Withdrawal Order

[IrishArmenian]

That would be a great command. I could see drawing a strong enemy unit into my formation using a weaker unit and having the calvary come from both wings and flank them. Grate Idea.

[Encaitar]

A 'give ground' type order would be very useful. I would think there would have to be some limitations on it of course. Say the longer a unit has been 'giving ground', the more its morale starts to waver, making it very vulnerable to suddenly routing. So if you're going to have a unit make a fighting/orderly withdrawal, you want to make sure you get some support up there for it quick smart, and/or it's an elite unit. A unit giving ground would probably also be more vulnerable to charges, as it's not 'set', and its momentum and inclination is already somewhat backwards. As a unit giving ground is more focussed on minimising its own losses than anything else, I would think it would get a slight defence boost, whilst suffering a fair attack penalty.

I sort of see the order being used in two types of situations.
1. Where an individual unit has suffered significant losses, and is looking vulnerable. You bring up a full-strength reserve unit in its place, and have the weakened unit make an orderly withdrawal back behind the lines (as opposed to simply turning around and running off for a bit, copping high losses).
2. When you need to buy time for your troops to manouever, and the survival of that unit for as long as possible is more important than killing the enemy.

[Tamur]

Lateral shifting over short distances without the unit turning was in original STW.

Thanks Puzz, it's been a long time since I played Shogun so I had not remembered this.

Some great ideas here. I especially like Geoffrey's solution to the problem of skill in a give-ground maneuver. Penalising low-quality generals (and troops) would make it a high-risk maneuver with a possible nice payoff when executed correctly (e.g. in the situations Encaitar brought up).

sunsmountain brought up a definite possibility with the abuse of such a maneuver. I can only think of one case in which this could be a real benefit, though -- that is, if a defencive army is already backed into a corner and then does a give-ground maneuver which puts them to the edge of the playing field, and immediately after that a full withdrawal order is given and everyone takes one step over that lovely red line to safety.

On more open terrain I can't see it being an abuseable benefit. Then again I have a habit of not thinking long enough.

[sbroadbent]

In Barbarian Invasion you could fight night battles, but only if you were forced into it by the enemy, or your general had the nightfighting trait. One balancing point atleast for the Singleplayer campaign would be that the command could only be accessible if you have atleast one general who has the tactical retreat trait. It could also be linked to the general's command ability. If a unit tried this tactical retreat under a low command general they might get morale penalties which could turn the maneuver into a full fledged rout. Under a high command general though, your troops could get a morale boost.

[Vladimir]

It would be nice if regular, disciplined units could do this. Levy or peasant type troops seeing or performing this movement should experience a morale penalty similar to or the same as seeing another unit rout. Often times a move like this was misinterpreted by friend and foe alike as a rout/retreat.

[Husar]

Well, it sounds like a lot of new animations(moving backwards, fighting while moving backwards, blocking while moving backwards, fighting while moving forward, etc...) and apart from that, what keeps TW unit from following the retreating unit to the edge of the battlemap and rout them off the map considering they are still alive after such a distance? Also it's a potential new AI bug, so we may see our troops constantly fighting enemies on tactical retreat or such things.
I thought of it myself before, but it sounds like a lot of work and many possible bugs and very hard to balance. Maybe it's not worth bothering?

[sunsmountain]

A 'give ground' type order would be very useful.

Tell me about it, how do you think the battle at Cannae was won? Trying to recreate this battle in the RTW engine is only possible with some beefy morale troops and even then you'll suffer more casulaties than Hannibal did. He deployed his frontline troops similar to:

        xxx
    xxx     xxx
xxx             xxx

and let the front troops give ground. On the sides were pike units, hidden in the trees, ready to crush the Romans if they caught the bait. Which they did.