How To Manage Crippled Fighters

[Anan]

If one of my fighters is so low on health that he can't survive being attacked, should he flee or continue attacking?

[Aleonymous]

Well, this depends on many things. For example, if it's a tanky-breaky unit, it must surely stand and fight. If it's a damage dealer, it might be worth using him as a meat-shield, so it's stand-and-fight. If it's a support unit (e.g. a Mender), it must surely escape to safety.

[Anan]

I'd be interested in your reasoning. Factors I'm thinking about are:
1. If he runs away when he has one HP left, he's going to eat up a turn that I could be using for one of my men that can still do some damage
2. If I let him die fighting, he'll have to undergo a rest cure which will slow the group down.

[Aleonymous]

Exactly. Thankfully, you're likely to have more units on your Party and your Roster, to mitigate both issues: cope with turn-disadvantage (if you keep the maimed unit alive) or with injuries (if you let him die fighting).

In one of my "nightmare" Saga1 playthroughs, I was playing on Hard, taking all battles with a 6-unit Party and trying to win with zero KOs (and avoid save-scumming, of course). It was quite difficulty, actually. I think I had a couple of KOs in 2-3 fights, in overall.