Retreat Question

[siRkid]

Why did my forces (British) retreat into enemy territory when they could have just as easily retreated to a safe province? I also take it you can not load on to ship unless you have a friendly port. Is that correct?

[spec10]

You're right about the ships. About the retreat issue ...

Retreat – Units attempt to retreat to an adjacent province, though they cannot
retreat into a province containing un-garrisoned enemy troops. Attacking units
prefer to retreat into the province from which they moved into the battle, if possible,
otherwise all units prefer to retreat into a province controlled by its own nation. Units
also prefer to retreat in the direction of their capital (or, if allied, in the direction of
the capital of the nation whose units first entered the battle). Retreating units are not
available as reinforcements for the remainder of the turn

According to those rules my guess would be that you attacked Picardy from Normandy and therefore the "units prefer to retreat to where they attacked from" rule comes to play, because your Capital is not closer to Normandy and I don't see ungarrissoned enemy troops that block your path.

[siRkid]

I attacked from Flanders and had spent one turn beseiging. The French came in from the West.

[spec10]

Somehow I knew there was no way you didn't see the rules I quoted from the manual, so it had to be something awkward like that, but still, I had to try ...

[siRkid]

Rulre? Who reads the rules?[;)]

[ericbabe]

The retreat algorithm is fairly complicated -- units prefer to retreat into friendly territory, territory that is in-supply, territory that is closer to the capital, and so forth.  When two provinces are equally preferred by these criteria, then they are selected pseudo-randomly.  Flanders and Normandy are both enemy territory, both in-supply, and both the same distance from your capital, therefore they're probably equally preferred by the retreat algorithm.