[HoneyBadger]

Fear and Awe on a really powerful Pretender (like a Carrion Dragon for instance) can be great, especially if you're using your Pretender to capture independent provinces. But, one thing you need to be aware of and avoid when "soloing" such Pretenders is that Fear and Awe have very little effect on undead
(they're back from the dead, you don't impress them).

A good strategy when "soloing" a powerful Pretender is to create a backup "holy slayer" squad made up of maybe 15 regular troops (your starting army should be fine for this in most cases) and atleast 5 commander units with atleast 1 level of holy magic each. Set each commander to cast Banishment x5 and then "cast spells" in the back of your forces, and put your regular soldiers in the front, set to "hold and attack". Not many undead will survive the Banishment party, and the ones that do can be cut down safely by your troops.

Use this type of squad to take out the undead provinces your Pretender has to avoid.

They can then be used to increase your Dominion around the edges of your national borders, which will make your Pretender stronger and protect your Dominion.