Thats what our group does. Everyone seems to go for the last row strategy cept me. The guys initiated a house rule stating that if you get to peek at the enemy card you can instead
A) Pay 2 gold to give one specific opponent a -2 in the fight
B) Pay 1 resource of any kind to give everyone a -1, and set the fight out yourself.
But if someone else gets to peek before the fight they can instead inform the king, and you don't get the benefit of the kings forces (i.e. the random die roll that adds to your combat bonus).
I'm not sure it's changed much