[flying iguana]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Changing the rally hex helps.

To explain: I was playing a lot of Partisan vs. Nazi scenarios in which the battle side doesn't really apply; usually my partisans started off with the Nazi's surrounded. This meant that the default setting to retreat to their "own side" didn't make a whole lot of sense--in one scenario my routed troops tried to run straight into the Nazi-held town they were assaulting, which meant getting mowed down by the same hmg's they had been battling before they routed. I suppose I could imagine that they were trying to surrender (but what crazy Partisan would deliver himself over to a Nazi occupied town in Partisan controlled territory?). In any case, changing the rally hex works in these situations, although its a bit cumbersome.

I have played other wargames where routed units would refuse to go closer to the enemy, which seemed to make sense to me, although I can also see the point of a desperate run for one's own battle lines in cases of more conventional warfare. At the same time, apart from Partisan units, it also seems to me that surrendering was a much more common practice in WW2 than is reflected in this game, as evidenced by the many millions of POW's. Would it make sense to incorporate that?