Rather than go for a WC, or try and play nice in Europe (neither of which fit the original theme of the AAR), or try to find new interesting goals (when I'm already beating half of Europe down with ease), I think I'll wrap up the AAR and let it end here.
Some observations:
* Defections should not occur within union cultures, or should be a lot harder. Accepted cultures should also be less likely to defect. Meath defecting from GB makes far more sense than Aberdeen defecting from GB or Gascogne defecting from France.
* The HR Emperor should not be able to use Proclaim Guarantee on Imperial states. It's a free 10 relations and an annual relationship boost for doing something that they already do as emperor.
* The AI should use coalitions (where allied armies link up and move/work together). It's way too easy to fight 10 disjointed countries fighting on their own. Had alliances combined forces and worked together, I may well have lost a couple of wars.
* Cavalry reinforces too quickly.
* Non-core CoTs probably should not give a colonist bonus. It's absurd that conquering a CoT in July would increase the number of colonists available in August.
Things I might have done differently:
* I should not have vassalized France. I should have let GB eat France, and then taken the province from GB.
* I should not have allied with Savoy once I was strong enough not to need them. While they were helpful in the war with Aragon and Portugal, they completely locked me out from any gains.
* Defections are useful, but later on when I had France beat cold, I probably should have peaced out quicker.
* I should not have moved more towards Free Trade in the beginning, since it hampered my ability to knock everyone out of my own CoT's once I got monopolies. By that point, I couldn't trade anywhere else even with Free Trade 5.
Thank you to all of you that followed and commented on the AAR. I'll come up with some new idea soon and start a new AAR...