry will have an entrenchment of 1, and if you can't kill it it will almost certainly retreat. This is a way to use the entrenchment mechanic to your advantage, depending on the situation at hand.

[Sourdust]

Well, I'm open on the specific dynamics. I just hate seeing units (mine or more usually the AIs) which should be retreating fail to do so.

I guess my judgment about which units "should" be retreating is subjective, but certainly includes recon units caught out in the open, artillery units being directly assaulted, units that are out of ammo (this usually only applies to AI), and unentrenched infantry caught out in the open by armor. It just doesn't feel right that such units hold their ground no matter what - in reality most units in these kinds of situations retreated if pressed and if they had some viable retreat avenue.

Again, I think some more refined rules here would help out the AI more than the human player...