How has the empire not just obliterated the rest of the world?

[Corvanther]

Went five pages in to look for this. The empire has flying battleships, tanks, tank robots, multichamber guns. Rifles. autonomous robot units, and everything we got. How could they possably loose. I know we are the hero and have plot armor, but if the empire pulled into say, Gridania with a full crew locked and loaded the wailers would be put under in about thirty minutes. The plot near the end of arr is stupid. The primitive armies the alliance had would have been butchered by superior tech.

If the alliance did not have plot armor and us as the over powered deus ex machina do you think they could have stood up to Gaius van Baelsar or Nael van Darnus?

[Cilia]

Not sure if troll but...

The Garlean Empire was largely uncontested in its conquest until it came knocking at Eorzea's heartland. Nobody could do so much as slow it down until the Battle of Silvertear Skies, where Midgardsormr unexpectedly intervened and put a halt to the invasion of Mor Dhona right quick. Ever since the Empire's tried to mount offensives to claim Eorzea, none of which have been successful. Nael's attempt to obliterate the region with Meteor failed. Gaius went rogue and tried to take the territory alone, and failed. Then we pushed the Empire out of Doma and Ala Mhigo.

As for the why of it all, the main answer seems to be a lack of coordination among Legions. Every time we've been up against the Empire, it's been an individual Legion we're dealing with. The Grand Companies engaged with the ragtag remnants of the VIIth (and practically lost to them) at Cartenau. Gaius' rogue XIVth didn't have backup from the Empire. The VIth was a small operation on Azys Lla. The XIIth was hamstrung by Zenos' selfish ambitions of getting good sport out of his territories, and after we liberated Doma social chaos within the Empire preventing reinforcements from being deployed to Ala Mhigo. The one time we actually engaged a coordinated effort from the Empire was at the Ghimlyt Dark, and that was heavily implied to be the Empire merely testing the waters to see how it would fare against a unified Eorzean (and Doman) effort. (Bad Future says we were actually better, which is why they used the Black Rose.)

The Empire is used to dealing with small, individual nations it can easily crush through overwhelming force and its nearly exclusive access to an air force. It was only a matter of time before other nations began banding together to resist its iron fist and finding ways to get around the advantages it has.

... and both van Darnus and van Baelsar had their own share of supernatural help (Bahamut's empowering Nael and Gaius' dealings with Lahabrea affording him the refurbished Ultima Weapon), so it's not as if it's unfair Hydaelyn put her thumb on the scales in our favor. Could the Alliance have succeeded without us? Maybe not, but that's kind of the point of us being there, non?

[Corvanther]

Oh definately not a troll. It just seems it is on the level of a modern army in our world attacking a bunch of cave men, and losing. Basically what your saying is if the empire got its act together and worked as a team then the rest of the world would most likely be doomed.

[Rayo]

Eh less modern army vs cavemen and more Modern army against a High Fantasy Army
Also:

The Empire was purposely created by the Ascians to cause chaos. The Ascians needed a long lasting war to cause chaos and help further their goals. The dead really can't prolong a war but the living can. Now with the Ascians gone and Empire fracturing the individual legions are now actively trying to win the war rather than sit on their hands.

[DrWho2010]

plus they just can't stop their own infighting. makes them kind of useless when they can't even get their own stuff straight.

[Cilia]

Oh definately not a troll. It just seems it is on the level of a modern army in our world attacking a bunch of cave men, and losing. Basically what your saying is if the empire got its act together and worked as a team then the rest of the world would most likely be doomed.

As much of a technological advantage as the Empire has, it's still held back by most of its soldiers being unable to wield magicks. That's a not insignificant disadvantage. Other peoples may not have its technology, but they're largely able to compensate via magic-users.

If the Empire coordinated its efforts it could overwhelm nearly anyone through sheer power and speed, but there would be a point at which other nations would band together against it. A world united against the Empire could probably overcome it, and given the Eorzean Alliance (and Doma) was able to press it so hard the Empire used Black Rose in the Bad Future... I dunno. Either way, while the Eorzeans want for technology they make up for it through magic. They aren't cavemen compared to the Empire, they're just more reliant on magic than technology.

[Seraphor]

Have you ever heard of Vietnam?

[Razard]

I don't remember Cavemen being able to shoot fireballs.

Also it's not just us and Hydaelyn alone which give the alliance a fighting chance. Even not going into the various magical disciplines, both DoW/M use magic in some form or fashion, look at other big players on the Alliance side. Estinien alone put a giant imperial cannon out of commission with one attack and defeated a prototype Weapon single handedly.

It's not nearly as one sided as you are making it out to be.

[Enkidoh]

Eh less modern army vs cavemen and more Modern army against a High Fantasy Army
Also:

The Empire was purposely created by the Ascians to cause chaos. The Ascians needed a long lasting war to cause chaos and help further their goals. The dead really can't prolong a war but the living can. Now with the Ascians gone and Empire fracturing the individual legions are now actively trying to win the war rather than sit on their hands.

^This. The Empire was

specifically designed by Emet to ultimately usher in a Calamity/Rejoining, and nothing else. That was his MO, find the most the put upon but ambitious nation, possess a lowly but important member of that civilization, invest himself into the upper echelons of that society, and then provide 'miraculous' ideas and technologies that turn that nation from an oppressed backwater into a war-mongering powerhouse, and then unleash them on the rest of the world, crushing opposition under the jackboot.

Then, just as they apparently reach the peak of their conquest, he then mysteriously disappears, right as the nation's enemies are at their gates howling for their blood, and then... calamity rains down from the skies, and everything is destroyed. Then he returns an indeterminate amount of time later and finds the next unsuspecting nation and the cycle repeats itself.

He outright admits this during ShB's storyline when he first appears to the Scions at the Crystarium, that he was responsible for not just Garlemald's creation but the founding of a "half-dozen other nations with imperial ambitions besides". His most recent 'imperial project' (if you could call it that), was Eulmore - he was the one responsible for Vauthry's creation as the final Lightwarden, and allowed Eulmore to control the sineaters and thus become the most powerful nation on Norvrandt (although given by that point the only other remaining nation with a functioning government was the Crystarium, it was rather moot.).

Either way, the Empire hasn't steamrolled the entirety of Hydaelyn is because they were

never created to do that in the first place - their whole point was to bring about a Calamity and then be destroyed along with everything else. They were a tool in the greater Ascian plans to restore Zodiark, nothing more.

[SannaR]

I want to say Koji got asked this at one of the last fan fests. The answers given was we can use magic and you know people who can jump insanely high into the sky and come plunging down you're going going to cause a lot of damage. Heck Aymeric even is in awe when Hien from the back of a Yol slices an airwing in half with just his sword.