Like do I have to wait for the religious wars or the halfling revolt or something if I'm a minor in their vicinity? Trying to play as Eilisin, which has a very early mission that requires me to declare an offensive war against them, but the devs in their infinite wisdom (apparently, any criticism whatsoever = downvote city on the subreddit) decided to make them not only the strongest nation at the start but also allied with their version of the Holy Roman Emperor. It's literally ten years into the game and if I war dec them they have literally 130k troops on their side. I'm allied with Gawed but, uh, yeah, that doesn't really even things up much.
Did I fuck up by waiting so long, since I could have supported their vassals' independence (and was going to but then, woops, their liberty desire dropped 20-30%)
Same way you deal with France in the base game
Alliance web until you get the upper hand on them, ie they make a mistake, use tons of mercenaries, make sure their manpower is hurt before pouncing, etc
Last MP game I played with a friend (who is admittedly quite good at the game) he played Beepeck and had essentially crippled both Lorent and Gawed and formed the Small Country before the end of the Age of Greentide. Copious, copious numbers of mercenaries and very fortunate opportunism were involved.
Same way you deal with France in the base game
france is kinda easier to deal with because they are essentially disallowed from allying with Austria
Lorent literally just PU'd Wex fuck my life what is this fucking game
edit: now I've supported independence for two of their subjects and they war dec'd but we literally have 1/3rd the manpower what is this