Ok, so I won't beat Brandenburg in a war anytime soon as Portugal, though at those points where I have troop tech advantages, I imagine they can't beat me soundly either.
But what about, say, Spain?
Quote:
Reconquista: 5% Discipline
Spanish Inquisition: +2% missionary chance
Devout Catholisism: +1 Papal Influence
Inter Caetera: Allows claiming of colonies
Gold Fleet: +20% Tariffs
Spanish Armada: +10% Big Ship Power
Siglo De Oro: Prestige +1
So the first Spanish NI will cause their troops to fight a little better, but aside from that, unless Spain selects land NIs as a group (which, maybe they will, maybe they won't, they certainly have reasons to pursue religious, or naval, or exploration), they're not gonna get those bonuses, and they'll probably be slightly behind me on mil tech since they're gonna be busier fighting wars and will need their mil power for generals more than me. So, cool, now Portugal has a better land army than ****ing Spain.
Basically, it seems like it's gonna be really, really difficult for any one nation to fall behind in military, because everyone gets mil points and everyone has to spend them. Maybe you spend them on tech, maybe you spend them on ideas, but either way it's a given that you'll be improving your land army over time, whereas in EU3 it was an actual tradeoff (if you rush dat trade 5 for QFTNW, guess what, your army sucks for a bit! And that's a
good thing).