i had a battle in the center of the map where there were empty spaces around the Battle tile during battle he force one of my units to retreat from battle so i retreated into an unocupied City claiming the city for myself . I lost the Battle but Gained a City . He He He . Is this Legit?

Assuming you had no friendly areas adjancent to the battle area, yes.

If you have a friendly area adjacent, the rules on page 22 say that you MUST retreat to a friendly area. You can only retreat to an empty area (a city does not make an area non-empty) if there are no friendly areas to retreat to.

Wiked thank you very much for your help such a great game and soo eager to tweek it