Dusk and the end of a battle

[Barritus]

There appears to be a bit of a contradiction in the rules regarding whether dusk brings a battle to an end.

On page 23, in Time of Day or Night, second last paragraph, it says:

If dusk occurs during a battle, fighting continues until no enemy can be seen...Once fighting ceases, both sides record their decision whether to continue the battle at dawn in their current position or retreat, then reveal it simultaneously. It ends if both sides retreat.

However, on page 43, in Victory & Defeat, first paragraph, it says:

If neither side has been defeated when a time limit is reached (or the battle has ended because one or both sides have chosen to retreat after nightfall), the game finishes at the end of the current bound.

In the first quote, both sides must retreat for the battle to end. But in the second quote, it only seems to take one army retreating to end the battle.

Is that how others read it?

While history would suggest that in most cases battles only occurred because both armies wanted to fight, and wouldn't occur if one or both sides wanted to avoid battle, may I suggest that, for DBMM, the battle should continue as long as at least one of the players wanted to continue.

[Orcoteuthis]

Looks like a contradiction, yes. Possibly not a very important one, since I don't believe I've ever seen a battle last till dusk.

As a general thing, I dislike rules of the kind "but you must play on". Chosing to retreat is effectively to concede - shouldn't the other player then graciously accept his victory?

[Barritus]

Looks like a contradiction, yes. Possibly not a very important one, since I don't believe I've ever seen a battle last till dusk.

Fair enough. The question was prompted by exactly this happening at a club game last Thursday.

As a general thing, I dislike rules of the kind "but you must play on". Chosing to retreat is effectively to concede - shouldn't the other player then graciously accept his victory?
[/quote]

I take your point. However, the problem is that if the game ends because one player chooses to retreat after dusk ends the fighting, the game is scored as unfinished. Thus a player might currently have a penalty points advantage, yet be in a tricky situation (say, broken one opposing command, but have all three own commands close to disheartening and badly deployed). He would thus be motivated to lock in the advantage he has, by retreating now.

Obviously, as you point out, these sorts of situations are vanishingly rare. But DBMM is the sort of game where all sorts of incredibly rare things happen quite regularly, thanks to the game system's chrome. This isn't intended as a criticism of the game - merely a reflection of the detail incorporated into the rules. Personally, I'd like to maximise the reward to players trying to be aggressive, by encouraging the page 23 version to be adopted.

[LawrenceG1]

p23 does not say "It ends if and only if both sides retreat." so I would be inclined to go with p 43.

If you do not want your opponent to sneak off under cover of darkness (which IMO is historically plausible), don't let him get out of sight.