Re: Why does this fleet retreat?
 

It's just the uppermost ship on the list, i.e. the ship first added to the task force. If it is destroyed, then the formation leader becomes the next on the list. So perhaps in the previous battle he lost his last 'leader' ship, making the no-weapon ship take over. At any rate, in this case he can just remove that ship from the task force.

*edited*

Re: Why does this fleet retreat?
 

I posted about this before, but there is no way to specify the leader of a fleet or task force. This is one of the negative consequences of not being able to do that.

Re: Why does this fleet retreat?
 

I have tried removing and then adding a ship to a task force. When I do it the ships are listed alphabetically. How are you moving a ship to the bottom just by removing it? Is there another option in Empire Settings I am not selecting or need unselected? Ok I just doubled checked it again to make sure I wasn't nuts. If I remove a ship then add it back in it is set in the list alphabetically. Unless you change the name of the ship so it will be sorted first there is no way to set the leader.

StarJack: Go into your fleet and make sure the ships aren't set as "Core". If they are and the lead ship runs the others will run too. I think your lead ship has a problem in supplies/ammo/somewhere. Another trick to try is set your strategy in Empire options to break formation. If all else fails try that then see if all your ships run. If they are breaking formation then running there is another problem. If that is the case you will need to upload the save so I can look at it.

Re: Why does this fleet retreat?
 

Oops apologies for repeating you Slick. You are correct, unless you manually change the name you can not set leader. For example I have a fleet of four ships:

Crappy 0001
Crappy 0002
Crappy 0003
Crappy 0004

I want Crappy 0003 to be leader so I will have to select "Rename" then set it as something so it will be sorted first; such as aCrappy 0003. When i am done Crappy 0003 will be the leader and my fleet will list like this:

aCrappy 0003
Crappy 0001
Crappy 0002
Crappy 0004

Re: Why does this fleet retreat?
 

At best that is a workaround. This needs to be fixed. Additionally, when another order (Join Fleet, which is currently also broken and not working) is fixed, this issue will raise its head again. BTW, I am not criticizing your workaround, it does at least work until the leader is killed.

Re: Why does this fleet retreat?
 

Hmm, take a look at the screenshot I attached. That doesn't look alphabetically sorted..?

Re: Why does this fleet retreat?
 

Is there any positive proof that the first ship listed acts as the "Leader" ???

Re: Why does this fleet retreat?
 

No, I'm pretty sure its just the first ship added to the fleet/task force.

Break Formation commands should take care of the issue, though.

Re: Why does this fleet retreat?
 

So how did you do it? I certainly can't get that to happen. What mod are you playing? I will try looking into the files to see if it is set somewhere.

I can pull ships out and place them back all day long and it will always sort mine.

Edit: Raapys do me a favor and zip and attach your save game please.

Re: Why does this fleet retreat?
 

The attachment is in the first post, PES.