Question on attacking undefended Garrisons.

By Nectarin, in A Game of Thrones: The Board Game

I have this question:

If I attack a garrison which is not defended by any units, will there be a normal fight or is it more like a neutral force.

The question is this:

Is it a normal fight (with house cards, possible support for both sides, steel blade and maybe tides of battle cards) or just like a neutral force, (get more than garrison strength to attack + support and you win)


The rulebook states:

Unit: A plastic Ship, Footman, Knight, or Siege Engine. Other component types (including Garrisons, Neutral Forces, or Influence tokens) are not units

on Garrisons:
If a home area containing a Garrison is attacked, the strength of the Garrison (the value printed on the token) is added to the defender’s initial Combat Strength (see page 17). If there are no units defending a location with a Garrison token, combat still occurs as normal as if the Garrison was a single unit.

I tend to say the combat occurs as normal... states the defender can support his garrison from the outside if there is a supping unit willing to help), but I'm not really sure.

The key phrase is "combat still occurs as normal as if the Garrison was a single unit."

Imagine that the Garrison is a Knight that can't move or receive Orders.

It can accept Support and does use a House Card in Combat.