Can land-locked countries create a fleet/travel into the ocean? If so that is a huge problem and they should not be able to without a county bordering water. Or they should atleast have a huge penalty and time modifier to make a fleet.
The way I understand it, land-locked countries can theoretically travel into the ocean, assuming they have military access through lands which border the water. There way or may not be a steeper cost for embarking this way, I couldn't say.
As an Englishman I too think its bloody stupid. France never could just magic up a fleet big enough to transport all its troops to England and vice versa. Makes being an island nation or invading one bloody stupid. Removing the link between how many troops can I raise and how many ships can I raise (or pressgang from the merchants) is just another simplification and step away from Grand Strategy in Ck3. Couple other little simplifications they are doing, like magically raising all your troops in one spot instead of having each region raise their levvy then combine, which is a real shame. Paradox seemed to have listened a little too much to the We play on fast speed and hate clicking buttons vocal minority, probably beacuse they all whined for years over Stellaris. Will be a fun RP game though. Just less depth and challenge.
As someone who comes squarely from the, "I play on the slowest speed and love clicking buttons" group (I literally
increased the time it took for the slowest speed to advance a day in Imperator to ten seconds), please afford me a rebuttal.
With regards to fleets and island nations: France had the capability to invade England, it simply never had cause to do so. All the direct conflicts between the two were over territories on the mainland. This being alternate history, it's important that the ability for France to invade Britain be a possibility. I understand the argument for this being possible in CK2, however I maintain that CK2's system was obtuse and irritating more than it was fun and engaging.
There was no reason to expand upon that system in CK3 when so many other things have seen expansion. War is merely a means to temporary ends in CK3, not the primary vehicle by which one is meant to play the game. Even setting that aside, suppose one has put too little water in their cake mixture and it came out far too dry. Would one's guests be served if further ingredients were wasted trying to make that cake more presentable? Or would that time be better spent expanding the main course, such that a cake was no longer necessary?
With regards to "magically raising troops", on the other hand... This is historically just fine. Very, very few are the cases where a levy which was forming on the lord's army was intercepted by enemies en route. Why is this? Well, it's because levies en route did not necessarily "march" the way we envision it in the movies. The soldiers would have traveled light, avoiding larger forces by taking unbeaten paths and temporarily scattering if need be. They wouldn't have necessarily needed provisions, as such things could be gathered up from subject villages along the way and consolidated once the army was properly formed. Conversely, an enemy force already formed would keep reasonable ranks on the road. They would be easily spotted and would have with them all manner of baggage. This would make them considerably less mobile than levies who were on their way to report to the king.
If you think about it, this is exactly what CK3 is doing. These men aren't marching, they're
traveling. They aren't even necessarily traveling in a cohesive body. Word may simply be sent out to each village that the count has received a summons to war, and one third of all fighting men are to make the journey to Kent in service to His Royal Highness the King, under the watchful eye of a few knights. And what other
travel goes on in the game? Characters travel all the time. Wanderers, councilors, even lords. We see none of this on the map. The scale is too small to register. Why, then, should we see when 128 footmen from across a county boasting some 4,000 souls is making a journey to the capital? Let us also not forget those instances wherein levies of over a thousand in large enough domains could suddenly appear all in one cohesive group.
There is a formation period for the army, and that's good enough for me. It resonates with the actuality of most every military action of the period far more accurately than does a smattering of levies being picked off one by one before they can reach their lord. In CK2, most wars were won in the first three weeks, owing to how quickly one side could devour another's levies en route. That should not have been.
