I know that escape scrolls work currently, but I think this needs to be modified. As is the game plays out this way:
Get secondary hero, secondary hero ONLY sits in a city to lower unrest for the rest of the game.
Now I may be missing a basic command that everyone knows, if this is the case we need a tool tip or something that explains this. You should always have the option to retreat from a battle, however there should be a decent (50/50) chance that your troops die, with a much lower chance that your heroes do, or some complex equation you guys figure out based on army size, movement speed initiative etc. Either this or you should be able to purchase escape scrolls, they are essentially not worth the investment if they are guaranteed to suffer permanent negative modifiers just because the dice gods hate me. Actually I think that would work perfectly, make escape scrolls one of the starting items you can buy, just make it cost a prohibitive amount, 80-100 so getting a free one is still a nice reward, but allows me to play my heroes.