We may be talking about different things, I'm not sure. If you "disengage" from the engagement, that's you losing and the enemy winning. You win if the enemy tries to disengage and you pursue/harry/let them go.
Sorry, got terms mishmashed here. What I meant was that "let them go" isn't coming up in every choice after the initial win; if they aren't coming back for another round of combat, I expect "let them go" to mean the fight's over and I get the loot.
Anyhow, main issue is the weird loops that happen in the battle dialog, where sometimes I'll choose to start scavenging but they come back for a "battle" that they immediately flee, taking me into a frustrating loop where I can Disengage and lose the loot or keep Pursuing / Harrying but they'll get away... and then I've lost the loot. In terms of feel, this is bad; if they come back for another go, they should come back and fight, not immediately run away, and either way, I shouldn't be forfeiting the loot until one of two conditions happens:
1. I am defeated in detail.
2. I choose to Retreat.
On Disengage, it's unclear that that means that we're accepting defeat and I find that term a little confusing. When I think of "disengage", in military terms it simply means that you're no longer in dynamic contact with the opposing force. It is a very different term than "retreat".
If you've already captured their supplies and the remainder of the opfor is retreating, to "disengage" means you've stopped chasing them (i.e., the dictionary definition, "to withdraw (forces) from close action") is the commonly-accepted use of the term in a tactical context).
It doesn't mean you've lost the battle. To disengage in that context is simply to let the remaining forces leave. It's basically just a term used to describe who now has the initiative.
The term there, if it's meant to convey not only losing the initiative but giving up the "ground", i.e., the current loot pile, would be "Retreat".
Sorry if that's overly anal, but "disengage" and "retreat" are two different terms with very different meanings, in military-speak