Zorlond: At this moment War of Independence is defensive war for liege, meaning that revolter must attack his liege to gain independence.
Another fact that goes to big blob are the non existance of plots to lower the crown autorithy.
Zorlond: At this moment War of Independence is defensive war for liege, meaning that revolter must attack his liege to gain independence.
Aye, that's one of the few big problems I've had with the game. It's completely unrealistic, and it leads to further blobbing. The pressure should be on the liege to keep the rebels under control, and the rebels one and only goal should be to keep their former liege out of their land. I can't think of a real life example of an independence war where the group seeking independence were primarily on the offensive for the majority of the war. George Washington didn't lead a bunch of minutemen across the Atlantic to lay siege to London.
No, it's extremely realistic. A vassal revolt was always a break of feudal contract by the vassal, and he could only get independence if: a) the liege relinquished his claims on the land, and b) the Pope recognized him as such.
That is why mighty Dukes such as the Burgundians (which ruled from Holland to Switzerland and often did not obey the King of France) were never considered a separate Kingdom and why Kingdoms like Portugal were not accepted as independent until accepted by the Pope.
Except that's the problem. Dukes can't disobey their King in this game. King orders troops levied? Boom, it's done, Duke has no say whatsoever, and has no control over those units. Taxes, laws, same deal.
In my games the little Christian kingdoms of Spain are wiped out, then France conquers half of Spain, becoming a monster. In the rest of Europe, the HRE becomes totally hegemonic, conquering left and right (well, perhaps it is just due to marriages). Basically, we get irrealistic big blobs, on that the OP is right, IMHO. The thing is that the HRE should not be as strong as it becomes. It was a political entity (if it might be called like that) interested in itself only. There was no expansion of it. Only the emperors looked beyond its broders, and only when political situation in the HRE allowed it, which was not very often. About France, it should not start with so many territories, Occitan culture ones (at least Toulouse and the mediterranean french coast), were totally independent of Paris in this time frame. The King of France only had a purely nominal title in those lands. This should be reflected in the game making at least Toulouse and Provence duchies independent (in fact, it would not be until the albigensian crusade, early in the XIII century, when these lands would be controlled by France).
I agree totally about the HRE; I've never had a game where they didn't start absorbing everything in sight. They sometimes control all of Italy other than the Papal States. They frequently control the Tunis area. More than once they have controlled all of southern France, reaching into Spain. France itself, on the other hand, never tends to do very well in my games, always getting squeezed by both England and the HRE.
No, it's extremely realistic. A vassal revolt was always a break of feudal contract by the vassal, and he could only get independence if: a) the liege relinquished his claims on the land, and b) the Pope recognized him as such.
That is why mighty Dukes such as the Burgundians (which ruled from Holland to Switzerland and often did not obey the King of France) were never considered a separate Kingdom and why Kingdoms like Portugal were not accepted as independent until accepted by the Pope.
The American War of Independence happened in the XVIIIth century, a time when international diplomacy worked in a very different way.
That said, there ARE real problems with the Muslims. They are too strong in the West (because of the fact that they start with XIVth century economic technology in ALL their provinces, including the agrarian ones, and also because all of their land is already of their culture and religion) and are too weak to face the Byzantines in the East. Or, in this case, because it is difficult to replicate the exact Byzantine weaknesses in a western feudal model as the one used in CK2.
The strength of Iberia (which gives a boost to Mauretania when it gets the land) leads to a France that has to wage war constantly in the Iberian Peninsula, which in turn allows the HRE free reign to do whatever it wants in central Europe. All this has a cascading factor.
One solution is to reduce the economic level of Iberian provinces. That would allow the Christian Kingdoms there to actually exist and do what they did, while avoiding Mauretania/Africa from becoming far too powerful should they get the area.
As for the ERE, the problem is trickier, as it is hard to model the conditions that led to their true problems (like everything in life: Joan of Arc is also impossible to recreate). Maybe the addition of special plots to them, that lead to more fighting to change Emperor and eventual alliances with outside powers would help.