I was specifically referring to Europe here. Outside of Western and Central Europe, territorial expansion by conquest tends to generate a much smaller amount of AE because of reductions from distance, different religion, and different culture.
And this is completely ahistorical. I recently took Andalucia from Spain as Austria. I got AE with
Poland - with whom I had RM. Now it was like 1 AE or something ... but the point is Denmark and Poland have zero strategic interest in me and they both face far bigger concerns (like Sweden rebelling and the Russians/Turks coming for them).
But, as you've pointed out, the Ottomans and France at certain times did attempt to conquer large swathes of European land and both generated coalitions/leagues against them, as would happen the same way in the game.
Nope. The OE took out all of Greece, Constantinople, most of Serbia, most of Bosnia, while making a few vassals in a 10 year period. Add it up, the base AE is something around 150-180 AE.
Historically what did they get? Well, Hunyadi managed to cobble together a force which didn't even have the entirety of Hungary behind it to hold Belgrade - oh and Albania was active.
Is that at all like in game? In game, we aren't talking a 3 state coalition, but something that is Christendom spanning with that much AE.
Likewise, when Napoleon wins his wars he manages to force people out of coalitions, when the French go to war in Italy they get decades of peace with no coalitions.
The war of Spanish succession models pretty similarly to any succession war in the game.
BS. In EUIV succession wars get no discount to province AE. According to the EUIV engine there are no Austrian cores on Spanish holdings in Italy, the Low Countries, or elsewhere. The war is fought and Spain loses ... and Austria takes
17 provinces or just around 255 AE base (and remembe there will be HRE modifiers here too).
I'm not aware that Isabella of Castille was kidnapped. Bohemia and Hungary ended up in Austrian hands not through any marriage (forced or otherwise) but because their kings died without heirs.
Lol, are you serious. Let me count the problems:
1. Isabella became her brother's heir even after her niece was born (as a negotiated settlement to rebellion), yet somehow I can't support rebels to alter the succession of a foreign state.
2. Isabella married
against the will of her brother(and Castillean policy) having to flee the court.
3. The main potential rival of Aragon was France, yet somehow it was Portugal that contested the succession (you know backing the old King's underage daughter with the intention of force marrying her).
In short, no the Iberian wedding wasn't some dumb blind luck. It was heavily shaped by long standing political intrigue and was anything but a dice throw. Afterall - the king had legitimate issue, yet the PU still happened.
But fine, let's be moronic and ignore Poland, Russia, the Balkans as not being "European enough". The French losses in Italy are well outside of any succession war (where the CB is lost after one war), the Swedish vasslizations in the HRE, the Polish annexation of Teutonic territory. The Torstenson War (you know where Sweden took: Halland, Jamtland, Gotland, Harjedalen, Idre, Sarna and Osel. Or the Second Northern War where Sweden took Blekinge, Bohuslen, Bornholm and Trondhjem. Then there were the mass vassalizations during the Thirty Years War (let me dictate your foreign policy while you supply me with gold and soldiers). Or pehaps you'd prefer the Great Northern War - where Russia took 9 Swedish provinces.
But let me guess, those are mysteriously also not allowed for some reason. Frankly, you are just cherry picking. Big wars happened and they happened along the lines of interest of the states involved and they happened so often that picking a random period in time in the EU era is more likely than not to see a country waging such a war.
Peace systems that railroad the player to minimalist gains via magical coalitions or other crap are simply wildly ahistorical. Sure a lot of wars ended with status quo ante bellum, but big wins were somewhat common and certainly possible.
