what do you think now about slowing down somehow the player's expansion?
I mean: if the player wants to take the provinces one-by-one with little pause, he can conquer fast a number of them. This is especially true for the less developed / less populated provinces for the major stumbling block: the initial civil order hit (eg. unrest related to culture or famine) is comparatively small. The best way to deal with such unrest in smaller settlements is simply a garrison: the ratio number_of_troops / population is already high for just 1-2 units - and these actually come for free due to the free upkeep from own government.
My experience comes from the play with Pergamon and Pritanoi. In the latter case (obviously an easy one), I've taken all the British Islands (+6 provinces, Pritanoi have ownership and no additional unrest, but this actually doesn't matter) in 55 turns on VH/VH, with a few realistic restricting home-rules (like no attack in winter). I imagine that for the political system of Pritanoi such a land-grab would prompt a backlash, never mind the after-conquest rebellions in the very regions. This is not reflected in the mechanics (or maybe I'm yet to experience it ;-), even though one may easily imagine it, eg. every province taken lowers loyalty of all characters but this cools-down as the time passes. Perhaps such a mechanism starting only at a higher level of difficulty: H/VH (so that the people don't complain ;-)
Experience with Pergamon in 2.3 was similar (well, not precisely: only +2 provinces in 55 turns, but then I've moved quickly due to the inactivity of the AI - and also had little problems while having plenty of money and recruitment possibilities).
I know the argument about the role-playing, but maybe something has changed in the mind of the team and you imagine a kind of mechanism to deter the player from conquering provinces too fast?
btw, I really admire that the reaction of the units to the orders on the battlefield is not such an instant one. This is really realistic imo, really good!
another good thing: I've landed on the continent and the rebels are recruiting new units in the settlement! this prevented me from attacking and now it a big problem, I need to wait for more troops. Great!
To be clear: I don' want more difficulty just for difficulty but more realism in the speed of conquest. We've had a
discussion on the losses in the battles in the past and I understand this cannot slow down the conquest (even though at VH I have loses of 20-30%, and experienced even 40%, so there's a slight such effect), so I'm looking forward for something different.
JoC