In the capital of the kingdom of Kildare.

"The kingdom of Mainz has declared war on the Galicians and has conquered them. The new king is quite agressive. How does this affect our continental balance strategy." said Campbell, the prime minister of the kingdom of Kildare.

"This will bring the rise of a new great power in the Gretan region will bring a competitor to the western empire which is conducive for us to have a new pawn on the continent to oppose the Rostoke empire as the western empire and the Rostok empire are allies. If the Rostok empire moves closer to the kingdom of Mainz, we will find an ally in the western empire but due to the internal conflicts, they can't do anything to help us. If the Rostok empire dosen't move closer to the kingdom of Mainz, we can use the kingdom as a pawn to oppose the Rostok empire. But it will be more likely for the Rostok empire to move closer to the kingdom of Mainz due to their common intrests on fighting against the Karaman empire." said Palmerston, the minister of foreign affairs.

The Karaman empire are an important factor in making the Rostokians guard behind and not devoting their full power to become world hegemons. The Rostokians and Karaman empire fight every few decades and there was never any decisive result as even if one side wins, they can't really expand that much. Hatred is what keeps the wars going. The ruling class will also sometimes use this war to shift contradiction and clean up thieir country. We invested a lot in them even though they have a lot of religious and ethnic conflicts.

"What is the strategic focus of the kingdom of Mainz. Do they want to fight against the Karaman empire or do they want to unify the Gretan region." said Campbell.

"Their strategic focus is probably on invading the Karaman empire, but their end goal is probably unifying the Gretans if they have enough power."

If the Gretan region is unified, there will be a new world hegemon and the continental balance strategy will directly be broken. No great power want's to see the Gretan region unified.

"Why have the Lombardians started to invade the Florentians."

"As you know, during the last coalition war we tried to preserve the Lombardians as much as we can to make sure there is balance against the Rostokians. The Lombardians have grown confident again and their people want to expand and they got the perfect excuse, a republic overthrowing a monarchy. There will probably not be a coalition war unless we support one against them. In my opinion, we should not support on against them as they might serve us as an nice ally against the Rostok empire if they invade the Karaman empire. Due to our ineffectiveness of the army, they can be the force that fights for us."