Combat when you turn off Shattered Retreat is TERRIBLE

[Sirrobert1]

Am I the only person who doesn't mind Shattered Retreats when I'm *winning* the battles (but hate them when I'm losing them)? You beat the enemy stack, they run away, you siege holdings and like a beaten dog the (much smaller) stack comes right back to your army to destroy.

No, it's when I lose a battle and can't a) reengage immediately or b) disband them is when I get annoyed.

But Shattered Retreat saves your army when you lost the battle. Without it, your army would be permanently stuck on 0 morale and you can't re engage.

 

[Rags17]

IMHO shattered retreat is a great mechanic. IRL the army is broken up and running away, but in at least some sort of semi-cohesive state, ie at least they are all running in the same direction. If you can catch them, say with faster units then you can kill them, otherwise they run far enough away to reform and come back, maybe with reinforcements or more allies.

WAI.

In my current campaign as Duke of Lombardy I was sieging Brescia (sp?) and kept a small force in the Brenner pass to warn me of any armies approaching from the north. The enemy duly showed up and kicked its ass, it then decided to run away THROUGH the pass to join me in Brescia. That seemed so realistic to me !