AI france suffers from similar problems as the AI ottomans do. They start out strong, but with similarly strong neighbours (in France's case the HRE, England and Castille), and once they lose one war its very hard for them to get back up, since they will mostly sit on very low prestige etc. Yes, there are Super-France's out there, but they too have a big problem, namely that you can very easily dismantle them. Alone the release of Dauphine and Guyenne takes away a HUGE chunk of the core of their nation. Similar stuff can happen to the OE with the release of byzantium or the turkish beyliks.
I believe one of the biggest detriminators to historical plausibility is the oftentimes lacking dominance of the superpowers through most of the time, namely France and the OE and to a lesser extent Austria.
I believe one of the biggest detriminators to historical plausibility is the oftentimes lacking dominance of the superpowers through most of the time, namely France and the OE and to a lesser extent Austria.