Arete Family/Aeryn

Lady Aeryn Arete is currently in Lanston with 32 infantry en route to Stargard as per standing orders.

Given the diplomatic map provided by her family, Aeryn believes the following stratagy would best serve the interests of Abington.

1) Take Skalk, Ledunds, Alatol and Alcatil from the Cagilan Empire and give it to Carelia. (This will strengthen our ally and weaken the ally of Tara. Moreover, Carelia will owe us a favor in arms.)

2) With CE distracted and diminished, take all of Tara and give it to RedSpan. (In addition to wiping out our enemy, Redspan is the weakest realm of the Southern Alliance and needs more lands to grow as a formidible ally. Moreover, RedSpan will owe us a favor in arms.)

3) Take Tarasac, Sauvia and Alaise from CE and give it to Falasam. (To improve relations with Falasam so as not to incure their wrath in the inevitable confrontation with ASI, among other reasons.)

4) Take Sullenport, Rogeshore and Byblack from ASI and give it to RedSpan. (This second addition of territory will further strengthen our ally and deliver a devastating blow to our new enemy.)

5) Take what remains of ASI for ourselves. (Having spent so much time and resources aiding our allies and giving them new lands, gaining nothing for ourselves, its time for them to return the favor and aid use in the acquisition of new lands. Redspan would have received the greatest benefit, and would be in the geographically ideal location to provide assistance. Falasam could not justify defending ASI given that we eliminated their enemy and gave them new lands.)

In the end, the new diplomatic map, as envisioned by Aeryn, would appear as follows,

Of course, there are certain problems with this plan. Attacking CE on the Falasam border may cause conflicts with Tererium and Easton, which Falasam may not be open-minded to given the current peace between their nations. And if that doesn't do it, having CE be at war with 3 powerful neighboring realms definitely will attract the attention, and troops, of Tererium and Easton. The key here is to have Falasam agree to aid Telerium in conquering Massillion on the condition that Telerium does not assist CE. Easton will not defend CE alone.

Another problem will be backstabbing. Our allies may be willing to return the favor of arms, but they may not be as willing to give over all the spoils as we will have done for them. In fact, having expanded their territories, strengthened their armies and weakened their enemies (even eliminating one), they would be in an excellent position to break federation. However, I believe they will be too busy defending their CE borders to spare the troops to attack Abington, and if they do, we can raise the bounties on their troop leaders on the CE border, which will attract troubles they would need to attend to, buying us time to do the job of wiping out ASI on our own.

In truth, our allies should not be troubled by our spoils. While Abington may acquire the regions, our allies will acquire wealthier regions. And the overall balance of power amongst members of the Southern Alliance would remain essentially the same.