I sent in my pretender also.
If'n any of you haven't played on maps that have pre-placed forts, you should note that neutral troops never patrol. Thus, you can siege the castle with a single commander, resulting in a nice bit of an extra cash flow. So, you should not be surprised if a certain nation with flying, very fast scouts has more money than you would expect... If there weren't enough reasons to gank Alneyan otherwise