I found myself sandwiched between two Harmony races in my first game after the Arigia patch. Both Harmony races declared war on me and both are Yellow Belly Chickens ... I can't kill them because they retreat during the first round of battle. I can do their fleets some damage ... maybe even destroy one of the ships. The same fleet is back the next turn where upon it flees again, and again, and again. I'm playing in a medium universe, Hard, with 8 alien races. Don't know if that makes a difference. One of my defending fleets is 12/12 with a respectable hero. The other is 12/12 and no admiral. The HP's for my fleets are about 5000+ and the Harmony fleets are typically 3500+ ...



It was turn 65 and both of my fleets are pinned down successfully defending the homeland. But I can't advance. Dust is tight. I eventually quit after 20 rounds of repetition and started a fresh game.



The question? Is this typical of Harmony behavior now?



BTW - earlier in the same game, the United Empire declared war on me at turn 25 and at least had the decency to die with honor

This is typical AI-Behaviour, not specific to the Harmony. And since I'm very annoyed by the same thing I made a mod that disables retreating:

/#/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/16185-minimod-no-retreat