Fomoria

[LDiCesare]

I suppose all of this assumes some cooperation on the part of the opponent: that he has his capitol mages set on retreat, until he sees your army coming, and then sets them up to attack.

Why? Usually if you don't expect an attack, there's only the PD there, and mages are busy doing research, so sneaky atttacks will never face the mages (maybe just a few of them who were patrolling just in case, but that's likely a waste of mage time most often).

[churl]

Ok, I get it now. no cooperation required.