Surrender

Surrender is act of a hero during combat, where he pays the enemy hero an amount of gold in order to let him keep his artifacts and let his troops a safe passage. Surrendering cannot be prevented, if the hero has enough gold. A hero may surrender at any point during battle if it is the hero's turn to act, or before combat during his Tactics Phase if such a phase occurs. However, a hero can only surrender to another hero, which means that he cannot surrender to a group of wandering creatures. A hero cannot surrender when defending a siege (even defending a Stronghold with an Escape Tunnel which allows to retreat but not to surrender), or when at least one of the battling heroes wields Shackles of War.

The surrendered hero will appear in tavern immediately or at beginning of the next day. This happens also in the case where a hero surrenders after the player's seventh day of the week has passed, meaning that instead of having two new hero recruits, the other one is the hero surrendered in the past day.

The amount of gold needed for surrendering is (by default) half the hiring price of the (remaining) creatures; magical resource cost is not included. If the hero does not have enough gold to pay for his (remaining) army, he cannot surrender. The amount of gold needed to surrender can be decreased with Diplomacy secondary skill and with artifacts. Diplomacy reduces the cost by 20%, 40% or 60%, and artifacts Ambassador's Sash, Diplomat's Ring and Statesman's Medal each reduces the cost by 10%.

Hit and Run ban

In Horn of the Abyss : in two-hero combat, the attacker is forbidden to surrender in the first round of combat after casting a spell. The Diplomat's Cloak allows a hero to ignore this ban for surrender only.

User commentary

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Surrender may be a good tactical move so as to move a hero briefly to a town close to a major battle or something else important, or simply to a safe place, if you don't have Town Portal spell. It works on its best with Tactics skill or if you have a right of first turn, and only if your hero has a right to lose (i.e. it's useless in most campaigns as the head character should be invincible, otherwise the game is lost).

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