After returning to Zero-K after a long hiatus, I've recently discovered the "retreat zone" feature, which sounds very useful. However, upon trying to use it it's been rather less useful than I thought at first, because its interaction with command groups seems rather suboptimal:
Specifically, I usually micro my front line using command groups by unit type, for instance command group 1 for assault units, command group 2 for artillery, and so on. If I activate retreat for my assault units, the following tends to happen:
1. Clash with enemy forces, some assault units retreat.
2. The nearby enemies are defeated.
3. Press "2" to select artillery and right drag to move them closer.
4. Press "1" to select assaults and "A" left drag to resume the advance.
5. Player notices that the heavily damaged assaults have stopped retreating and are rejoining the front line.
6. Player stops the advance, manually orders the damaged units to retreat, selects the remaining ones.
7. Player doesn't dare press "1" to select the units during battle.
8. Repaired units advance to the previous front line, where I don't see them until I take a break from fighting, wait for all units to repair, select them with "1" and order them reform.
For a feature designed to reduce micro, this seems to require quite a lot of my attention?
How can I efficiently select my battle-ready units, some of which may be returning from the retreat zone and therefore be off-screen, by type?