When entering a region in which you have 5% or less Military Control (MC) your force automatically goes to Offensive Posture, unless they are cavalry, irregular (not digestive
), or support units Manual:Military_control, Section: Effects, Paragraph 5.
If your force enters a region with 5% or less MC, does its Rules of Engagement (RoE) change?
I'm not actually just talking about the color of the button pressed, but the actual meaning. The description of RoE is in the ACW Updates PDF:
In Assault or Offensive posture, the possible ROE are:
· All out attack: Your side will not try to retreat during the first two rounds of battle, then the retreat chance will be
decreased for the rest of the day. The losses of both sides are increased, but more for your side.
· Sustained Attack: This is the default behavior. No changes to the combat resolution segment are done.
· Conservative Attack: Your side will want to call-off the attack starting with the third round (unless the defender is
collapsing) and the chances to succeed in doing so are increased. Both sides have equally fewer losses.
· Feint/Probe Attack: Your side will want to call-off the attack starting with the second round (unless the defender is
collapsing) and the chances to succeed in doing so are greatly increased. Both sides have losses much reduced
In Defensive posture, the possible ROE are:
· Hold at all Cost: Your side will never willingly try to retreat (Routing is possible!)
· Defend: No changes to the standard rules.
· Defend and Retreat: Your side will want to retreat starting with the third round (unless the attack is failing) and the
chances to succeed in doing so are increased.
· Retreat if Engaged: Increased retreat chances including the retreat roll before actual combat.
This appears to mean that if I'm trying to pass through a region with enemy units in it and more than 5% enemy MC -- more than likely -- by setting my Posture and RoE to Defensive[blue] / Retreat if Engaged[green], when my force enters the region it will immediately convert to Offensive Posture and Feint/Probe RoE, which means that combat cannot be avoided.
The other question is if on the outside chance the RoE remains on Retreat if Engaged and the retreat is successful, will my force continue its move, or does the typical retreat algorithm fire and my force is moved to an adjacent region in Passive Posture[green] / Retreat if Engaged[green] RoE?
If the RoE does coincide with the Posture -- ie when automatically going to Offensive, the RoE goes to Feint/Probe Attack --, and my force does succeed in breaking off, will it continue it's move, or does the retreat algorithm kick in here too as above? Or does maybe a stalemate occur and my force is stuck in the region I'm trying to transition?
Obviously, if my force cannot break off from the Feint/Probe Attack, a normal engagement will occur with the normal results.