Moral impasse i have reached in a campaign

In my Numidia campaign, where i took all of North Africa up to Kyrene i'm trying to figure what to do now and i thought that it might be the time to help my allies. Since Carthage allied with Arverni, who are at war with my ally Areaukoi i thought i should take the city they have in Iberia, but there's a problem with them having a fullstack in it and zero of my culture, and it seems there's no way to get any bonuses to it's spread either. Sure there's also Sicily which is entirely taken by them, but they have a whole 3 full stacks on it if not 4 which is why maybe i'd prefer to weaken them by taking their city in Iberia since my ally does not seem to want it despite being at war with them. But still, it's their zone of influence, far from my capital, and no culture. I'd have went further east but my ally Macedon have take Kyrene and i'm not sure i fancy a war with Ptolemaioi without having dealt with Carthage first.

What would you do in this situation?

Hi, You can always gift a city to your friends. Or maybe they will swap cities. Most of the cities in Sicily you can weaken with naval blockades.

Well i thought of that too but i also was wondering if keeping it would also be a good idea for better trade with my allies and ability to help them against the Lusotannan. That's why i wanted to ask for what others would do in my place.

I doubt the stacks are simply going to disappear from Sicily if i blockade it. They seem pretty crippled already and i don't think they have the ability to send the stacks against me, but it sure looks like an eyesore. An eyesore to which i might have to dedicate up to 5 stacks to if i want to conquer and actually hold it, unless i exterminate. But most of my generals are unselfish so it would not be very fitting. What to do:thinking2:

Sharing a border with your allies would cause a souring of relations. So In my opinion the best option would be to take it at give it to your allies.

If you do choose to stay in Iberia, the city would be a major recruiting center/resupply depot, meaning that there will always be a very large garrison. Which should help with order. But it will never be a very happy populace.

I love this game...

I seem to remember in vanilla M2TW gifting a city to your allies caused a huge relations hit for some reason, so I would be wary of gifting a conquered city. I would personally tough it out in Sicily, and try to keep a fleet handy to intercept any fleets Carthage tries to build in Iberia. If I'm understanding your situation correctly, you've pretty much got North Africa to yourself, so playing a war of attrition with an isolated Sicilian Carthage is going to be a winning strategy in the long term, provided nothing goes drastically wrong at home anyway. Plus Sicily is one of the most valuable spots on the whole map.

You could take the Iberian one, gift it and then march on Sicily. Better relations with an ally, helps them with more income and then you could focus on the islands.