Retreating from victory?

[Paule3000]

In 1.06 RC2 latest hotfix I had a force under Gen. Banks retreat from battle, still it was declared a union victory. Is this behavior intended? If so, what's the explanation for this?

[Captain_Orso]

See all those messages before the two you pointed out saying that the AoP is engaging the Confederates in Harper's Ferry? Actually, Johnston, being in OP is engaging the AoP, being in DP, which is escaping the engagement before a battle ensues until the one time that it is actually forced into battle. The AoP wins the battle, but the engine determines that the AoP still wants to escape, so it goes into retreat; that's how the AoP got into PP.

It's not actually that unusual that one side wins a battle and retreats anyway. The engine determines, with some chance involved, that that side wants to get away and puts that side into retreat. From my experience it has mostly to do with a disparity in the size of forces in the region and their status. The AoP, although it did win the battle, also took more casualties and cohesion hits with a force actually slightly smaller that Johnston's force. So the results are not all too surprising. At least the AoP got away from the battle without getting mauled in pursuit.

[Ebbingford]

Everything here points to a CSA victory in the battle though. The Confederates inflicted more hits and forced the enemy stack out of the region. To me that should equal a victory. How else is a victory defined other than casualties and ground taken.....

[plasticpanzers]

Retreating from victory is certainly a Mclellan trait!

[Paule3000]

Another point I don't get and that points me to some kind of engine malfunction ('bug') is, that normally, when there is a message saying one side succeeded in retreating from battle (as marked by the upper arrow), this is - or was - always followed by a battle message saying this side lost.

This is the first time I can remember when the game behaved differently.

Everything here points to a CSA victory in the battle though. The Confederates inflicted more hits and forced the enemy stack out of the region. To me that should equal a victory. How else is a victory defined other than casualties and ground taken.....

[Captain_Orso]

Banks was already in retreat when the battle took place. It's not the rule that a nearly equal sized force retreats, but it's withing the the possible odds. In this case, when Banks' luck ran out and Johnston forced him into battle, Banks drew the lucky straw and beat Johnston.

It's certainly not a common occurrence, but far from unheard of.

Once the battle was over, there was also a chance that Banks could have stopped and stood his ground. But again, it's only a chance, and in this case the game decided that he should retreat again, basically caused by Johnston's presence.

I don't see a bug here, just a chain of improbable, but not impossible, events.