Yeah I feel like that does make sense. It just felt weird having all the rest of my 15 man squad standing around doing nothing. My opponent did mention if your unit could just fight back it would basically remove the incentive to challenge as you'd just get clubbed to death after.
I appreciate your insights I did not know that is how it worked in previous editions.
I guess that is true I hadn't thought of that. I did end up winning technically when calculating the CR which I was not expecting, likely due to the rank bonus.