This should be in in some way, shape, or form. If not, I'll be a very unhappy intellect (for a while, then I'll go back to plotting world domination).

I would also like to see less of the complete destruction of armies and more cases where survivors are able to flee and regroup. For example if the losing army has faster units why shouldn't they get away? What about flying units vs an army with no flying units? This will make the complete destruction of an enemy harder, as they can lose, then trade land for time to regroup. Sure they will probably lose anyway but if the diplomacy is good (read this post about normal game diplomacy vs "risk" style diplomacy https://forums.elementalgame.com/375780) the losses may not be worth risking getting ganged up on.

Create different unspoken rules for different factions, chivalrous vs chivalrous factions allow the enemy to flee (note that chivalry is not black and white, but includes shades of grey, and that factions don't always act chivalrous when you expect them too). Having chivalry gives a diplomacy bonus to other chivalrous factions. Non-chivalrous factions vs anyone else its fight to kill as many as possible. Non-chivalrous factions don't get a bonus or penalty. If nations can raise undead, they get a diplomatic penalty against any faction that doesn't raise undead, as seeing your family members as zombies in the enemy army may cause crankiness. Lastly make it like GalCiv 2, "good" does not always mean "nice".

Only to rise again.......  

There is something like this in ETW but it's so badly implemented that I've never ever had a city surrender to me.

I've had it happen. Twice. The garrison evidently needs to be really small. It's a nice idea in general as you don't want to auto-resolve it because you can most certainly win with fewer casualties, but it's still a chore attacking tiny garrisons.

I like the OP's idea, but we would need to flip side of the coin to work, too.  In other words, if your enemy has a huge army agains your small one, then your army might lay down their arms instead of fight.  So apart from some elite units, we the players ought not to be able to expect our forces to fight to the death to slightly damage the enemy.

Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Fine by me I just want to end up with a cool game!

Nothing makes a game funner then playing "Hide the farm" right at the end. For those of you who don't know,  hide the farm is a time honored tradition in RTS games such as warcraft or starcraft where the losing player builds a very small, cheap building in an obscure spot which forces his opponent to find it in order to defeat him. Quite a fun game, assuming you are not the one searching.

Like it as it offers more options than fighting. Perhaps if you have enough gold they disappear from the enemy's forces and if you don't have the gold they are transported to a friendly city of theirs. 'Course there could be traits/diplomacy research/spells that affect this.

Naw. Zombies can never be overpowered. One dude with a holy water mister can lolPWN hundreds of them, and any kind of elite unit would be able to totaly trash them. Zombies are numerous and scary, but they are slow and really stupid. Anyone with training and decent gear should be able to rip through them. Thier only real advantage IS thier numbers.

I understand the concern. I was thinking that zombies would be incredibly cheap, but at the same time, be weaker then even a peasant with a stick. When i said the elite units would wrech the zombies, i was think a KDR of 1000+. The only limit on how many zombies a hero can kill would be how tired his arm gets from swinging his sword.

The real danger from the zombie horde would be the leaders. I would of saved big time on both money and magic by spaming the cheap zombie, so i can spend all the rest on my heroes, making them incredibly powerful. In major army vs army situations, the zombies are just cannon fodder to cover the heroes. the heroes are the ones who do the real damage. Or so i was thinking.

Plus, zombies can rout. You just need to cast a couple turn undead spells.