[Norfleet]

You might consider it helpful to push for Conjuration 9 and have some fun with Ghost Riders: An interesting quirk of the Ghost Riders, as well as any anonymous "independent" remote summons, is that the AI will not recognize it as an attack from YOU. Thus, you can cast it ahead of your advancing troops, and in addition to taking the province without a fight, not cause the AI to declare war on you and actively fight back.