Playing the Necromancer and Druid over the weekend, we were a little bit unclear on what the timing is supposed to be for multiple effects during the deployment phase, including the Druid's vines and multiple spawnpoints.

The scenario was this:  I had 2 spawnpoints (Graveyard and Libro Mortuos) as the Necromancer, and the Druid had the Spreading Vines ability, a Vine Tree allowing another Vine to be placed, and the spawnpoint ability from the Vine Tree.

In what order do we resolve all that?

This is all the rulebooks says about the Deployment Phase:

Starting with the player who has the initiative, you may
cast the spells you assigned to your Spawnpoints (see
“Spawnpoints” on page 16). Reveal the spell you have
chosen, pay the mana required, and resolve the spell. If you
choose not to cast the spell (or if you cannot), it is returned to
your spellbook at the beginning of the next Planning Phase.
Playing Hint: Most of the time, you will find that both players
can have their Spawnpoints cast spells simultaneously.

Druid:

During the Deployment Phase, you may place a Vine marker in a zone. 

Vine Tree:

During the Deployment Phase, you may pay 1 mana to place 1 additional Vine marker with your Spreading Vines ability.  During the Deployment Phase, Vine Tree may cast 1 vine creature or conjuration spell.

Are the Vine Markers placed at the beginning/end of the Deployment Phase, or are they done in initiative order like casting spells?  Is the additional marker from the Vine Tree placed at the same time as the first Vine marker, or is a separate event?

The way we played it was to go back and forth, starting with the player with initiative, to either cast a spell from a spawnpoint, place a marker, or decline to take further action.  Were we right (or at least close?)

With the Druid vs. Necromancer expansion finally in my hands, the card I'm most interested in building around is the Altar of Skulls.  2 direct poison damage to each living creature and finite life seems pretty awesome, but it will take a while to get the 8 skull tokens to get it active, while keeping it and the token-placing cleric in play long enough to take effect.

My solution?  Build a fortress!

The idea is to wall of a section of the arena (I'm thinking maybe the 2x2 area containing my starting corner), and use it to protect my cleric and altar while I'm powering it up.

That provides me with a little defense, but every proper fortress needs to have some offense, too, so I'll summon a couple Skeleton Archers, and steal a page from the Warlord's book to conjure up a pair of Archer's Watchtowers to let them shoot over my walls.

That would leave 1 space left in my 2x2 fort for another zone exclusive conjuration.  I could use it for a graveyard, perhaps, but I also like the idea of dropping an Idol of Pestilence in there to increase the amount of direct damage I'm dealing per round.

So the fort should look like this:
 _ _
l i w
l w a

(i=Idol of Pestilence, a=Altar of Skulls+Cleric, w=Archer's Watchtower+Skeleton Archer)

Once I have the walls up and start filling out the rest of the fort, the plan is to use Mort and the Reassemble spell (maybe even bound to a Mage Wand) to keep the walls (and archers if the other player has a way to hit them) intact as long as possible, while building up some more skellies inside the fort to be ready if/when the other player manages to break through.

So, I have two questions:
1) Does this strategy seem remotely viable?
2) What should I include in my spellbook to offset the weaknesses of my plan? (Golems/ other non-living creatures, mirror match against another necromancer, etc.)