Why not? Sooner or later they will bite off more than they can chew and have instability or be facing a big alliance. In EU3 you had spies for supporting nationalist rebels and liberation CB... and your own armies. You blobbed up too right?
So, how will it be with blobs? Still blob universalis or otherwise?
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Why not? Sooner or later they will bite off more than they can chew and have instability or be facing a big alliance. In EU3 you had spies for supporting nationalist rebels and liberation CB... and your own armies. You blobbed up too right?
I believe it is implicit he doesn't want France annexing Spain, Portugal, and half of Germany and staying that way through the whole game, which would likely be the case in EU3. A big empire breaking down shouldn't be something that happen exclusively due to player intervention. In real history, the only (non colonial) blob that menages to keep its territories were the Ottomans. And even they faced lots of instabilities.
Yes, that's correct. If that happened in EU3 it's likely France would continue expanding even after that and end up eating the HRE or at least Italy.
The Ottomans are a tougher thing to really model in-game because at first their success was because the Catholics were too decentralized militarily and only after Austria essentially guaranteed the independence of Hungary and other areas, the Ottomans faced a strong opponent. Luckily, the Ottomans start off very well in 1444 and tech disadvantages should make them slow down.
I'm worried mainly about France though because France is always blobbing due to a good economy, religious homogeneity, and large forces. Hopefully the coalition system doesn't give it an advantage and instead helps the other states recognize the threat and take it out.
The Ottomans are a tougher thing to really model in-game because at first their success was because the Catholics were too decentralized militarily and only after Austria essentially guaranteed the independence of Hungary and other areas, the Ottomans faced a strong opponent. Luckily, the Ottomans start off very well in 1444 and tech disadvantages should make them slow down.
I'm worried mainly about France though because France is always blobbing due to a good economy, religious homogeneity, and large forces. Hopefully the coalition system doesn't give it an advantage and instead helps the other states recognize the threat and take it out.
So what you want is gameplay that doesn't reflect what happened in the period? ie. blobbing France/Russia/Spain/Austria... all massive blobs by 1820.
And what is wrong with assuming responsibility for breaking up blobs?
You don't seem to understand a single thing we're saying.
France can consolidate west of the Rhine and by game start it already makes a lot of progress toward that with vassals, Brittany being weak and unprotected, Burgundy being unstable and nearly divided, etc.
It should not expand past the Rhine and into the HRE as well as Italy easily because it would be way too powerful and too much of a threat to every other country --- in other words, while it should be technically possible, the AI should do something about it.
As for assuming responsibility, some people don't want to play world police whenever they play the game and might want to be a smaller country. If I'm playing as Holland, for example, and France is getting threateningly close to me, I can't do much about the giant Franceblob. The AI should probably be doing something about it in that case, yes?
You can't blame everything on the player. In a game without a human player, blobs should be dealt with.
I'm sorry, clearly I misunderstood the entirety of human history. Can you please point me to a reference showing how France blobbed and held anything much on continental Europe beyond what we now call 'France'. Ditto for Spain.
Please forgive me my ignorance on these matters...
Not really.
Besides, you know what we're talking about, so there's no sense in arguing semantics.
Besides, you know what we're talking about, so there's no sense in arguing semantics.
Expect pretty borders.
Well, prettier
You're not a true Paradox grand strategy player until you've conquered provinces just to make good looking borders.
Ok. France added most of its central regions... half of burgundy... Provence... Brittany...Aquitane and Alsace in the EU4 period. What is that... probably over a 50% increase in land mass for an already large state.
As for Spain... isn't there that Castille + Aragorn - Granada thing? Then add in the Netherlands+HRE+New World Colonies+Phillipines. Isn't that the biggest blob in human history?
Do you have any to add regarding Russia and Austria?
There are also blobs that didnt happen but could have. Louis XIVs claim on Spain? Or the English claims on France during the Hundred Years war? What if the Ottomans had won the battle of Vienna in 1683? That could have made for an interesting blob in central Europe. So close!
Blobs are historical. Deal with it.
Blobs who are opposed by coalitions of other nations are historical. The blob nonsense in EU3 is not historical. Most expansion came from inheritance and colonization, not un-opposed conquest. That conquest actually tried to consolidate blobs (Burgundy trying to connect parts being one example) and didn't aim to create weird snaking all over Europe.
So France blobbed to the size of ... France.
And Spain blobbed to the size of... Spain.
They temporarily blobbed larger... for perhaps a decade or so then it all fell apart. (which is was the other pages of this thread are about).
Austria is similar... if formed a long-term slab state of Austria + Hungary in some form... its super blob stage was very temporary.
However: I do agree with you that world spanning colony blobs were long term stable. Also there is the odd long term European superblobs: Russia and the Ottomans. One could argue that they only maintained blobhood because much of their blobbishness was extra-European and thus colonial... but I happy to give you the benefit of the doubt.
It's Why France is known as the BBB to most EU3 players.....it blobbiness into the HRE and Italy by 1450 ruined more games than I can count....hopefully the NEW system will slow them down to more Historically plausible levels.
If the BBB shows up in 1 game in ten I would be very happy......also 1 game in Ten it gets wiped off the map would be good also.
If it shows up in the first game I play, I will wait for a patch or find a good mod.
After seeing it 99% of the time in EU3, I can't see it again!
After seeing it 99% of the time in EU3, I can't see it again!
France is something that could hopefully be well represented by the new coalition mechanic. They were very scary at the time and desired to push out their borders into what's now Belgium and Germany; it took multiple alliances to stall them. France and Austria also desired to push into Italy, it took the opposing efforts from one another to (largely) stall them.
Spain blobbed successfully for a large portion of the game. Holding Portugal, portions of Italy, the Spanish Netherlands, parts of Burgundy all for a substantial period of time. However due to a several factors began a period of terminal decline, and these were slowly shaven off.
Austria blobbed very successfully, and held a huge swath of territory at the end game date. So did Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
Blobs can and did happen in real life. The two issues EU has had with them is without player intervention they tend to never decline, and they typically went unchallenged while forming.
It's not so much that France and others attempting these things is unrealistic. What's unrealistic is the AI kinda going "aww, shucks" as the French march into Berlin, or how large Empires tend to not struggle to sustain themselves.
Spain blobbed successfully for a large portion of the game. Holding Portugal, portions of Italy, the Spanish Netherlands, parts of Burgundy all for a substantial period of time. However due to a several factors began a period of terminal decline, and these were slowly shaven off.
Austria blobbed very successfully, and held a huge swath of territory at the end game date. So did Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
Blobs can and did happen in real life. The two issues EU has had with them is without player intervention they tend to never decline, and they typically went unchallenged while forming.
It's not so much that France and others attempting these things is unrealistic. What's unrealistic is the AI kinda going "aww, shucks" as the French march into Berlin, or how large Empires tend to not struggle to sustain themselves.