Hi guys, as stated in an earlier post, very new to this game. Excuse my ignorance, but can anyone tell me why at the beginning of a space battle you need to declare at this very early stage whether you are going to withdraw or retreat. cant quite see the logic behind it, but Im sure it's staring me int he face!

Thanks in anticipation fellas.

If your opponent could declare a retreat at the end of the battle, you would never get a chance to destroy your opponent's big ships. The defeated player would always retreat his remaining ships to safety.

Example: Both fleets are evenly matched. One player plays no action cards. The other player plays 5 action cards. At the end of the combat round, the defeated player has 2 damaged Dreads and 1 Carrier left. Of course he will retreat them.

But because you have to declare a retreat at the beginning of a combat round not at the end of the round, those ships will most likely be destroyed before they can retreat.

This is what the "Skilled Retreat" action card does. It allows the damaged fleet to escape at the begining of the round.

Thematic explanation: Fleet Commander A sees that his fleet stands about as much chance to survive as a paper cat being chased through hell by an asbestos dog and thus orders a retreat. Big ships are heavy and takes a long time to turn around. Also, it takes a lot if calculations to plog an escape course. During that time is the other Fleet Commander is sure as heck not gonna stop shooting. Enter the next combat round where said manouvres and calculations take place all the while the firing continues.

Thanks, so does that mean you can only retreat with the appropriate action card, or can you retreat without it.

Thanks.

There is a difference on whether you are the attacker or defender.

But generally, both players can retreat but it must be declared at the begining of the combat round and 1 round of fighting MUST occur is the essential rule to remember.

The action card "Skilled Retreat" essentially allows you to skip the fighting part. That is why this is such a valuable Action card.

This does get to be an involved subject if you want to know all the nuances of it.

For example….

1. Only Defending players can Retreat. Attacking players must do a Tactical Withdrawel, if I remember right.

If you look in the rules, you will see there is a slight difference between the two options.

But generally, most players just say they are retreating. Even thought that is not officially correct.

Something I wrote up a while ago to help some new players with resolving a space battle. Might help explain how withdraw/retreat works.

Something I should have mentioned in my previous post … the Tactical Retreat option is from the Shattered Empire expansion. If you're not playing with that expansion / option, disregard the defender's Tactical Retreat option.

Shadow said:

When we play (not us if this is "allowed" or not) we give the defender the option to declare a retreat. If the attacker is cool with it he/she will just let them leave, but if the attacker so desires a round of combat is initiated first. Think of it as waving a white flag as you see the enemy coming.

Another important thing to remember…

If you are playing with leaders, an Admiral can prevents retreats.

So, you say "I am retreating my fleet", the other player says, my Admiral says, "you are staying! "… so watch out for the fleets that has an Admiral in it….