The end was nigh

[Affentitten]

Had a weird thing happen to me yesterday. Had been playing the on-disc Operation Kalnikova Railway (know that's wrong, but I don't have it here at work). I think it's about 8 battles. Was playing the Reds versus German AI.

The 3rd last and 2nd last battles were pretty bloody and climactic, and towards the end of the second last I ran out of targets. I was spread pretty thin though and just assumed that there were more Germans hiding deeper in the forest.

The set-up at the start of the last battle seemed to confirm this. Typical jigsaw puzzle with several no-go zones between my scattered units and along the flanks and rear of the map.

But when I started the battle I noticed that the computer player wasn't "thinking" its move. That load bar just stayed up for a millisecond before the compile movie one did. I assumed that the AI had very few units left, and that perhaps it was even just a single gun that couldn't move.

Well, after 25 turns of running units around in the forest in huge skirmish lines and having mortar squads stand at attention in the open, I couldn't flush any Jerries out. Then at the end of the battle I was awarded a total victory. When I clicked back to the map there were no enemy units at all!.

Why wouldn't the operation just end on the 2nd last battle if I had destroyed all of the enemy units, there were no reinforcements scheduled and I had posession of all flags and about 80% of the map?

[Sublime]

Hmm that sounds odd... maybe they retreated off the map?

[Affentitten]

I doubt it. There was no firing whatsoever, so the AI troops couldn't have been panicked. But even if that were the case, why would the battle play out all the way to the end?