by Jimzik
Yes, the Commanders can support as well as provide their Commander ability.
Great! When I 1st got RUNEWARS I painted the Heroes & Neutrals and played 18 games in 2 years before the group lost interest. Then I played BANNERS with a different group (whose owner screwed up MAJOR rules) and loved the new concepts (most of which he didn't play with but I glanced at the rules while playing). So, I bought BANNERS and just finished painting ALL the troops from both games and now want to get playing time in.
The painted figures excited everyone and I'm easing back into the game to find out some of these new additions kind of suck, especially some developments, the Commander Cards and new Troops. Some of these Commander Cards we found useless and not worth wasting a Questing Hero for (or wasting valuable Influence to find a less sucky one). I read your posts here and then looked up the "Revised" rules and am cherry-picking the ones I like leaving the others as options.
I only let a Hero Commander use Support as that increases his value tremendously and sets them apart from Questing Heroes.
Here's an easy "Jimmy Rule". WHY are there spaces with no neutrals on them with plenty in supply? After board set-up, in turn order each player places neutrals (per availability) in open areas (including Cities) in this order: Dragon / Giant / 2 Hellhounds / 3 Sorcerers / 4 Razorwings or Beastmen. It's still not that hard to drive them out but they start congregating quickly and makes for interesting tactics since I play 6 and win.