Michael Gorman on 26 Aug 2003 05:50:01 -0000


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Re: [eia] Retreat rules 

At 09:03 PM 8/25/2003 -0400, you wrote:

Jim wrote:
> Per 7.5.2.10.3.6 a force with no available retreat route is captured ,
along
> with any leaders present.  For the sake of simplicity, I think we should
> adhere to the rules where possible.

    Well, if a unit is surrounded, it does have a retreat route - through
the enemy force towards its nearest depot.  The house rule I was proposing
was something like this:

A retreating army should be retreated to a/the unobstructed space which is
closest to the army's closest depot (or the nearest capital, if there are no
depots on the board).  Notice that a space is not considered if it contains
cossacks, freikorps, guerillas, or garrisons - only if it contains enemy
corps.  If there are no unobstructed spaces available to retreat to, then
the army is retreated through the enemy (as per the rules in the book).

One might ask:  if one can always be retreated through the enemy, when would
the rule that Jim sites ever come up?  The answer is: very rarely.  The only
instance I can think of is when a battle is fought on an island.  If the
island has only one space, like Malta, then there would be no place to
retreat to, and the enemy would be captured.

kdh
I thought about this and there are ways to make it come up. Since you cannot pass through an area more than once, you could design a situation where you can retreat someone into a cul de sac where the only path towards their depot or capital crosses a sea arrow or requires them to retrace their steps, in which case they are captured. It's not easy, but it can occur off an island as written.
The problem with the shortest unobstructed route is that you can force an army to retreat away from their supply chain if you place forces between them and the depot. The shortest unobstructed route might have its first step away from the supply line. This allows you to push an army out of your way and force them to chase you into their own country or to shove them away from their supply line by throwing a few irregulars between them and their depot. 



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