It... kinda' depends on the pretender, uh. Which is a bit of a non-statement because duh, but yeah. Awe alone probably isn't that useful* -- it's awe+
fear that's the big one, or AoE/multiple attacks (Dragons, tramplers) with bucketloads of HP. One obvious mistake you
might be making is forgetting scripting -- doing anything but charging forward and attacking is a good way for early pretenders to die due to fatigue accumulation (which is a good way for an early SC to die
regardless.). An at-least minor E bless is
strongly desirable for fatigable early-expansion pretenders.
And yeah, looking at it, an annuki of love and war would be kinda' terrible for out-of-box early solo expansion. Low prot, relatively low HP, no AoE and only two attacks, fatigable (and worse, flying, which chews up fatigue like damn), and a pair of built in route bait. Also low defense! She's got basically nothing built in except the awe that makes for a good army killer. About the only annuki I'm seeing that would be semi-decent at immediate expansion
might be the sweet waters one -- water elementals are pretty beefy vs. indie chaff.
What you're looking for with an early soloer is being hard to kill (which needs more than just awe -- a virtue, ferex, would probably do a lot better) and having either a means to flat kill indies or make them route (though the former ties in to the latter, of course
). Fear and AoE or trample, plus high defense/protection (either/or, or preferably both) and/or high HP, is what you're looking for in most cases. An Annuki of L&W has... well, none of that. She's got the awe and a middling amount of HP, but basically nothing else.
E: It's not something Ur has access to, but if you're looking for an absolutely sterotypical 1st-turn expander you need look no further than the Ancient Kraken. Fear, bucketloads of HP, tons of attacks
and an AoE poison effect (which stacks up even more morale checks over time). It can usually take one province a turn, every turn, until there's no more water provinces
to take.
E2: If you're looking for a first-turn expander for Ur, I'd say your best options would be the Virtue (though that's a bit riskier due to no-prot -- it looks like you
might be able to turn-2 forge a black-steel breastplate, though. E3: Could definitely turn 2 a 'zerker pelt, which might be an even better idea.), the dragons, or the Shedu, or
maybe the scorpion king (especially with some water bless, I guess. The def's a lil' low).
*It's an opposed morale check of some sort, so yeah, it's not perfect. It would do jack all vs. skellie spam, ferex, and it doesn't get really sexy until it mixes with some means of morale damage -- like a bit of fear.