An army locked in battle cannot simply walk away, and should pay for retreating once
In turn-based war games the order to move out of a battle must mean something. Free exits make fighting pointless, while repeated retreat orders can bleed an army to nothing. This entry shows the rule that makes a retreat a decision and a mistake only once.
Why this works
A choice only matters if it costs something, and a cost only feels fair if it is charged once and can be seen coming. Letting the player change a plan for free but pay once to leave the fight keeps both the risk and the trust.
When not to use it
Leave it out of fast action games where fleeing is part of skillful movement, and of casual games where players are new to war. A fee for leaving punishes beginners hardest. Use a free retreat and make staying the reward instead.
In the full entry
- What to build, step by step
- Starting values and the reason for each
- 3 common mistakes and the fix
- A diagram of every state
- 26 lines of example code with 4 checks that pass
- How your AI shows you that it works
Say this to your AI
Use the Spielerando entry "An army locked in battle cannot simply walk away, and should pay for retreating once" (read_entry engaged-army-retreat-costs-once) in my game. Build it step by step, and show me how you checked that it works.Or skip this and connect the MCP: your AI then finds all of this by itself.Connect the MCP