Client states in overseas territories

[Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedom!]

In my current game as European power branching out into some colonialism, I took most of Kongo's territory in central Africa (they had blobbed the whole region until I showed up). My intention was to keep the territory that I could award to a trade company, and release the rest of it as a client state. Then I made an annoying discovery.

It is not possible to create a new client state in overseas territory (not sure about adding to an existing one). This seems wrong to me. The whole point of client state is that you want the land, its people, its resources aligned with your empire, but don't want to directly manage it due to state limits, non-accepted culture, heathen religion, shortage of admin points, etc. The territory that is far from home is where it seems to make the most sense to want to set up an autonomous government to run the region for you. In my specific case I was able to find a "dead" kingdom (Chokwe) to necro as a vassal and award all the territory to, so it's not really a big deal. But still...

 

[Sfan]

Because it would be far too OP to have 20 client states all over the world when doing a WC instead of managing vassals. Balance reasons.

 

[Dakka]

Client states are modeled as a mechanic after Napoleon I’s client states in Central Europe rather than something like a Colonial Nation or the UK’s Indian territories. They are meant to be puppets that may not necessarily be de jure parts of your nation, but de facto. Overseas territories are more fittingly represented as just that: territories.