Ruler of Riombara here. I'm not on these forums a lot, so I'll be slow to reply and can't read through everything carefully, but I can answer any questions from Riombara's side there may be.
The Realm of IVF had been planned ever since the end of the Invasion and it was the very purpose of this war. This secession was not done with any express purpose of giving some kind of strategic advantage and it's not some kind of satellite realm to allow Riombara to recruit on the frontlines (Besides, I believe it has like two mediocre recruitment centers). This wasn't a strategic move, I believe Riombara's intent has been clear in what they wanted to do. If anything, this secession is preventing Riombara from cashing their bonds on the frontlines and being able to stay there for much longer. As for maintenance problems, this whole secession wasn't exactly a well-timed move, Iato was stable and there were no issues with control (Not that that falls under Strategic Secession).
Tom's words on Strategic Secession in an earlier topic (
http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,4434.msg113718.html#msg113718 for if I interpret it in the wrong situation):
As in most of the "more lose" rules of the game (in contrast to the Inalienable Rights and the Social Contract), there's one good test:
If there is a discussion about whether or not, then it almost certainly isn't.
If the case doesn't jump out, then it almost certainly is fine, even if some people don't like it.
These rules are meant to stop blatant abuses of the game mechanic. They are constanly being abused by whoever gets shafted to whine and complain and try to get the devs involve in a way that would tilt the balance of in-game events.
I believe it is therefore quite intended that the rule is not broken a lot. It's to stop blatant abuse to circumvent the can-only-recruit-in-capital rule. That's not the case here. This is the recreation of a Realm that Riombara fought for to see happen.
