[Wauthan]

I always play at indep 9. Never attack anything for the first two rounds. Just build up your forces and research the first level of spells that'll help your mages.

Then pick your targets. Never attack anything that says "Heavy Cavalry" in it. Never attack in an indep province were you do not hold dominion. You need a bit more strength to punch trough those lances. Indep archers always fire at the closest unit so put your heavy infantery up front and your own archers on fire archers.

Flanking is a good way to end a battle quickly since indep commanders tend to stay in the back with their archers. Hold and attack archers is better than hold and attack rearmost.

Indeps have no way to increase morale so all you need to do is to rout them. Fearsome units can turn a battle quickly as do quick massive losses of units. Use your own heavy cavalry or simply massed archers/crossbows/javelineers. Keep a spare commander around to ferry new troops to your army each turn.

If you have a tough pretender then it can serve as the spearhead of each attack and collect enemy troops around it in a nice target range for your archers.

My own preference however is to use assassins. At indep 9 there's usually four commanders to deal with. It's very easy to create assassins that no regular indep commander has a chance to fight. Just give them a cheap magic object and they will usually develop a good heroic ability since you're still so early into the game. This is especially true for C'Tis who's assassins need very little spellresearch to be effectively unstoppable by indeps.