The Trick for Forming Scandinavia with Denmark

but in the end it wont matter

Go for culture tech that gives prestige from the start?

That said, Sweden usually have better stats in industry and military, and having swedish as primary culture will probably help with NF.

it's quite doable as Denmark, there was another thread where some tips to how you could do it: Start with researching either romanticism or idealism (i went for both), then get the 2 first railroad techs. Use your NF to encourage capitalists until there's 500 of them, then switch to craftsmen. Once this is done switch your ruling party to kongepartiet and build some proffitable factories.
while doing this, keep recruiting generals/admirals as they seriously buff your military power. With those advices i was a GP in 1845, and got korea into my SOI (for their iron & coal), then i began working on Sweden, from 1845 to 1862 i couldn't dislodge them from the SOI of russia, but then suddenly i caught a break and got to 100 influence points moments before he got to 50 (and could expel me), then it was over, when i reached 100 again they joined my SOI and i formed Scand

I managed to get the great power status with Swedeland quite easily. Research clean coal first. Build a cement factory, reduce military, stockpile expenses to 25% and increase poor tax to 75% in order to survive the initial drop in revenue. The goal is to get a nice economy running before the big russian bear gets you into theire SOI. Do not hesitate to cancel the subsidies on the worthless factories that the moneybags build. Second research should be romanticism, which should give you a nice 20+ in prestige. Always avoid prestige-hungry decisions. Once you have a cool economy, max out education and admin, and make some troops to build up your military rating. Do not forget to use your national focus to get some craftmen.

You should become a great power by 1845. Also, you might lose it when the nation that is on rank 9 or 10 mobilize, giving them an instant boost to military rating, but its fairly manageable and you will have some time to adjust your economy while russia builds up influence again.

The key factor in economic management is to decide when it is better to subsidize a factory and when it is not.