Engineer retreat and minefield disaster!

[JonS1]

But the player can chose to move (ie, 'order') his own units onto the minefield on his next turn, no?

Frankly, I think that most units left to their own devices (ie, in lieu of 'orders'), and forced into such a tactically disadvantageous position (ie, backed up against a minefield and attacked sufficiently heavily to be disrupted and forced to retreat) would surrender in droves (ie, the large losses people are seeing).

Moral of the story? Rather than blaming the game, don't let your units get into such awful tactical positions.