I believe that if a combat system similiar to that found in Starships Unlimited was applied then retreat and all sorts of other nice options would become viable in SE.
For those that don't know about this game I believe you can download a shareware type demo or something like of it here.
http://www.apezone.com/
I certanly wouldn't recommend the rest of the game system as I enjoy the SE system there but for combat this would probably work. In addition the way they make combat experience give more complex combat manuevers instead of basic advantages etc works better in my mind as to what actual experience in a strategic or tactical situation would be.
Heh... of course such a suggestion would be aimed more at a SE5 than a solution for SE4.
[ 13 February 2002: Message edited by: Cyrien ]