Surrender

A hero may surrender (or retreat) to enemy heroes anytime it is his turn (players cannot surrender if they are defending in a siege or fighting an enemy hero wielding the Shackles of War). The surrendering player must pay the enemy hero (usually ridiculous amounts of) gold and will then reappear in the Tavern ready for immediate re-recruital, retaining all artifacts and armies at the time of surrender. Enemy players get no say in the matter (even if they'd rather fight to the death!).

The cost in Gold of surrendering depends on the surrendering hero's current armies (default cost is half the price of hiring the creatures, excluding any resource costs) and, if he possesses it, his level of Diplomacy. The opponent receives any gold paid.

With expert Diplomacy and all three diplomacy boosting artifacts, surrendering costs are reduced to 10%. This means that surrendering with an Archangel (costs 5000 gold and 3 gems to buy) is reduced to 250 gold (10% of 2500).

If he does not have enough Gold to save all his army he can either:

• keep on fighting to reduce the size of his army
• retreat to be sure he is not defeated