Retreating towards the enemy

[Hyde77]

In the multiplayer game i am currently playing in both myself and another player have experienced making a breakthrough and then being attacked and retreating towards the enemy to be encircled and destroyed even though there were open friendly squares to retreat into. Not sure if this is working as intended but doesn't seem to make logical sense. See below for example:

retreat.png (908.86 KiB) Viewed 1160 times

retreat1.png (974.7 KiB) Viewed 1160 times

[JeanleChauve]

Units need a friendly hex to retreat which was the case in the first combat, but not the second.

Unless I'm mistaken, it's the first unit to attack that dictates the direction of the retreat: it sends the defeated enemy to its opposite side.
In the case of the first image, the unit that attacked first was the southwestern stack. He might as well have started in the southeast, but his northeast units were much better at welcoming you properly.
Congratulate your opponent for this nice move and try to return the favor

[Hyde77]

Units need a friendly hex to retreat which was the case in the first combat, but not the second.

Unless I'm mistaken, it's the first unit to attack that dictates the direction of the retreat: it sends the defeated enemy to its opposite side.
In the case of the first image, the unit that attacked first was the southwestern stack. He might as well have started in the southeast, but his northeast units were much better at welcoming you properly.
Congratulate your opponent for this nice move and try to return the favor

Unfortunately no, i had a another instance of which i do not have picture of where i was attacked north and south, had two friendly hexes to retreat to in the West but instead retreated east towards the enemy and got encircled and destroyed. I don't know of any military doctrine that is in use which dictates that just because you are attacked from a direction you should retreat towards the enemy and therefore get annihilated when you are not cut off from your own lines and can retreat to safety. Makes zero logical sense to me. This is not a 'fun' game mechanic and not something i want to do to anyone else because it's completely illogical.

[Pymous]

I confirm this is a big issue.
We reproduced this kind of bad behaviour at least 4 times in our MP game

[JeanleChauve]

Unfortunately no, i had a another instance of which i do not have picture of where i was attacked north and south, had two friendly hexes to retreat to in the West but instead retreated east towards the enemy and got encircled and destroyed.

This does not contradict the rule I announced above and described in the manual at 5.10.15.1. Retreat could be east or west. It would surprise me if Vic gave weight to the enemy/friend side preference. You were just unlucky.

Retreats
Unless no retreat is possible, surviving Units of the losing side retreat.
Attackers go back to where they came from. Only defending Units that were stationed in the lost Hex will retreat to a different Hex.
The Hex they will choose to retreat to will be the one in the opposite direction of the angle of attack. So if a Unit is attacked from the north, it will retreat to the south.
A Unit can never retreat into a Hex that it could not move into with 100 AP.

The rule lacks clarity regarding attacks from multiple directions.

[zgrssd]

There is a limit of 16 units/hex.

If the hex is full or nearly full, they are not valid retreat positions. And those hexes nearby look awefully full of separate units.

[JeanleChauve]

There is a limit of 16 units/hex.

If the hex is full or nearly full, they are not valid retreat positions. And those hexes nearby look awefully full of separate units.

Well seen!

[Disturbance20]

There is a limit of 16 units/hex.

If the hex is full or nearly full, they are not valid retreat positions. And those hexes nearby look awefully full of separate units.

the hex was not full. I was the player

[zgrssd]

There is a limit of 16 units/hex.

If the hex is full or nearly full, they are not valid retreat positions. And those hexes nearby look awefully full of separate units.

the hex was not full. I was the player

How close or far from "being full" were those hexes?
How large was the force that was forced to retreat?