There have been several times when it gets very frustrating that my combat units continue to attack enemies simply because they’re there. Even when they have less then half their health and over half the other units are sleeping, they continue to attack anything they know about. This is annoying and deadly. You should be able to tell combat units to stop attacking a unit.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
+1
Some sort of ‘passive mode’ is definitely needed, or just an update to the move command so it functions as a way to make them retreat - i.e they’ll break out of combat and move to that position without hesitation and trying to kill the enemy first. I’ve watched a few guards get knocked down to low health and then just stand there taking the killing blow.
Combat is coming along nicely but it still needs these elements.
Using the move command does make them go to the specified place immediately, the problem is once they get there they go right back to the enemy 
Agree, we need a passive setting. Perhaps like the old Stronghold options “aggressive”, “defensive” and “stationary” when the last one is selected, they won’t attack unless they are standing right in front of the enemy.
I agree with you but i don’t think we would need aggressive, defensive and stationary to fix the problem i think that all that is needed is a button that when pressed the unit will run away and stay out of combat until commanded otherwise.
Yeah, maybe something like a “don’t fight right now” option, or I was even thinking a way to select specific enemies and have them “forget” or “ignore” them, so that they can still fight other enemies, perhaps, just not those ones. That might come in handy when there’s a monster you don’t think your current hearthling army can handle and you’d rather just leave it alone
+1
To perhaps take this half a step further, being able to keep combat units within a town would be nice… I have run into quite a few instances of soldiers running outside perfectly defensible walls only to throw themselves into a pack of archers for no reason.
+1 Yes a clear target list button please 
or a “fight only in this area” region
Oh that’s how you directly quote a post…
Clear target is definitely what I was looking for. A “fight only in this area” sort of thing might be really helpful as well when it comes to archers! I can never get them to easily fight from the parapets. With a fight area, I could keep the archers from leaving the walls and the footmen/knights from going so far from the wall to where the archers couldn’t help out 
I don’t think we need a forget target option, the move command should work for that. At the moment, I’m pretty sure all combat units are always aggressive which would explain the behaviors you’re seeing. There’s a note in the code about passive stance being bugged - I’m guessing it has to do with combat units wandering off in previous builds. So their temporary measure was make everyone in a party aggresive; not ideal, but hey it’s better than wandering guys.
Our soldiers are here to defend their town. I don’t want them running away because they’re sore and have villagers die. They stand and fight and die or I’ll leave them on an island to starve. 
When the passive option is fixed, you’ll be able to command move your unit away from the fight and they won’t engage beyond 60-some blocks of their field of vision. Right now though, even if you try to move them there’s a good chance they’ll turn around as the move action isn’t passive, it’s aggressive.
If your combat unit is in a party, and the attack standard is still on the ground, even if you move a dying unit far away they’ll return to that flag as it’s the party component driving that behavior.
Basically, everything you guys want the game can do. One piece is broken and frustrating - passive/aggressive, the other needs intervention on your part - party/move and/or remove dying unit from party and hide in town.
@sdee or @linda Are my assumptions correct? I think we could use a reminder on how party mechanics and the attack/move/defend banners function 
If I’m out to lunch, feel free to call me on it! .
They will keep coming back, even with no party banners set. That’s the issue.
That’s where I’m assuming it’s because their default stance is now aggressive. It’s a bug, one of those intended bugs to fix a worse bug. Not good but ehh…
I was hoping if I removed a guy from a party they’d stay put but that isn’t the case.
I see what you’re getting at, and you’re probably closer to an actual solution than adding in an additional command. Though personally, this isn’t my personal highest priority for AI fixes.
That said, I would still like the ability to keep my hearthlings inside the walls, whether through outlining patrols, setting some kind of active/passive or aggressive/defensive toggle, which I do believe requires some additional command rather than a change to the existing code.
I see your point, and would really just appreciate any fix to this issue. I assumed that the party commands were were working fine and that moving a unit far away from an enemy wasn’t supposed to make him retreat, but if it’s just a buggy fix to combat, that’s understandable. Just a little frustrating at the moment
I found that to be quite frustrating too, so untill they make a “forget” command, what you can do, what I do is move my units into a defended area (walls, castle,…), and then uncheck the ‘Job’ button in the villagers menu for the wounded units. All they can do then is Haul, they won’t fight and will stay in the defended area, which should be very effective for healing if a herbalist and beds are included
Passive has been broken for so long, I’m not sure what it was supposed to do anymore. That’s a question for @Ponder!
I’m pretty sure this used to work. Sounds like it’s broken again! Apologies
Edit: Using the move command does clear the last target that hearthling had. So try that!
so polite and formal 
but i agree it is annoying especially when you know they are going to perish and they are high level!
YES! I Agree!
I have my soldiers on patrol mode right now to keep them inside my mines since they both have only 1 hp left and there`s a giant golem outside that they go and fight anytime I change the setting to anything else.
So with the patrol setting they dont go outside, but problem is they wont sleep or eat or do anything to revive themselves (Despite beds and food being all around them). So my whole town is just cowering in the mines waiting for the golem to go away.
If my soldiers could at least revive I could think about going back out to fight, but as it is I`m stuck.
Do you mean you have them defending inside? If so they should still sleep. My town only has 1 way in it now and I just keep my soldiers defending that spot but they still go eat and sleep as needed. I’m guessing the town alert is on if the other herthlings are cowering, which may not allow anyone to eat/sleep, nor will the herbalist will heal them when they sleep, and doesn’t sound like you have a cleric. It does sound like quite the pickle.