What kind of non-military expansions were common in this time period? I’m not a history buff for this time period, so I only know stuff like Alexander’s conquests and Caesar’s conquest of Gaul. That means all the “empire building” scenarios I’m familiar with from the time period was via conquest.
In Medieval and later times I’m more familiar with things like the Hapsburgs and inheriting thrones, I’m just not familiar with anything like that from this time period.
In terms of the military game, I think it feels pretty good thus far. Certainly an upgrade from EU4 – not that I have complaints with the military in that game, it fits the scope of the game fine. The exception would be navy which just seems to be triremes, but navy in EU4 is pretty much just heavy ships or galleys depending on where you’re at, so it’s never been great there either.