You lost because the North chose to make them separate wars.
I consider them separate wars because I play in Coria. Coria HAS to view them as separate wars due to the treaties that we are bound by, and by our current and past diplomacy. Coria's surrender to Eston ended Coria's participating in the main war. Coria's subsequent treaty + border agreement bound Coria to not fight Eston or for Coria to join with its allies in fighting the war through Eston lands.
For all intents and purposes Coria has not been a participant in the "main" war since that date. Hammarsett however, chose to have Coria rejoin the war effort. But, since Coria was bound by treaty not to participate, they instead fought a separate war and conflict against Hammarsett with Hammarsett's primary ally being Minas Ithil.
If the North wanted to win, they would have not allowed Hammarsett to breach the agreement that kept Coria out of the conflict. Instead, Coria rejoin the conflict, destroyed a major northern alliance ally, and cornered Minas Ithil. (which quickly collapsed into civil war).
While yes they were tied together, the conflicts begun between different participants and were separated by different casus belli and intents. Just because the final alliances were the same does not mean they are the same war. (This is why Coria is not a participating member in the discussions for Eston's surrender terms to CE.)
Three things.
One: Minas Ithil only joined the war BECAUSE we went back to war with Coria. No war with Coria, no Minas Ithil.
Two: At the time, Saeculo was obviously looking to get Coria back into the war surreptitiously in such a way that Coria wouldn't be at direct risk. As evidence consider his laughably ham-fisted attempt to send an army south to "visit relatives" on the Carelian border.
Three: Half the reason we went back to war with Coria is because we were getting nowhere on the western front. We thought a second front that pulled Tara, in particular, away from Cantril might allow for some progress on that front.
Too bad we were wrong. In truth the balance of forces was against us from the time that Carelia started losing and Caergoth and Suville exited the war. I suppose if Hammarsett had never declared war again on Coria we might have extended the stalemate on the western front, maybe even indefinitely, but now we'll never know. It was obvious that we weren't ever going to win the way things were going at the time, so we took a risk, one that initially seemed quite promising I might add. I never regarded the wars as separate, and neither I imagine did most of the northern allies. Our total lack of progress on one front is what suggested the idea of opening a second in hopes of making it into a war of movement again. Eston's narrow and provincial view of the conflict played a significant role in the course of the war, one that was highly detrimental in my opinion.
