Ceasefire Discussion

[PoorOldSpike]

The following discussion took place last year in the Brits v 21Pz tourney thread; if anybody's got anything to add go ahead-
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POS- Does anybody know anything about the Ceasefire button?
It's one of those things I've never researched fully.
Does it freeze the existing points in place, or do you risk losing some by hitting the button?

DER KUENSTLER- Yes, ceasefire ends the game just as it is - the points are tallied as they are - so if you are winning and want to score more points for kills, then you don't want to ceasefire.
I have used ceasefire before with opponents when we are both out of options and the game keeps going on and on (variable ending) or one person is getting slaughtered and you want a chivalrous ending.
Both players have to agree to press their "ceasefire" button.

POS-But suppose the score in a game is reading 50-50, and some of the flags are neutral, then we hit Ceasefire.
Will the score REMAIN 50-50, or will the computer decide to give the flags to our opponent and the score changes to 40-60 in his favour?
ps - In other words, is the score GUARANTEED not to change when we hit Ceasefire?

LETO- No, it is an educated roll of the dice, as your own score is only the "perceived" score the computer gives from a calculation of what you know and what you don't.
Therefore, you could be winning a game by a score of 60-40 on YOUR viewscreen, hit ceasefire, and then find that two flags that you thought were yours had hidden enemy squads within 20 feet of it, making them go neutral, while the full effects of what you thought you had killed of the enemy troops was much less than you had anticipated, and the end game score after the CF comes up radically different (let's say 48 to 52) than what you had seen, and now you lose (draw).
You must remember that the score is reflected only by what you know, which is your own casualties, and flags that you can assuredly measure as uncontested by the enemy.

POS- Thanks mate that's what I suspected, hitting ceasefire can be risky especially if you think you're winning..:)
It therefore seems that whoever thinks he's winning should NEVER hit ceasefire in case his score drops, but the guy who's losing SHOULD hit ceasefire because he's got nothing to lose and can hope the computer boosts his final score.. :)
ps - So why is the ceasefire option in the game at all, what good is it?

LETO- Re read DK's excellent explanation of its usage above.

POS-Well if I read all that right, nobody (including me) is going to be daft enough to hit ceasefire if he thinks he's winning..:)

THE COIL- I've cease-fired when winning, when I knew I was way ahead. Beats playing 10 turns of "hunt down the remaining infantry squad". To clarify some of the above explanations, CF doesn't change the score, it freezes the score in place - but your perception of that score might be somewhat different than actual. But if you know there is no enemy near the flags and you're way up on kill points, there's no real danger in it...

POS- Yeah that's the best bet, the key phrase is "way ahead"..:)

THE COIL- Yup - if you're up 60-40 and the control of the flags is questionable, then it probably doesn't make sense to do it...Of course, if it's that close, it's usually still a pretty good fight

BLUEHAND- I look at ceasefire as an honor thing. even if I'm winning i'll hit it sometimes because I'm sure I'll win but I feel the other guy fought well, and, if he were the real general should logically just withdraw his remaining troops and call it a bad day. that and there have been several fights where I was being crushed and I just started backing troops out to see if I could successfully withdraw from a bad day with a few of my troops...
It seems better to me to let the other guy get partial credit for a battle than to encourage last minute waves of half dead troops trying to storm the flags.

THE COIL- That describes my basic battle plan in most games where I'm the attacker.

POS- Ah, but the 'last minute' is very uncertain in variable-ending games.
For example if you storm away on turn 20 of a 25+ game, it could still carry on another 5 turns..
I prefer to capture the objectives much earlier in the game rather than risk a last-ditch suicide charge..