So; I decided to have an Austria game. Occasionally I feel like playing a semi-major and Austria's interesting enough; being HRE police and whatnot. Specifically; I'm subscribeing to the thought in this campaign that since every single nation generates it's own monarch points and events; the optimal long-term play is to let the AI minors develop; then eat them.
Firstly; I finally managed to get
Bleed Them Dry. It's something I've always been a little short on.
Secondly; despite me and France pounding Burgundy; no Inheritance. Well; I guess that makes things more interesting.
Player mapmode. I did get Hungary. I was allied to Bohemia and couldn't be asked to PU them when the chance arose; I was busy elsewhere anyway. Not bothered about eating Switzerland. I only took a province off Bavaria because they'd already devved it high between events and manual dev, and I also needed to take it to reduce the warscore of something else from 105% to 77%.
Political mapmode. Now featuring Strongk Denmark; dead Lithuania without it being Muscovy's fault; AQ and Holland on track to actually
form Netherlands.
But here's what I'm really proud of. It took 2 no-CB's and a war with France; but I've managed to quash all of the Centers of Reformation. At least; unless someone else flips Reformed. And considering Luxembourg and Lorraine have already been forced to Catholic from Reformed by me already...
The aformentioned Bavarian warscore was for forcing them Catholic from Protestant.
Weirdly enough; England and Scandinavia ignored the reformation.
Sadly a few OPM's have managed to stay Protestant; but they don't have CoR's; and I'd probobly have to No CB each one of them individually. Odds are more likly; as heretic OPM's; that they'll get eaten up and converted by someone else. And if the chance arises; I'll convert them myself.
Alles Erdreich ist Österreich untertan
Look at that Iberia. Castile got the wedding; and then spread my dynasty to Portugal for bonus points. Also; I got the event which put an 14 year old heir on Milan; which prevented the Ambrosian Republic fireing since they never went into Regency/Low Legitimacy. With it only being 1521; there's quite a good chance I could end up with Spain; Portugal and Milan under PU's.
With the Reformation crushed; 41 princes in the Empire [Including Burgundy]; no-one outside the HRE owning land inside the Empire; only 3 Heretics; and 8 Free Cities [Ulm; Luxembourg; Memmingen; Nurenburg; Hamburg; Frankfurt; Bremen and Aachen], it seems like it should only be a matter of time until I turn into the HRE itself; although constant infighting is keeping authority gain somewhat low [0.08]. I don't care if the Reform is slow however; at this point it's near-guaranteed. Especially once I eventually annex Hungary and add their provinces in.
Edit: Oh; and Colonialism hasn't spawned yet.