Is it possible to retreat from battle without conceding?

[HopAlongBunny]

What was it like in the later games (I haven't played them all)?

I actually generalize from a point of ignorance myself :) I haven't played any TW since M2TW; having to withdraw/lose skirmish battles against a superior foe always led to nasty V&V's for using a perfectly sound tactic.

[Gregoshi]

Why not just use general-less armies for these types of attacks? The impact from the "defeat" doesn't hurt the real generals in your clan. This obviously won't work if you are defending a castle, but otherwise...

[therother]

In real life, sometimes you would want to use hit and run skirmishes, say using just a horse archer/light calvary force, to slow down/inflict casualties on an invader. Would be useful to have "tactical withdrawal" button that leads your armies to execute a tactical withdrawal in good order (assuming none of your troops are engaged, routing or intercepted prior to leaving the battlefield) that allows you to use your remaining movement points in that turn, from the position of the battle.

Think I might add it to the suggestions list.

[Dead Guy]

There is still a button for ordering troops to withdraw though, right? In the bottom left? Sure, you'll still lose the battle, but I'm guessing you won't take the horrendous casualties you would if you pressed Esc and conceded defeat.

Still having movement on the campaign map would be sweet though. As it is they'd probably just be attacked during the end turn and forced to fight until routed, and destroyed.

[Monk]

There is still a button for ordering troops to withdraw though, right? In the bottom left? Sure, you'll still lose the battle, but I'm guessing you won't take the horrendous casualties you would if you pressed Esc and conceded defeat.

Still having movement on the campaign map would be sweet though. As it is they'd probably just be attacked during the end turn and forced to fight until routed, and destroyed.

Yes there's a withdrawal button, I've used it on occasion to save my general and a few elite troops when the battle started to go south.