Should returning be overridden at all?

[K]

Originally Posted by konming

But for returning to work without risk of magic duel, you have to be on defense as well. So I guess you already have your counter here.

Not really. Retreat has another counter which is "Assassinate/seduce or take the adjoining provinces." It's hard to do, but it's a decent counter for the guy who has his mages cast a few instants and then retreats them.

Returning's only counters are a small unit that won't set off the AI and not being the attacker and having a chance to kill on Round 1. Take out the first, and it has no real counter since "kill a guy before he can use his X" is the universal counter.