View attachment 61060
My Administrative Republic of Frankfurt. Considering how lucky I've been with my diplomatic leaders this game, I'm seriously considering never again playing a country that doesn't get to pick a new leader every fourth year. I've had two diplo 9 dudes (coupled with 7 or higher in the other skills) that both lived to rule for some 40 years. The present Syndic has 8/8/9 as stats and has been in power for over 20 years. So I've got three "Claims on our Rivals" and a bunch of Boundary disputes which is lovely as those events almost is why I play EU3!
A "Claims on our Rivals" event was also what allowed me to get the snowball rolling, before that the first 30 years were just about slowly expanding my trade.
HRE Austria have been fought three times, first time almost ended in catastrophy, second and third times were when I had land tech 18 and they didn't = slaughter. They have been pushed down several notches, but it wasn't after they had been beaten in our third war that their other neighbours dared to dogpile. Atm I'm having cores on Köln, Ostmarsh and Bohemia (the province, that is). Ulm, Hesse, Hannover, Anhalt and Thüringia are vassals.