Withdrawing harmful to rep?

[spiffy_scimitar]

Sometimes I'm attacked with an overwhelming amount of men, but I know I can resist the first wave but not the second, since by then I'll be out of ammo and my men will be tired.

If I manage to rout the first wave then withdraw, will my general get a bad vice, such as coward or good runner or whatever? Because even if you choose to withdraw, even if you inflict more casualties, the game lists the battle as a "loss".

This situation may also be important if you wish to soften up a garrison but not take the territory, so that an ally may take it next year, or if you dont wish to destroy a faction's buildings but limit their army size (such as factions with only one territory left).

I withdrawed once after doing a feign attack (attacked a province with few men while attacking another linking province with a big army so that enemy doesn't reinforced the attacked province) and my King had a 'Good Runner' vice - lol, quite crazy.

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Clan Kenchikuka (http://www.totalwar.org/kenchikuka)
evil is within us... http://www.totalwar.org/site/emomalta.gif

[Kraxis]

Hmm... I thought that if you used the Withdraw option the General would not get a Vice, as he has was not routing.

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BTW, Danish Crusades are true to history.

You may not care about war, but war cares about you!

[Yoko Kono]

gives you the eager to retreat vice

[TC27]

Its is slightly harsh, most of my generals have 'eager to retreat' or 'hesitant' vices, which are largely unavoidable since im not going to fight senseless battles just to avoid them, fortunately they usually have enough command stars too compensate.

[Dionysus9]

I think that the "coward", "good runner" and "eager to retreat" vices are handed out WAY too liberally.

Sun Tsu says (paraphrase) "if you can't win, dont fight." Adhering to this policy does not make you a coward, it makes you a good general.

I suppose the way to avoid getting these vices is to simply abandon the province without a fight. I can't really see how that is any different from showing up to the battle and then withdrawing but thats the way it is, I guess.

[hrvojej]

If he only withdrew from the field, I think that he will get "weak attacker" or "weak defender" vice, which will lower the command value, instead of the morale-lowering ones such as "eager to retreat" that you get if he actually flees from the battle.
Btw, sometimes my generals are captured by the enemy. After I pay the ransom, they don't get the "captured" vice. Why is it that it works one way, but not the other as well?

[Sparky]

I think you don't get penalised if (and only if) your general does a bit of fighting before you withdraw. If you withdraw without fighting then you get penalised. I recall some dev. saying about as much, not sure on which board though.

I do think discretion should be considered the better part of valour, especially when up against overwhelming ("last stand" sized) force. It's rare to meet an AI general with a couple of stars or more that doesn't have some nasty retreating based vice.