Just thought of something.
This could be aboozed by defenders I think. They could do a tactical retreat in almost the beginning and then escape an attacker, making taking over a fief very hard since the flag is in the defender spawn..
EDIT: As I was writing here, I also thought it could be aboozed by the attacking side too. Let's say a big army comes and you send out a small, but well equipped army to delay them (so reinforcements can be sent). You could then attack them and lock them down for 2h hours, retreat in the beginning, then reattack again. Do this until you fail a retreat. This could delay an attack for days.
Not sure how to quite fix these issues, but what about these suggestions:
"Retreat Time":- If you successfully retreat, you get a small speed bonus on the map, but can't attack in 24 hours. Can still be attacked by others.
- If you are attacked in the 24 hour "Retreat Time", you can't do another tactical retreat.
- Possibly: Quick March is be disabled.
Defending in the Field.- After a successful retreat, you lose your goods, but not necessarily your equipment. Makes it so you have to choose between retreat and keep your troops, or fight and die to weaken the guys who takes the goods.
- The time used to get the flag up takes slightly longer than it normally would.
Defending a Fief:- A tactical retreat from a fief should be that you abandon your fief and run away, leaving it to the enemy. You're pretty much just taking your soldiers and legging it. Not a sally out, but a "try to break out" action.
- When defending a fief, the flag spawns somewhere else than the defender spawn. Most probably it should be at one of the ends of the map (defenders should know where, so they can plan for it).
- If you retreat from a village defense, you only take with you the troops and part of the equipment (50% of the equipment, or 1 weapon and 1 of each body armour for each troop, whatever is balanced).
- You lose the fief. The population, the gold and the remaining/most of the equipment is abandoned in the village for the attackers.
Attacking a fief:- Successfully retreating let's you keep all your troops, equipment, gold and goods.
- Shortest time to get the flag up. It's a siege and you got camps around it. You are prepared to attack in waves, so falling back to the camps should be a natural and planned thing.
- Retreating here does NOT give "Retreat Time". You are still supposed to be laying siege, keeping the town/castle/village in check. Retreating in a siege is more a "reorganize for another attack" and not a "reorganize and run away".
Attacking on the field:- After you retreat, you gain "Retreat Time" but without the speed buff. Unless there's a significant movement difference from horses or army size, the defenders should be able to reattack you if they want to. Hit and run Cavalry armies could still be sent out to hit invaders, do some damage, then retreat back again. Same with light/skirmisher armies. Would still stop them from chain-delaying an invader, because of the "Retreat Time" disabling doing a second retreat.*
- You lose nothing, except a small amount of your goods. No equipment or troop loss, by default.
While Raiding:Retreating is disabled while raiding. Raids should be all out attacks for attackers and a surprise attack for the defenders. The Surrender option should still be available ofc.
*While they could have 2 armies doing hit and run tactics on an invader, that would take lots of organizing, micromanaging, logistics and resources. Being able to do that should not be penalized, but applauded.