Retreat function?

This has been suggested before. To quote Jacques Thomas:

Jacques Thomas wrote:

There is a retreat function. It's pulling back your troops before they are engaged in close combat and thus pinned down.

What you're asking for is a 'retreat when it's too late to retreat because I didn't use the retreat function soon enough' function.

This is a reasonable request. Armies can retreat in every other war game, and in real life. Perhaps retreat should come at a cost (like losing 20%-50% of health) or perhaps it should be limited to multi-unit stacks (sacrificing some to save the rest) but it should be possible to do something reasonable here.

I would personally not be happy with a possible retreat from direct battles. It takes away the biggest counter you have when facing someone that uses gold. By locking their troops in a battle you can bomb them with a LOT of artillery and thus have a win here and there by taking out their troops. If the enemy can retreat and then heal up the leftover troops with gold, using gold would have an even bigger advantage than it already has. Don't fight battles you can not win, that is as good as it should get.

I like the mechanic of locking enemy troops in combat, makes for interesting play decisions allowing you to influence the flow of battle.

I'm personnaly against a retreat option. It's right that players be punished for bad positioning/getting played.