See, the thing is, at this stage of the game there is no national identity to make military conquest problematic. The people, the actual people, won't care if we swap out the local lord for another, so long as we don't mess with taxes to much and we don't burn down their farmland.
No national identity makes it harder. These people will view themselves as their regional identity not as a larger cultural entity. Look at the unification of Germany there was a lot of work put into forging a German National identity instead of the local German states. If we conquer it will take years to stamp out the local resistance. It is easier to deal with if we can peacefully absorb those states. Then we can get them to merge our cultures into a greater whole. If someone joins in willing they make a stronger foundation of a Nation.
Yes I am aware but we can absorb most without having to kill each other. War will happen it is inevitable doesn't mean we should run headlong into it. Get as many on our side as possible first. Conquest is the most inefficient means of nation building. We have to put more resources into a region before it becomes productive and compliant.
Only issue is we don't know who is around us to become an external threat. That might change later but for now we don't need to worry about it. We have plenty of thing to occupy our time with internal issues.
Well that really depends because in order for unification to happen we need to win a war against Aquileia. Once that is over there won't be a balance of power anymore so Wingbardy and Feathersia should fall in line.
We don't need a war to unite, would be fastest. We can try to diplomatic unify all groups. The issue is the declaration war is the only option.
Not if we can still have, and take, a diplomatic option to speak with Aquila. We just need them to accept our authority, either because they like us, or we give them a reason to join us that doesn't involve war.
The best you can do with that option is alliance because they like us or because they need us.
We should still try to see if talk is possible. And we have them over a barrel. Technically we are the recognized Emperor, while they are a disloyal subject. We have the other groups who would prefer no war. Sea access. Control of spies. They gain more if they cave to our authority, eventually.
They are actually our equal in might and while other groups don't want war they don't want our rule as well. Remember there was a reason why many kingdoms have fallen apart in middle ages due to weak king and are later unified with stronger king.
They were our equal. We have improved since we were told our two nations martial might is equal. Everything done so far has tipped things so if war occurs Griffonia theoretically is in the superior position, militarily and economically. Trade is the lifeblood of Nations. Aquilla needs trade partners while the PC moved early to nab all the trade partners and the partners favor.
what makes you think they haven't been improving as well? They're not stagnate as one of the first actions they did was to beef up their navy to challenge ours and the only thing we've done is make slight bigger bows and figured out bird calls. We're not going to be stronger then them in less then a decade or at least not to the point where it's noticeable.
Puns and general wordplays of names are a thing in MLP.
It seems to me that Aquilia's king's goal is actually unification... under him.
