Board Game Arena

Hello

I noticed today that you can use unresolved combat to block retreating, but I cannot find where it says this in the rules. Yes, the attacker can choose the order of combat, and you cannot retreat to where enemy ships are, but are they in the hex if combat has not occurred? Is this an exploit of the rules or just a clever way to block retreat? All you need is a few extra scouts attacking hopelessly behind them and you can block retreat? Even on their colonies and homeworld? Seems like your own colonies, which are never legal for your opponent to retreat to, should still be a legal retreat option, unless they are actually occupied.

Nice edge case, could you try a post on BGG (as it is not BGA specific but perhaps a rule exploit).
Btw, I have not the answer.

It is both IMO. Someone said on BGG that any ship in a hex blocks retreat. While an actual rule saying "Unresolved Combat blocks retreat" would be nice, RAW seems to allow it.

I don't see any ambiguity at all?

• Movement is a destinct phase separate from combat and happeninng before combat

• Rule 4.3 states that "Units must immediately stop all movement when entering a hex
  containing enemy units". So they are in the hex at the end of movement, which is before combat, and therefore block retreats into that hex.

Right, I had just never encountered anyone intentionally sending ships into battle they cannot win to block retreat. RAW you can send a single minesweeper at a Homeworld with a Base, and 20 ships, and that blocks retreat from adjacent hexes. I suppose it follows the designers rule about favoring attackers lol

And you can block an escaping fleet of 24 battleships with an MSP, a miner, or a dummy.

It does, however, provide a counter-balance to another problem with the 'retreat' rules. When you retreat, you can almost always escape in, more or less, any direction. The 'retreat' rules are definitely not the best part of this game design.

MarellDK wrote: ↑05 January 2023, 13:13 And you can block an escaping fleet of 24 battleships with an MSP, a miner, or a dummy.

It does, however, provide a counter-balance to another problem with the 'retreat' rules. When you retreat, you can almost always escape in, more or less, any direction. The 'retreat' rules are definitely not the best part of this game design.

I disagree, the retreat rules are great. They create a game of maneuver instead of two doomstacks smashing heads. Late game ships are fairly resilient. A lone DN, even without full upgrades can survive quite bit of fire if it can retreat when damaged.