Things like what happened in this game always seem to happen when you're hands off or if you're hands on but far away from Europe. In a recent Brunei game, Saxony was a superpower for awhile in northern Europe, but now the Netherlands has conquered almost all of Saxony and now is HUGE in Germany. In Russia, Novgorod got big, then Suzdal, then finally Muscovy started moving around 1700. The Golden Horde still exists and is big. In Asia, Brunei is dominating

. In the Americas, Spain managed to actually conquer the Aztecs, and Venice has a pretty nice north american empire. That reminds me, Venice conquered Greece and some of Anatolia and took Thrace from the Ottomans, who are very weak. Austria has been pathetic, and at around 1650 had only 4 provinces. Also, for some reason the Ottomans didnt move their capital to thrace and the Andalusia CoT never formed.