Conquest Campaign (Magee's) - questions

Hi,

Usually I side with evil, as I like to play Dark Elves, Daemons... so I send the hostages to Dark Elven claws and 'dispose' of them.

Now I tried Wood Elves, so I sided with Barbarians (as a lesser evil? Or even good?)

I traveled to Barbarian lands and there was this option :
- Dispose of hostages

For some reason, on the fight map, I had to kill every adversary, even Barbarian units.
Was this intended?
(When I do the same with Dark Elves, I have to fight only the 'good' units as I am ally with the evil units)
So it feel off, to kill all units in the case of Barbarians path (who promised to just lock down the emissaries and protect their lives - which sounded peaceful, hence the doubts)

Afaik, this was the intention of CW Magee. If the hostages are disposed of, all races are technically at war. IIRC, even siding with the dark elves you fight with the spider princess.