Why cant we retreat in tactical combat?

I believe there is both an "Escape" scroll and spell. I'm not sure if either move you on the strategic map or not though. So, if you are being attacked, and use "escape", if the attacking army or a different army has any movement left they may be able to attack you again. Unless you are well stocked on escape scrolls / mana for escape spell.

An escape/retreat ability would be a great idea for a governor/general type of hero.

I agree. That's something that would be cool to have for generals.

There needs to be a punishment for retreating. Maybe a initiative malus for some turns and/or a lost movement point. Otherwise an army could retreat endlessly. You should have to reach an escape point to leave battle too. Fleeing could also cost mana/HP(20%)/Fame or gold. It should not be for free. Also the idea from mqpiffle is fine (with some cool down).

Additionally there should be spells and items to prevent a retreat.

What a bout the AI? Fleeing for ever whit it's sov?

Me likey that idea.

In EWOM there was a patch on the map that you could run your troops to and leave the battle. I forgot why they removed it in FE.

I might remind you of the battle of the Alamo and the Spartans at Thermopylea. Just to name a couple.

With Fame being a resource in LH, a cost in Fame has a lot of sense. In addition to that, a resource cost makes sense, because in the run the army loses part of the equipment and needs to pay again for those items.

A moral penalty would be nice, but as there is no moral in the game this could be simulated by an HP cost.

To avoid abusing the retreat feature, it would require an army reduction threshold in order to be activated. Let's say that you can't retreat until your army as a whole has 25% or less of the initial HP. The General skill could raise this percentage and also reduce the surrendering cost. The "cruel" or "ruthless" skill/trait would do the opposite, reduce the HP surrendering threshold, as a ruthless leader/champion it's more difficult to be convinced about accepting a surrender. There could even be a "pacifist" trait that raised the threshold in exchange for a creation point in your faction/sovereign.

And of course, surrendering when defending cities is forbidden.

Oh, and I forgot to mention. This opens the possibility of having artifacts/spells that forbid surrendering, or even cursed land. For example, one of the attributes of a wildland could be <DoesNotAllowSurrendering>1</DoesNotAllowSurrendering>

I can understand not having a default retreat option in the current game.  If you could just retreat from a battle, warfare would become very annoying.  You go to fight something, it runs away, and now you have to fight it again, and again, and again.  At least with the Escape scroll and spell there's a cost associated with retreating that prevents warfare from becoming a series of retreats.

If a retreat option was added, the drawback would have to be significant, like losing half your troops or something.  In Heroes of Might & Magic, if you retreat from combat, you still lose your army (unless you pay your way out), and you even have to re-recruit the hero that ran away.  Losing half your army sounds pretty good compared to that.

In HOMM units did not maintain their HP count in the strategic map, but in FE they do, and if you require this "below 25% HP" threshold for retreat you achieve a good balance between "eternal retreats" and the no retreat extremes.

The cruel and pacifist traits should give a benefit and a malus.

 

Attackers should be able to retreat at any time, at a fame cost, and retreat should never be allowed when militia is out (the city is under siege)

 

You'd need retreat added to quick battle, which is why I think this is unfeasible without some higher-end design decisions, maybe in the next expansion since we know we're getting it now.  (Brad blurted it out this weekend)

 

 

Retreating one's army should always be a choice the commander can make. Yes, there should be consequences for attempting to retreat, and consequences for actually successfully retreating. However, the current FE does not allow any retreat except for armies that have and use special spells and scrolls. Concerns: A scout, with high mobility, should be able to retreat from many combats because of relative speed, training, (that's what they are trained to do) and low relative visibility. Especially so for mounted scouts, or stealthy scouts. Successfully retreating an army is almost always an endeavor fraught with pitfalls, perils, and negative consequences. It can be done successfully (cf Robert E. Lee). Or not (US 7th Cav). Whether retreating is successful or not, it almost always entails some costs to the retreating force. Many have suggested options for 'costs' an army attempting to retreat may suffer. Fame loss, equipment loss, temporary initiative loss, etc. IMHO, leadership should affect how successful a retreat may be. All armies should have the option to retreat, unless compelled to stay via either active magic the opponent actually casts, or the specific land in which the battle takes place (wildlands? or in hostile territory belonging to the other army?) The retreating army should also suffer lesser penalties for retreating successfully if a rear guard has successfully slowed the main body of the pursuing army. An orderly retreat is better than a rout. my 2 septums.

I like the costing Fame idea - at least in theory since we haven't tried LH and have no idea how the mechanics work.

The idea of costing fame really is great. In addition, in other games that allow retreat, there's generally a 1 turn "warm-up" for the ability to take effect. That would mitigate the "endless retreating AI" issue, since the other team gets to take pot-shots during the warm-up period.

May I remind y'all that in MoM the cost of retreat was loss of units?

And that makes perfect sense compared to fame loss or such (noone but you and the opposing army knows of your cowardice). Why? Because while you run like the chicken that you are, your units can be backstabbed, shot in the back, have spells hurled at their backs etc.

It is debatable though whether special traits like quick/fast or being a mounted unit should result in a lesser probability of losing that unit completely or it getting heavily pounded during the retreat.

Forget reality for a minute and think gameplay. The decisiveness of battles would suffer for this, and chasing down targets could really kill the game's pace. 

There's no retreating in chess or checkers. Can you imagine how boring/annoying that would get in those games?

I think a spell/scroll only makes a lot of sense. Or, make it an ability in path of the warrior (but it costs a unit at random). Anything more than that and you're mucking up the gameplay.