The Red Turban Rebellion Situation Lacks a Real Warlord Phase

TL;DR: The fragmentation of Yuan is one of the most interesting early-game developments in EU5, but the warlord states immediately enter permanent, extremely cheap wars of annexation. China historically reunified relatively quickly, but through a phased seventeen-year struggle followed by further consolidation. Not through every regional state being forced into the same immediate all-or-nothing conquest race. What we need is limited early wars, meaningful diplomacy, periods of consolidation, and a later escalation toward unification. Right now, it just feels like a timed battle royale.

For context, I develop Oikoumene: Dynamic Place Names, a localisation mod. My latest major update covered East Asia, and testing it required me to run repeated campaigns across the region.

After seeing the Red Turban Rebellion unfold repeatedly, I think its opening is excellent, but the period that follows is deeply frustrating.

The initial collapse of Yuan works well. Regional dynasties, rebel states, pirate lords, military commanders, and other contenders emerge across China. The map becomes politically varied quickly.

Yet every new state seems compelled to fight every neighbouring state continuously. There is almost no opportunity to consolidate territory, recover from a war, build an administration, develop an economy, establish a diplomatic position, or wait for a favourable moment. Alliances have little practical value because the entire political order is consumed by permanent warfare.

The Regional Supremacy casus belli currently reduces most conquest costs by 98%, while also generating very high war enthusiasm. This produces a very narrow set of choices: attack immediately, or wait to be attacked and annexed. You cannot deliberately become a compact regional power, shelter behind alliances, exploit a balance of power, or allow two larger rivals to exhaust one another. There is little room for patience, diplomacy, opportunism, or alternative strategies.

Historically, the Ming victory was certainly rapid by the standards of dynastic change, but it was not instantaneous. The Red Turban uprisings began in 1351. Zhu Yuanzhang captured Nanjing in 1356, defeated Chen Youliang at Lake Poyang in 1363, eliminated Zhang Shicheng in 1367, and proclaimed the Ming dynasty in January 1368. Even after the Yuan court abandoned Dadu, Ming campaigns continued against remaining regional and Yuan-aligned powers for years, with the wider consolidation extending into the following decades.

The problem is that the current mechanics turn his exceptional achievement into the default behaviour of every participant. Instead of producing several regional regimes competing, the situation produces an almost uninterrupted sequence of total wars.

What do I propose?

Early wars could favour limited territorial concessions, tribute, recognition, forced alliances, subjugation, or control over strategically important provinces rather than near-total annexation. Longer truces, greater costs for swallowing an entire rival, defensive coalitions, and penalties for uncontrolled expansion would allow regional powers to survive long enough to become meaningful actors. Later developments could then reduce those restrictions and begin the decisive struggle for imperial unification.

That would still permit a historical Ming outcome. It would also create room for alternative histories in which another dynasty wins, Yuan survives, or China remains divided for several decades before one contender finally achieves supremacy.