Guys, its seriously the cookies...
In all seriousness though, I am amazed at how little people don't understand this situation or can see it from multiple viewpoints. Talerium and Darka have had a border treaty for years and years. Eston and Coria had the exact same border treaty BEFORE this war ever began. Eston's agreement with Coria was only to return to pre-war relations between our two realms.
By doing so, Eston secures their border, while forcing Coria out of the war. Eston is not to blame for Coria rejoining the war effort. (hi Hammarsett...) When that treaty was first signed, the northern alliance made a great gain in the war, and should have used it to start winning, but the only thing I saw was complaints about not being able to attack where they wanted to, and so the war stalled only because the northern alliance couldn't decide to work together.
Oh, and yes, lots of bribes of cookies.
I disagree, and not purely because of Hammarsett's ulterior motives.
If it was such a great victory, why did the Northern Alliance become so ineffective after the peace was signed? We played together just fine afterward. BoM and Hammarsett didn't waste time pouting. We voiced our opinions and then sent armies west, and did so for some time. The problem wasn't discord, it was that we were put into a terrible strategic position where there was only one fighting front that it was easier for our enemies to reinforce than for us. Every time we went west it took us a week to get there, and Tara was inevitably waiting for us every time we did because they can get there faster, with less straggling and less equipment damage. Advantage: Cagilan Empire and allies. We attempted to loot CE more than once, but never really accomplished much because Tara would just chase us down.
The present spread front is far more to our advantage, and we've done well there overall. Just imagine what we might have accomplished if that front had stayed open the entire time.
