Question: Battle Extension

[Warmonger]

In a Finland advance, Soviet delay battle the original length was 28 turns. There were three objective clusters; the northern one separated and not defended, the middle and southern one were close together. The southernmost cluster was worth more points than either of the other two clusters. Call the clusters 1 - 3 from north to south.

The Finns dispatched a small force to cluster 1 and made the main assault against cluster 3. By turn 24 the northern cluster was taken. The Finns took about half of cluster 3 by turn 24 and were then counter attacked and the cluster 3 hexes were retaken by the Soviets. On turn 28 the Soviets controlled clusters 2 and 3 and the Finns cluster 1. Of the main Finn attack there were only three remnant squads left. This would have been a minor victory for the Soviets but the game didn't end.

Turn 29 there was minor skirmishing between the Finn remnants and the Soviet defenders. Starting turn 30 the Finn northern force attacked cluster 2 and by turn 33 had taken more than half of the cluster and in the process had been wiped out. At this point the game ended in a draw.

My questions are these:

1. What are the criteria for extending the game?
2. Does it only apply to the attacking force?
3. Shouldn't the defender be given an opportunity to retake objectives during an extension?

[Imp]

If victory hexes are still being contested then the game can carry on as the issue is still in doubt. So any units in good order near victory hexes may well cause an extension because they stand a chance of changing the outcome as they indeed did.

[Warmonger]

That's what it looked like for the attacker, but not for the defender. In this instance the defender had two units in good shape, one right by the disputed cluster, but the game ended abruptly when the last attacker unit in the cluster was destroyed. The defender wasn't given a chance to retake the victory hexes.

Sometimes the end game logic is quirky. I had one game where I was the attacker and had taken all the victory hexes, with the final hex taken in the first extension turn. So the next turn I did nothing except hit the End Turn button and the game extended another turn. I did this for 12 straight turns thinking the AI was up to something although it didn't have much left in the way of units. Finally I moved a unit and hit End Turn and then the game ended. As long as I didn't make any move it looked like the game would have extended indefinitely.

[Imp]

That's what it looked like for the attacker, but not for the defender. In this instance the defender had two units in good shape, one right by the disputed cluster, but the game ended abruptly when the last attacker unit in the cluster was destroyed. The defender wasn't given a chance to retake the victory hexes.

Read what I said above

If victory hexes are still being contested

They stopped being so the game ended.
You know the mechanics & while its not perfect that's far better than having a fixed duration.
I don't think their have been many battles in modern history where its been decided beforehand that we will stop for afternoon tea at 3.30 precisely.

In the other case something happened to stop it, quite possibly the game decided going nowhere extension time used up.