Don't know if this is intentional or an oversight, but…well, something went pretty much the opposite way I expected it to.
I had the luck to start the game in the same mountain where a tribe of friendly ogres had burrowed. Seeing them attack and kill a Tree spirit, I figured they would make good impromptu guards, so I sealed off the main entrance and made the only one pass through their turf, figuring they would kill or at least weaken any threat big enough to attack a burrow of ogres and live.
It didn't work. First thing I know, some human knights are waltzing right through them and slaughtering my guards without the ogres ever batting an eyelash. Are those ogres Swiss or what?