I agree... I mean sure France was 1 region if you capture Paris you have control over France.... HOWEVER the mini settlements (though they had no land attached to them) made the game seem like it had more cities. The mini settlements that you could raid and hold, to me, were very interesting. In Mods like Darthmod Empire where the Ai was a bit more of a challenge, I found it interesting fighting my way up through Spain having to actually capture those mini settlements before getting to the capital. I thought Rome II was going to be like this where say there was Sparta, then there was Corinith, Argos ect... there as mini settlements.... (NOT the smaller capitals in Empire but the small villages and towns you were able to build pleasure houses, farms ect in.... THEY I thought made Empire MOST Interesting.) I they were included in Rome II as more in depth small towns... they would no eat up providence space and would make each region more fleshed out with more things to capture/attack and hold. I remember fighting the Austrians as the Ottomans forever in some small town which was an oil industrial place. Anyways... if they made the same sort of thing happen in Rome II it would add much depth to the game awhile not making them have to add more regions to take over.