I put a link above for A&E. I only played it once or twice long ago.
Powers are not "balanced". That's intentional and something to take in account when playing. I'd say it's for advanced players with a high sense of balance, not for stick-to-alliance players. Britain-Hannover is a 4-center power, France, Russia, Austria and Prussia have 3 -centers, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Poland-Saxony and Turkey have 2 centers. It's not as extreme as Rinascimento, which has a most serious 4-1 power imbalance that seems to require a revision. 4-2 (mostly 3-2 because Britain begins with a disconnected fleet at Gibraltar) is more manageable but still requires some balance consideration and 2-dot powers, especially those in the Baltic area, are particularly difficult at the beginning.
Additionally powers have "diplomacy points" that act as "votes" (secret, so a GM is needed to manage that, or a very especial code) that can order neutral units to support (neutral units can't move). So that adds an extra dimension to neutrals, which can behave as allies and therefore are not just "prey". There are some especial rules for certain neutrals (for example Turkey can't ever control the Pope or some powers have an extra vote in certain historically allied countries: Austria in Tuscany, Turkey in the Barbary states and Crimea, Poland in Courland). Read the rules because I don't recall all the details.
The secret neutral control allows for secret alliances and an extra dimension of complexity in early (and even mid-game) play.