Ive played a game and the giants and dragons were way to easy to kill. One rout symbol and the fact there is almost never anywhere to retreat for them equals dead dragon.

Can Neutrals retreat into other neutral perhaps? Not that I like that much better since it might cause to big an army to get Diplo'd.

I was thinking of a house rule requiring Dragons and maybe Giants to need 2 Routs to effect them or at least 1 Rout + 1 Damage.

Wak

No, neutrals cannot retreat into other neutral hexes. They can only retreat into empty hexes, and a hex with other neutrals in it is not empty.

You can make house rules about routing giants and dragons if you like. The idea has certainly been raised in the past. Personally I have no problem with a small army of infantry scaring off a dragon as easily as they might scare off a small group of beastmen. (Remember, each figure represents more than one person, heroes excepted.)

I also hold the opinion that neutral units were intended and designed to be a minor part of the game. A nice bonus if you can get them, otherwise they should clear out to make room for the REAL armies to play. As such, making giants and dragons more resilient seems to me to interfere with the larger purpose of the game by making them harder to get rid of. It would also make some objectives harder (the ones that require you to control all giants/dragons) while not affecting others, which is a poor idea, I think.

Steve-O said:

That's wrong: Neutrals can retreat into other neutrals areas. The rules say that unallied neutrals retreat into uncontrolled (!) areas. An area containing other unallied neutrals is uncontrolled.

It is a common strategy to gather some neutrals in an area – either to block your enemies path with a horde of neutrals or to gather a whole army via diplomacy.

Graf is correct. Neutrals don't retreat to "empty" areas, they retreat to "uncontrolled" areas. Areas that only contain neutrals are uncontrolled (as an uncontrolled area is an area not controlled by any player).

As Steve-O mentions, though, the neutrals on the board itself are only really meant to be a minor hindrance. Even the Dragons and Giants standing there aren't meant to be major forces to be tackled. They are a little harder to get rid of than the weaker units, but it only takes a moderate sized army to push them away.

Where Neutrals really shine is if you can recruit them into your army. A dragon or giant protected by cannon fodder units can be deadly indeed, and definitely a force to be reckoned with!

Graf said:

Thank you

We have always played like this, but Steve-O's answer threw me off base

Graf said:

I stand corrected. I guess we overlooked that detail in the past.