Neutral city strategy - how is that?

[occasionalplayer]

I was thinking the following: 
With a war bear, resist elements, wraith form and earth lore, you should be able to conquer most neutrals very quickly. I assume that on lunatic, that is not fast enough. However, on advanced I won with this rather smoothly. 

A good setup might be: just two death books and the rest nature. As retorts: perhaps alchemy, archmage.

Any thoughts on what might be the best strategy in this mold? You could of course try gnolls (meaning you would not net bears), but then you have a crappy race. 
Thank you!

[Sapher]

You can and you should conquer neutrals with any starting pick. So you dont need to choose anything specific to deal with them.

[occasionalplayer]

You can and you should conquer neutrals with any starting pick. So you dont need to choose anything specific to deal with them.

I agree. But isn't the resist elements wraith form war bear the best initial conqueror in terms of price to quality ratio? It only fails against alchemist guilds, but there, every setup requires more investment.

[merlinp]

Fire elemental is very good for this due to weapon immunity. Nagas unless full stack of negate first strike units.