If I remember correctly, you don't play on Champion difficulty. That's why it rarely works...
The topic is strange again... Tactical retreat is tactical retreat. The whole point is that it's tactical. I never retreat (it's easier for me to reload) because the army is lost, but sometimes I have to pay to avoid a fight. And I haven't retreated against a human player either, because we both usually approach the final battle quite prepared, and the battle is a competition of strategies.
Champion and Magister are essentially the same, and there's nothing to do on Magister on online maps; it's just about crushing the AI.
