Citing from my own post in the CE forum:
Yes there are no frontlines (depending on the definition, but at least not in WW1/2 sense). It doesn't mean there's no problem with the way EU3 handles army retreats and encirclement though. Right now it's downright silly.
Armies "bounce" way too much. In order to annihilate regiments I have to: A) wait for a main battle to end in my favour, and pause instantly at end, B) decide what troops to chase it with (all while paused), C) send of pursuing army in direction of enemy (it will arrive right before enemy in most cases), D) watch new battle if it occurs, but more often enemy loses instantly, and I should preferably pause exactly when this happens to not lose momentum, E) go back to C) and repeat until enemy army is destroyed or took cover in an unchasable province. The problem is I must do this repetition 5-30 times per enemy army in most cases, and I'm not exaggerating at the higher end of the scale. It's not fun and it plain sucks. It takes time and sometimes I'll take huge attritional losses (because some other neutral party passes with access, or winter). I also think it'll be pretty impossible to destroy regiments completely in multiplayer where I shouldn't pause in every battle. If it's impossible to kill regiments the consideration of new regiment costs are almost taken out of attritional wars (since new ones don't need to be built as much), and manpower will be too dominant in deciding outcome.
Yes there are no frontlines (depending on the definition, but at least not in WW1/2 sense). It doesn't mean there's no problem with the way EU3 handles army retreats and encirclement though. Right now it's downright silly.