Block AI Retreat

[methegrate]

Can someone school me on retreat mechanics?

It feels like every time I fight the AI, it never actually loses any ships. I'll take eight losses, it'll take one. I'll take 10 losses, it'll take zero. Etc. I win the fights (that is, I take or keep the system), but I keep losing wars due to sheer attrition... Fight after fight I win, but its fleet stays exactly the same while mine gets whittled down.

So... how does this work? How can I actually destroy the computer's ships? Thanks!!

 

[Terkhev]

Use big hard hitting weapons that don't give enemy chance to retreat. If war exchaustion is a problem then try boosting your retreat chance too: war doctrine + admiral traits.

 

[01d55]

Black holes reduce retreat chance in the whole system.

FTL inhibitors reduce enemy retreat chance, so defenders get a natural retreat advantage. There is a starbase upgrade which applies an additional retreat penalty to enemy ships.

Retreat chance is checked when the ship is low on hull, so large weapons that deal "chunky" damage will reduce the number of retreat checks enemies get. Different ship types get retreat chance modifiers, which mitigates but does not eliminate the natural advantage larger ships have in getting chances to retreat. Anecdotally, I've seen posts claiming that cruisers demonstrate an an unusually good retreat rate.