retreat capability

[giama remil]

I have not understood if there is a rule that can tell me if a mounted unit will use its retreat capability if redlined in battle.

Is there such a rule? If yes what is it?

thanks a lot

 

[Darkness]

Don't know if there's a rule but I do know that your mounted unit will not retreat if the enemy unit also has only one hp left....

 

[Roland Johansen]

It's all about chance. There's a probability a unit with the retreat ability retreats. The probability only depends on the experience level of the unit. The probabilities are in the editor. Just straight from memory I believe them to be:
34% conscript
50% regular
58% veteran
66% elite
I'm not entirely sure about the percentages for elite and conscript. Check them in the editor if you're interested in the exact percentages.

So a veteran fast unit has two reasons to have a bigger chance to survive a battle; more hp and a higher retreat probability.

A unit reduced to 1 hp will make this check and depending on the outcome will keep fighting or retreat. It will make the check only once per battle. So if a 4 hp (veteran) cavalry attacking a 4hp rifleman is reduced to 1 hp (while the rifleman still has 3 hp for instance) it makes the check (58% chance to retreat).
If the cavalry decides to keep on fighting and it wins the next round (reducing the rifleman to 2 hp), it will not get another check to retreat. This battle will go on till one of them dies.

A unit that starts a fight with 1 hp cannot retreat. A fast unit fighting another fast unit cannot retreat.

In an old version of basic CIV3 fast units would always retreat when they reached the 1 hp level (if not fighting a fast unit and not starting the fight with 1 hp). They changed it in a patch because it was too powerfull. You can change the percentages in the editor but I wouldn't do it. They are about right.

 

[Roland Johansen]

Originally posted by Darkness
Don't know if there's a rule but I do know that your mounted unit will not retreat if the enemy unit also has only one hp left....

Are you really sure about this. I have never seen a fast unit starting with 1 hp retreat, but I've never noticed what you're saying. Do you mean that the slow unit starts the battle with 1 hp, or just that both the fast and the slow unit are reduced to 1 hp sometime during the battle.

 

[Darkness]

Originally posted by Roland Johansen


Are you really sure about this. I have never seen a fast unit starting with 1 hp retreat, but I've never noticed what you're saying. Do you mean that the slow unit starts the battle with 1 hp, or just that both the fast and the slow unit are reduced to 1 hp sometime during the battle.

No, what I meant was when the defending unit ( say a spearman) gets down to 1 hp, the attacking fast unit (horseman for example) will not retreat if he also gets down to 1 hp....

Edit: Just read your post again and I meant:

or just that both the fast and the slow unit are reduced to 1 hp sometime during the battle.

Then the fast unit will not retreat....

 

[giama remil]

Thanks for the very useful information and data.
As a personal experience I also have NEVER seen
a fast (redlined) unit retreat if the defending unit gets down to 1 hp.
Maybe the creator intended this situation to be a sort of "last blood" struggle where thing are
gone too far out to allow the fast unit to retreat
(poetic touch explanation?)

 

[Takeo]

im not sure about this- if a unit uses up all of its movement pts moving to the battle, then it will not retreat. but, if it starts moving from like one tile away, then it will have a movement pt left for it to retreat(if it rolls it percent chance to retreat)
like i said, not absolutely sure about this.

 

[The Last Conformist]

It can retreat even if it used up all its movement points.

It cannot retreat if it started combat redlined (since it well never be reduced to one HP during combat). And it won't retreat if the defender is alread redlined when the attacker loses it's second last HP.

 

[billindenver]

Originally posted by Roland Johansen

34% conscript
50% regular
58% veteran
66% elite

OK, this is kind of surprising. It seems like, in my experience, if I used an elite he either wins or dies when he attacks. He seems more likely to retreat if he is attacked, but not when he is attacking.

That's just the way it seems to me.

 

[Roland Johansen]

The figures are directly from the editor. I just checked them to be sure. Maybe they're even mentioned in the FAQ. I wouldn't be surprised if they're mentioned there.
If they weren't correct then there would be more complaints about this subject in this forum. And somebody would have done a statistical check (maybe this has been done by someone). They're probably correct and you just had some bad luck. People tend to remember if an elite unit doesn't retreat and tend to forget if it does retreat, just because an elite unit is very important.
If you're sure about your observations, then you could perform a statistical check using the editor in debug mode. If you're right you could surprise a lot of people here. And it would be a bug worth mentioning in the bugs thread.

 

[Louis XXIV]

A unit will not retreat if the opponent has 1 HP.

This is because they have an equal chance to destroy each other, and they want to win or die trying

If the mounted unit gets down to 1 HP before the opponent, he retreats to avoid dying (Chance, not 100%)