But woop-de-doo you sacked our Capital and left when a large army of CE/Tara had arrived. You didn't even achieve that through a huge Military victory. It was completed through political finesse.
Actually it was along the lines of taking advantage of a serendipitous opportunity.
"Wow, this is a rather large army we assembled in Belegmon. Too bad this march up into the mountains is so stinking long... I hate these mountains."
"Hey, wait a minute. Barad Falas doesn't have much militia. And it's mostly archers. And Coria's army is in Menedor. And the duke's not in his city.
"Anyone know where the duke is?"
"Not me...."
"I think he's over in Anost. Lemme get a scout report. ... Yep, he's in Anost."
"Anost? WTF is he doing in Anost?"
"How the hell should I know?"
"Well, who cares. Attack!"
Seriously, that's pretty much how it went. Not a single northern general or marshal knew anything at all about Eston's planned peace talks with Coria, or that the duke of Barad Falas was headed to Eston to conduct peace talks. You'd think that would have been something that Eston should have told their general. Who should then have told the rest of the northern armies. Because I swear to god, that luring the duke out and then attacking was /not/ planned. There was no northern conspiracy to lure the duke away. (Unless it was Eston's general's private plan. But I don't see that as being the case. If it was, then more power to him. But I doubt it.) IMO, it was a simple case of lack of communication in Eston, and more than a little naïveté on the part of Coria's duke.