shattered unit mechanic

[DeepBlack]

It has been ages since I played this game so
forgive me if my memory is fuzzy.

I formed a good opinion of the game overall.

The only notable peeve I had was the way units
would shatter and teleport through enemy controlled
hexes to reach safety. It just felt "fishy"
for lack of better way to describe it.

Did any of the later patches overhaul the way this
shatter mechanic worked?

[Light4bettor]

Yah, the latest patches (e.g., 1.12.06 beta and prior I think) address this (among other things). When you play now, you will notice that routed units retreat paths are much shorter and this will surrender if caught in a pocket.

[eskuche]

The IGOUGO nature of the game means that “surrounded” units aren’t guaranteed to be actually surrounded until your opponent had a turn to rebut your 3.5 days worth of turn time. Imagine a rifle division frozen in time watching German infantry plodding around setting up a perfect pocket. If a unit starts its turn isolated it will not teleport out, as would make sense.

[DeepBlack]

Ok. thanks for the replies. The fact the later patches
changed the way shattered units behave certainly
increases my desire to revisit playing it again.

I understand why it was done that way originally,
but it just felt like an inelegant
abstraction at odds with the rest of the game's design.

Glad to hear changes were made.

[Hanny]

ORIGINAL: DeepBlack

It has been ages since I played this game so
forgive me if my memory is fuzzy.

I formed a good opinion of the game overall.

The only notable peeve I had was the way units
would shatter and teleport through enemy controlled
hexes to reach safety. It just felt "fishy"
for lack of better way to describe it.

Did any of the later patches overhaul the way this
shatter mechanic worked?

Updated mechanics for shatter are here, pages 145 etc
https://btcloud.bt.com/web/app/share/vi ... 0c8bec211c

[Seminole]

Clarification, “shattered” means the unit has been destroyed and it is removed from the map when that occurs.

A “rout” is a displacement move that occurs under certain circumstances (TOE+morale< X, if memory serves).

When a unit is surrounded without an avenue of retreat, but did not start the turn isolated from supply, it will automatically rout and use the displacement move to relocate if forced to retreat.

This is when units noticeably warp around the map. As described above it’s a game mechanic to handle the turn based nature of the game.

If you want to force a unit to surrender you need to hold it in a pocket (isolated from supply) for one turn. If it is forced to retreat while isolated and has nowhere to go it will surrender.

Latest patches have changed how HQs displacement move from pockets, which should make them deadlier.