Another NewBee question

[EvilDog]

Gentlemen:

I am doing a bit of practice for an upcoming PBW game where I will try to invade a planet. I am a newbee – so – I decided to practice against the computer.

First practice run. I tried to capture the computer planet with to few marines. My ground forces were defeated. I gave the remaining fleet retreat orders. Apparently the captains decided to stick and I eventually lost them when computer reinforcements arrived.

The second practice run – I changed my cruiser design to counter the computer defenses and that worked well. But I lost my troop transport when it decided to mix it up with the enemy. I believe that this was a design flaw with the troop transport because I put some PDC’s on the transport for protection. My mail fleet decided to go after an unarmed transport after taking out planetary defenses. My transport then decided to mix it up against the computer satellite group while my main fleet chased down that transport. My main fleet defeated that transport while my troop transport was lost while battling that satellit group. This left me with more than a few warships at the end of the battle. I again gave retreat orders, but those independent minded fleet captains again decided to disobey. This time pummeling the planet to death. I really wanted to capture the planet with its population intact.

It is a given that strategic behavior is different from tactical combat. So here is the question…. Is this normal for ships to ignore orders after a failed planetary capture? What needs to be done to make my fleets move to a save spot or warp point after a failed planetary attack?

Thanks.