Morale Issues

[narwan]

Were those units retreating or routed ON THE TURN YOU MOVED YOUR ARMOR IN, or did that happen on an earlier turn? Because only pinned or ready troops will return fire. And just like you rally your troops during your turn, so will the AI. So a unit which was retreating on one turn can easily be ready to take a few more shots the next turn.

The amount of suppression of those pinned and ready units determines how many shots they will have for opportunity fire and it affects the hit chance for those shots. It also affects the chance of those units taking a shot. If you move a big heavy tank close to them, they will notice it and they will realise that they have to either take it out or die (the units whose status is still retreating or routed will either crawl in a ditch and hope for the best or keep running away). All those other squads taking shots at an enemy unit which is trying to kill them from close range sounds realistic to me.

The amount of damage a squad has taken also affects the number of shots it will have for the 2nd till 4th weapon slot. So they'll be mostly just firing rifles.
Clearing out infantry IS tedious bussiness and not a job for tanks unless you're willing to risk the occassional brew up.

Something which is often forgotten is that many, if not most, casualties (including POW's) will be suffered by the loser AFTER he has lost the battle. The old Greeks however already figured out that small groups of men conducting a methodical and 'fighting' retreat after their army had been defeated had far less chance of being one of those 'post-battle' casualties. For one thing the winning troops, having already won the battle, had little interest in further skirmishes in which they could become a casualty themselves. Fleeing troops however, their backs turned to them, usually without weapons and armor, on their own, oblivious to their surroundings, now there was an easy target to still their hunger for blood on! So just running away is NOT the smartest thing to do. It'll most likely get you killed or captured. This is a known phenomenon and it means that when an army 'breaks', you should NOT expect all enemy troops to just run away. There will be enough of them around who'll remember their lesson and conduct a fighting retreat to maximise their own chance of getting back. In a way that's reflected in the game, by just the mechanism you described. If the 'winner' has to be careful while advancing more of the surviving losers are likely to get out.

Narwan