>>528373152
My starting spot was very nice, aside from the river blocking my capital in, which only left me two provinces to attack at the start, since I didn't want to suicide into the throne quite so early. Thanks to some good diplomacy I forged an alliance with Lanka very early on as fellow red brothers which secured my southern flank, in addition to the river which acted as a great natural border. Like that I managed to take all the land from Roca in the north to Troll Canyon / Ephesibor in the south. As I didn't travel further north, neither Niefel nor Mekone ever tried to attack me until it was too late. On the other hand Hinnom for some ungodly reason attacked me with one of their thugs, which after taking one province, got utterly obliterated and resulted in him losing his fort to me.

Before I could march any further, Sauromantia had already taken the initiative and attacked Hinnom in that moment of weakness which made him go AI. Funny, considering AI Hinnom survived until the end and even made some gains, while I destroyed Sauromantia a few turns later.