Combat width must be reverted from the 1.19

[Chaingun]

Tying mechanics like combat width to technology normally makes a lot of sense. But in this case not sure whether it would. What they could do instead would be to revert combat width to how it used to be in terms of terrain effects and instead add having full combat width or at least an increased amount as an idea to one of the idea groups rather than tech.

Because if anything, technology later on brought the necessity of actual supply chains thanks to larger numbers of infantry and artillery as well as ammunition and equipment needs. Tying the aforementioned bonus to an idea instead, also perhaps giving it as a national idea to certain nations (hills, mountains: Switzerland, Austria; marshes: the Dutch and English?; jungles: Indian and Malay countries?; woods, forests, etc. You get the idea)

What I am suggesting is essentially this:

Mountains: -50% Combat Width
Hills, Highlands, Marshes, Jungles: -25% Combat Width
Woods, Forests: -20% Combat Width

An Idea or Idea Group Finisher: Half Combat Width Penalty from Terrain
National Ideas for Certain Countries: No Combat Width Penalty from One Type of Terrain Befitting the Country (Swiss Alpine Training: No malus on mountains for instance; or mountains and hills. Use that to balance it out, that's your job Paradox.)

This way you also add more flavour to the countries.

Somewhat of a tangent, but what always irked me about the combat width model is that it's an absolute number rather than relative to force sizes. Meaning that if you have an 8 times as large army, almost any battle is going to look like Thermopylae (but only if the smaller army is large enough to fill the width!) Frequently happened late game with WW1 battles ensuing between large armies that lasted for months or even years.

Combat width would make more sense as a reduction percentage of the superiority in number of front line regiments, so that bringing a bigger army always gives a least a bit more of an advantage (this advantage could then be reduced in difficult terrain accordingly). However, this does not fit the user interface as it is, so it's the hypothetical but not useful category. (Keep in mind I'm no longer part of EU4 team so I'm allowed to debate irrationally like any other player now. )