A basic question for everyone:
Is it considered "unethical" to withdraw all of one's units from the map in the face of certain defeat in order to preserve a hard fought draw, well into the game?
I recently did this against an excellent Colonial opponent at Bladensburg variant D, playing through 24 of 36 turns.
To set the stage for this example, I had a force of 3859 men, two guns and two rockets already on map...no reinforcements for me. The Colonials had 5540 men, 19 guns, plus two regiments of reinforcements coming on later. More importantly IMO is that the Colonials had probably 3 to 4 times as many actual units than I had, with a long road full of steadily advancing units being fed into the battle.
I started out aggressively enough to hurt some Colonial cavalry and other units to gain a draw in a game that started out as a minor Brit defeat. As more and more Colonial units kept joining the fray, I found myself having to back up a hill just to maintain equal losses and some space. As more and more blues mixed in, I had to go on the defensive just to maintain a backpeddling and weakened line. About turn 20 or so the game was still a draw but I was now being pushed toward a map edge, and Colonial units were starting to surround my position. At this stage I knew for sure that to hang around and exchange fire would only get my whole force isolated and eventually annihilated, so since I had to do a lot of walking backwards anyway, I walked my units (some ran) toward the map edge intending to cut my losses and preserve the draw, which was <u>barely</u> a draw by this time. Each turn I exited what units I could as the Colonials pressed in and tightened the noose. I did exit the last British unit and the game ended as a draw on turn 24.
I'm as competitive as the next guy, but I do not see any merit in handing over a free win just on principal of dieing to the last man. Had I really been in command of an army in that situation, I'd have left the field even earlier hoping to "rise again" as you Colonials are fond of saying
So I guess the point is do we play as armies fought historically (note the many many orderly American withdrawals in the ARW) or do we stick to some sense of ethic which says that one should go down to the last man when facing total rout, elimination, and a certain loss on the record books?
My esteemed and quite skillful opponent BTW was Mark Collino who in no way complained about my withdrawal, but did razz me a little to which I took absolutely no offense at all
To state my position, I truly feel that all's fair in love and cyber-war. If someone wants to try to snag a VP hex on the last turn playing against me, he'll find capable and fresh troops defending it. If he wants to attempt to capture my leaders or supplies with rogue cavalry units that's fine. All the more points for me because I don't leave those units in harm's way or unattended out in the open. I don't employ such tactics myself, but don't mind at all if others practice unsound tactics
. Relatedly, I don't make a practice of withrawing, in fact this is the first time I've purposely done it as far as I know, in nearly 70 club matches. But in this particular situation it surely warranted it in my opinion.
I've seen discussions about this in other clubs degenerate into bickering and flaming and that's not what I'm after. I would be greatful for anyone's opinion on the matter though.
Edited by - Phil Natta on 08/23/2001 21:05:56
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