Damaged Helos and retreating

[RetLT]

I have noticed that most of the time when a helo is damaged it starts the next turn as Retreating and tries to leave the board.

Sometimes if its suppression is increased (and it successfully rallies) it remains under player control.

Rarely I have had cases where the helo gets damaged but starts the next turn still under player control and then retreats 1-2 turns later.

Is there any rhyme or reason to why this happens or is it a morale/die roll issue?

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

Now Don or someone else might call a "foul" here but I just had this situation. In a campaign battle I just finished a day ago, playing the French I have two Tigre HAD helos "A" & "B" from the beginning.

After several battles...
"A" comes into the game with about 3 or 4 kills. Not so much low Morale as low Experience. During the course of the battle evading incoming at a lower rate, was suppressed easier and after it took a second hit and taking damage with no points assigned, I lost control of it and the crew left the map.

"B" 13 kills and is a veteran unit. Under attack evaded more often, didn't have to rally it but a couple of times. took hits as described above for "A" and stayed in the fight. It wasn't until it took a hit with a 8 point damage deduction that the crew took it back to the base. Which I would've "ordered" myself in that case. They had gotten some kills and I believe were raised to elite status at the end of the game.

So for me it's about getting units their Experience built up because their Morale will fall in line. And yes I'm sure there is some "calculation" involved here as well.

A word of caution about ELITE units, depending on the situation, I have to keep an eye on them more often than a less experienced unit which will at some point retreat. Elite units tend to stay and fight, not always a good choice. AI units will do the same as well it seems in the way I set my campaigns up.

So one more time, this is based upon my observations.

Regards,
Pat

[DRG]

This is normal game behaviour. Damaged Aircraft don't come back for another pass and helos head for home but with helos, as Pat noted, experience plays a role and "elite" units may stick around a bit longer

Don

[Mobhack]

And sometimes if the helo has passengers loaded, it sticks round a turn in order to allow the player to offload them. Not always, depends on experience morale etc.

But if you get a damaged chopper which stays on map - check if he has pax, and if so get them on the ground right then, otherwise the chopper is highly likely to retreat off map carrying them with it.