Retreat and elimination problem

[Michael T]

I have been playing the Tracktor works scenario and in it there are a large number of Russian's defending a factory that is surrounded by Germans. The factory is a large building and has a central hex that is not visible from any direction.

The problem for the defenders is the when the Germans fire a flamethrower from across the street and the defender becomes shaken they must retreat. But the game is eliminating them as they can't retreat. I am assuming this is because units that are shaken can't move toward an enemy unit.

At the risk of the designers ire could we change this rule so that units cannot retreat towards 'known to them' enemy units?

The existing situation is not fun.

[Michael T]

I just checked the rules and shaken units retreating should only be eliminated if they can't retreat to a hex that is not in a LOS to an enemy unit. So according to the rules the units in my example above should not have been eliminated at all. This means there is a bug or a LOS problem in that scenario. I will check tonight and post file/screenie showing the problem.

[Barthheart]

Could be a LOS problem. Try checking from the center hex out along all the hex spines.

Also is there anyone in the hex they are trying to retreat into? Just to make sure it would not violate stacking.....

[Michael T]

Yes a leader and a squad. But the units retreating were a squad and a half squad. So stacking should be ok. The hex that they retreat to is in the centre of a building. So LOS should be blocked but I will check it. It should also be no closer to any known unit and further from the flam firing dudes. Which I am pretty sure it is. More later.

[Michael T]

Ok I have figured out the problem here. According to the rules a WT = a 1/2 Sq. And you can stack 3 SQ or there equivalent.

But in the game I have a WT, a 1/2 Squad and one full Squad in a hex with a leader (so equal to 2 full SQ). I cannot move another Squad in to this hex. But according to the rules I should be able too.

So what is the correct stacking rule?

[Michael T]

Ok, to add to the confusion.

Here is a screenie of a melee. The hex held what I believe to be a Soviet HS. According to the editor it is.

The hex also held a German SQ and Leader. The Leader and Squad tried to withdraw. The leader failed and stayed. The squad succeeded and and withdrew. Now the game locked up because the leader was removed as he was on his own. But that left no targets for my 1/2 Sq. The game locked up at this point.

So this in itself is a bug.

But it adds to the confusion of stacking. Is the game seeing this HS as a full partisan squad for some reason? Why is the partisan ambush message coming up.

Regardless there are at least two bugs here.