[ColdSteel]

Talenn,

I see the point. After thinking about it some more I think that we have to consider the 30 turns a "tactical combat round". In between these combat rounds, weaker ships that survive the initial round have a chance to flee if they desire. So, in SE4 retreat actually occurs but it occurs outside of tactical combat altogether and between the "rounds". I think this is one of those cases where the SE4 combat and the MOO combat, though sharing many similarities, also have some profound differences that aren't apparant until you play it a while. I'm having to restructure how I think about it for SE4.

I think this is where a decent (thick) manual that at least outlines this kind of stuff would have been helpful for those just learning the game. Let's hope someone, somewhere puts something like that together.