Notes

Tullius is a great tactician and this becomes apparent when you play both sides (by needing to keep imperial whiterun and balgruuf declining reinforcements from the empire in case of an attack on whiterun, when the time for attack comes, tullius makes it seem like it is balgruuf's idea to have imperial's aid him, when this is precisely what tullius wanted, that being to be able to better defend whiterun, the result depends on the choice of the player) and is aware of what the Aldmeri dominion is trying to do.

Ulfric however, is a schemer, blind to the Aldmeri Dominion's plans and possibly blind to the conflict irony of his actions against the forsworn and part of the cause he is fighting for. (That being, ulfric taking of the reach from the forsworn and stopping them from worshipping the old gods, and the Thalmor making the empire ban the worshipping of talos. Although, its possible he sees this but the people supporting him do not.)

If the player works with the Stormcloaks... He kills tullius after some somewhat comedic banter with his officer. He spares the life of jarl elisef and lets her keep her position of jarl of solitude solely to make the moot more likely to crown him as high kind of Skyrim.