This situation came up in a game recently.

My buddy is playing the Shadow, I am the Free Peoples. He attacks Osgiliath and hits nothing, I hit nothing. So he decides not to attack anymore.

I want to retreat my two Gondor regulars to Minas Tirith, but he says I can't because it appears as though the rules only allow the defender to retreat if the attacker decides to continue the battle. His strategy here is to force me to leave two regulars exposed for an easier kill, or force me to use an Army die to move them to the stronghold.

Clever, but is his interpretation of this correct?

Thanks

Captain Treacherous said:

Sounds about right, except for the easier to kill part, Osgiliath doesn't stop being a Fortification, so it's still 6+ to hit.

Dam said:

Yes, I understand. But it makes it a stiffer fight if the two regulars are able to retreat to Minas Tirith bumping up the number of units there to last out a siege.

Captain Treacherous said:

Well, his attack did activate and drop Gondor down 1 notch, if he attacks Osgiliath again, saves you the trouble of using a Muster to put Gondor at War, which can then use to add an Elite in MT. And MT starts with 1 Elite + 3 Regulars, so adding 2 Regs means you put 1 back in the pool when/if MT is sieged, as you're maxed at 5.