EU4: Should I worry about my aggressive expansion penalties?

[MonkeySage]

At this point, my empire spans the globe, and there are only two global superpowers that could be a threat to me: the E.U. and Russia. My aggressive expansion is at 40, due to recently annexing almost all of Louisiana in one go... Leaving them with only a tiny island to call their entire country.

Now, the E.U. has always hated me, but they're on the other side of the pond. Russia is closest to me, as they have their Alaskan possessions (for now :3).

Of the three military superpowers in this campaign, I'm number 1, with about 200k manpower, 170k infantry, 50k cavalry, and 80k artillery.

There are no countries nearby that could possibly threaten me.

(I am playing a mod, yes.)

[Razade]

It sounds like you're at a point where a Coalition isn't going to be too much of a problem even if one forms and fires. Unless the mod changes it, or recent updates have changed this, but a Coalition can only be formed if you have over 35 Aggressive Expansion anyway.

[Cedar]

Wasn't it 50 AE for a nation to join/form a coalition? They also won't join if they're currently under truce/have high enough positive relations and if the resulting coalition would be too weak to challenge you.

So your options:

Diplomats to nations you can get positive relations with (without too much effort).
Keep truces between different nations asynchronous. Peace out allies separately to make sure each country has a truce ending on a different date. Declare war when a truce runs out with a potential coalition member.
Just get big enough.
(Get a diplomat advisor to reduce AE over time)

Coalition mapmode is also quite useful for this, hover above other nations to see how much AE they have against you.

[MonkeySage]

Seems lately my biggest problem is with religious unity, oddly enough. Recently an event allowed me to change the state religion from Protestant to Social Darwinist, and gave me a very powerful CB. My protestant provinces didn't take kindly to that, and now they wanna overthrow the monarchy. :P

Anyway, so as long as I keep my strong position, I shouldn't worry too much about aggressive expansion?

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Unless a mod has changed coalitions, a nation cannot join a coalition against you if your AE with them is under 50. Nations also won't coalition you if they have a positive opinion of you. Send diplomats to keep relations topped if you are gonna break that 50 threshold. A Better Relations Over Time advisor can help it tick away faster and keep you under.