Game of Thrones: Are Tides of Battle cards used when attacking a neutral force?
The Combat section of the rules (page 17) states that Combat ensues "whenever a player marches one or more of his units into an
area containing units from another House&hellip;" However, it says nothing about marching into an area containing neutral forces, and nothing in the Neutral Forces section actually defines taking a neutral territory as "combat".

While obviously very combat-like in nature, as I read it "Destroying a Neutral Force" is very much its own thing and not simply an extension of combat. The line about collecting support actually lampshades that it's performed "as in combat" which, to me, demonstrates that this is in itself not "combat".

And technically, combat or no, the first step of drawing Tides of Battle cards is done "after choosing and revealing House cards," which would never happen anyway since "no House Cards are played" when Destroying a Neutral Force.