My current game as Milan (DW 5.1):
The objective was to unify Italy, but things - though interesting - have developed in a way that the goal starts to look quite impossible. I play with random lucky nations with low aggression, so I get nice blobs in my game. Teutonic Order was almost certainly one of the lucky nations and it changed into Prussia recently. It has constantly expanded South and East and I'm not surprised if it eventually devours all Russian nations and continues East.
France looks lucky and on a roll here too. Not only it owns part of the Iberian peninsula, it has managed to nab Wales and pesters England with Scotland. England, having lost home ground, has decided to go for Moroccan territory instead. Asia Minor has exploded into Turkish minors.
And I'm Milan and pretty dead within a year. My goal was to play a nice, diplomatic game with an Italy formed via vassalisations and diploannexations. I don't know if it were the diploannexations or claims on thrones, but at some point my relations with countries have dropped from 100 - 200 to -200 - 0. Not too long ago I fought a defensive war against France, Austria and Bohemia and lost a couple of provinces. I lost my last alliance when Hungary either converted to Protestant or got a new monarch. And the peace with everybody expires next year and France has the mission "Conquer Milan" and Austria the mission "Our claims in Northern Italy".
So yeah, I'm screwed. Next in line: choosing another country from in this interesting save.