Got around to play a bit more on my Vlad game. I had finally assambled enough troops for the big push against Tauron. Losses were heavy - three armies and a couple dozen individual units, chiefly Death Knights and Grunts - but his defenses collapsed fairly quickly. He's now reduced to a few island cities NE of our continent. I accepted peace in return for a tech.
The only city on my continent not under my control now is Oberic's capital; the rest of his cities are found in the same archipelago as Tauron's. Now, Oberic just declared war on me - Carn Sul is gonna fall as soon as I can get my siege train there.
Getting Dark Horsemen helped alot. Finally an attacker that can deal effectively with Hammerheads and the like.
Seizing Tauronland left me with a few extra race resources to play with - Elves, Dwarfs and Trolls.
I'm now in the fairly ludicrous situation of being the unchallenged land power, but only having one doomed rival city on my continent. Meanwhile, I'm, to quote Hitler, a coward at sea - I can still only build Cogs! My wizards are however busy trying and rectifying that, and once I've got some real ships, I can get rid of Oberic and Tauron, and then perhaps invade the other continent, where a balance of powers of sorts has established itself, with Freya somewhat above the rest of the pack. Mordja was recently killed off, but the rest of the mages over there seem to be in equilibrium.