I had this game on a CD years back. Now a week ago I bought it again over GOG. I never remember the enemy retreating so many times!!!

They either attack me and once they feel like they had enough they run away or simply engage me. Use their first attack to do a lightning strike, kill maybe 20 creatures in that strike and then run.

Is this an AI tweak or something?!
They almost never ran from me when I played the game back in the day.
It's frustrating and stupid to be honest. I basically need to search for the leg chains in order to make the combat meaningful.

Iirc, on easier difficulties (easy, and maybe normal) the AI will tend to fight out even losing battles.

However, on the harder difficulties (hard and up, maybe normal) the AI hero will try to escape hopeless battles if the hero has any artifacts; they tend to try to deal casualties to your army and escape once defeat becomes imminent (they have varying success in calculating a good time to run away, sometimes waiting a little too long). This makes sense, in that they can rehire the hero and keep all the artifacts if they don't fight to the death. A hero without any artifacts will tend to fight to the death.

Even if the enemy retreats, combat is still meaningful. They lose the same number of creatures whether the creatures are killed in combat or lost in the retreat, even if you don't get experience for the creatures that are lost to the retreat.

If you have the Shackles of War artifact equipped there is no escaping.

Use Blind on the larger stacks while dealing with the rest of the army. The more troops of the AI still alive the less likely it is to survive.

Note that if the enemy Hero has skills like Ballistics and First Aid, he may escape when it's the ballista's or first aid tent's turn.

As long as the enemy doesn't get a turn he can't escape.

Except that this sort of behaviour never happened when the HO3MM first appeared and from what I remember playing the DRM free version with the CD some 5 years ago. They never hit and run.

I always play on Normal difficulty and they never fight to the death. Here they fight like cowards. IDK just strange to me. I mean I can try to play it on the easiest difficulty to see if they stick around and fight. Yes they technically lose the creatures. But still you dont get exp or loot. Idk I feel very empty fighting them like this. I never retreat, that option is very convenient. I stick it out , even if it means I lose my hero :D Yeah I remember the Shackles of War artifact however I dont remember ever needing them in the "original CD version that I had from very long ago". I always thought that that artifact was more meta in online plays where humans tend to be more "cowardly" or wanting to save their hero. The AI behaviour just seems strange to me and new. They almost never hit and run before.

Having to resort to blind and or shackles seems like a solution but really the whole AI behaviour sucks out the fun and thrill of fighting. At least for me :(

Well, I've played HoMM so long that every improvement on the AI is a plus for me, so I really like it that they try to get away.
Much better than the original HoMM where enemies would routinely suicide by casting Storm...

It has been so very long since I've played the CD version that I don't recall whether the behavior was ever different. You still get the EXP for everything you manage to kill in the battle. The loot is precisely what they are trying to keep you from acquiring, preferring that they get to keep using it.

When they take off on me, I'm more annoyed about not getting the artifacts to add to my collection than anything else. I'll frequently reload the battle if I think I can manage to finish them off; consider doing so a challenge. O.o Well, you do you, I guess?
I hate losing a hero that I've been leveling up, so I'll inflict what damage I can and run away to fight again another day.

Guys dont get me wrong! I love this game and the 3rd one in particular! My thread was more of a question to you veterans who play this game longer and more consistently than I do. If this is a new modified AI behaviour.

Like I said the old old CD version never had this guerilla tactic. It caught me by surprise.

Maybe I should up the difficulty in hopes that they will attack me with stronger armies and be more falsely assured that they will win.

Also the fact that even if you manage to kill the hero before they escape. It happens on their turn so they auto buy him back in the tavern. xDDD

Still love this game. :)

AI retreats have been a thing for as long as I can remember. I used to play on the CD version many years ago, but I've been playing the GOG version for several years. It isn't a matter of them being more confident by having larger armies, it is that they start losing. If you want to win by killing all enemy creatures, you're going to have to really control the battle when the AI gets close to losing.

Or just fight with too little power and so lose the battle yourself. The AI will happily stick it out if you're the one that is going to lose. ;) The AI has the same hero buy back rules that you have. They can't buy the hero back if the hero loses all creatures in the battle; they can buy the hero back if the hero retreated (or surrendered) and the week hasn't changed yet.