Aragon, Portugal (3rd) and England (3rd)
France holds 103 provinces, incl. Ceuta in Africa, 7 more to be cored for BBB.
Moscov is cored, Berlin is owned for BtN.
BBB is just a matter of some months. Either when the cores in the former provinces of Novgorod are done or if the BI fires. So I keep sitting on Burgundy. I am doing the same to Scotland, as I need that war until Brandebourg (Berlin) is cored. Or I have another war I can sit on to avoid the call for "unlawful".
All that's left for this campaign is to find a way to Vienna. As it is impossible to go the direct route via Switzerland to Austria, I have to come from the other side, the Balkans. Because of the coring range I can't take anything on the Adriatic coast for now. Firstly, I need a foothold in Italy.
Naples it is. So I declare on his overlord Aragon.
The 17k-stack already in Spain is to take the fort in Huesca for free. That are actually 16k from Castile attached to a single-stack of mine. The 23k-stack in Southern France will go to Navarra and the other 24 regiments are on the territory of my friend The Papal State, to pay a visit to Ferrara.
The pictures repeat: Instant kill of the minor's army. Next, win the small battle on sea to get naval superiority for a blockade of his capital. Send a stack over to start the siege of the fort. Maybe I have to wait for the other province Modena to be occupied, maybe not. That's all I have to do to eliminate Aragon's ally early in the war.
On 23.Nov.78 Ferrara was willing to go out of the war already. I have transferred most of that army to my other friend the Ottomans, next to Ragusa.
In Spain Navarra's army is also dead, I started the siege of the vassal's capital and the fort in Huesca is under my control. As all Aragonese head north to my fort in Narbonnais, I can spread out into his territory.
Oh yeah, 1.Jan.1479, the beginning of a new era. The age of cannons has come.
Take another loan, for about 8k ducats debt in total now. Embrace Renaissance, tech up to 7 in Mil and order some units of artillery. A lot of sieges are still to be done in this campaign and time is money, not?
For Ragusa it is the same fate as for Ferrara. Mil Tech 7 includes +0.25 tactics and I am the only one in this war to have it. Nice.
On 10.Mar.79 Ragusa left the war for some money. Too bad I couldn't grab anything or vassalize him, as he is too big. It wasn't possible to co-belli him, because of the scripted guarantee of Ottomans from the start.
Nafarroa 16.Jun.79, with the help of my first 4 cannons. As the siege of Napoli is more important than that of València, I will ship over my high tech weapons to Italy.
With the fall of Napoli on 22.Sep.79, after just 128 days, I can demand from Aragon all I want. Two provinces in Italy from Naples are now painted in blue. Lucania (south west) is the most distant province I can core. Once this core is finished, I will also be able to core all coastal provinces in the Adriatic. Bari, north east of Lucania, is to share a sea tile with Austria, so I can file a claim on Dalmatien.
Last days in the office for Marie. At the end of the month Louis reaches adulthood and can take over the reign. Only because of Marie's longevity I could declare so many wars after Charles' XII pass away. So without her, my campaign could have been ruined. A big thank you and enjoy your retirement, Marie!
BBB is done.
So let's celebrate the achievement by declaring a war on England. I have no intention to take anymore lands, it is just for money. Besides cash and war reps I finally want to get a third age objective. To avoid spending 600 ducats to upgrade 3 CoT, I am going for "Humiliate Rival". As the peace term "show strength" doesn't fulfill the age objective, I can use a normal Conquest-CB as well.
Because Portugal renewed his starting alliance with England, he is on my list of war enemies once more. The 1k-stack in Cuenca is the designated controller for the 16k of Castile. As these armies were exiled with the conclusion of the Aragonese war, the game automatically detached armies. Castile's army went to Cuenca to unblackflag and I did the same. But then Castile refused to reattach to my army, although we were still in two wars together. Subjects' interactions and the attach system are sometimes ... hmpf!
This time the fort in Évora is really mothballed and a 7k-stack of mine is already on the way to take it. I just count on the fact, that Castille will attach to me now again and AI-Portugal isn't aggressive enough to attack my 7k-stack immediately.
The BI didn't fire and I got BBB, so it is time to let Burgundy go. For money and a lot of rebels. Somewhere I picked up the trick that taking Defender of Faith (DoF) clears out "Call for Peace". But it didn't work here. Either it was removed from the game meanwhile or the conditions are different, I don't know.
Post-game I checked the chances for the [old] BI with the formulas in the Wiki. I had all modifiers (+75% war score, ruler a general) except the heir wasn't a general. In this case the mean time to happen (MTTH) is about 90 months or 7 1/2 years. I sat for 7 years on Burgundy, so my chance was substantial, but still somewhat less than 50%. In the end I used a lot of resources for this war and got out very little. Well good, that's life.
England's home army died in Norfolk, the others stay in Ireland with no intention to come over. But I have blocked the strait with one ship anyway. All my canons are on the level-1 fort in Norfolk, many single stacks are carpet sieging in England and a 12k-stack for Inner Hebrides, the capital of The Isles. Oh, the level-2 fort in Montgomery (Wales)? Mothballed and already taken for free again.
The Castilian army did indeed attach to me again and the Portoguese army (21k) did run away to Ceuta. Évora is taken and the siege of Lisboa is started. I have ordered 6 more cannons, which I should have done some months before. Anyways, I have sent a transport to each of the producing provinces.
The Isles went out of the war after the fall of Inner Hebrides on 19.Sep.80. Lisboa 3.Nov.80 in 151 days, after I transferred my new cannons over to the siege. This time I have waited with the peace deal a few days, until the Castilian stack has been on home ground again.
I continued the war against isolated England for some months. First I gathered all my forces, before crossing the strait Aryshire-Ulster. In Ireland I bypassed any battles with the 45k hostile forces and just aimed for the occupation of England's vassal Sligo.
As this has been done a few days ago, I can demand my tribute from England. I assume, humiliating England is part of any true French campaign somehow, not?
Rebels in Brandebourg (Berlin). Brandenburgian Separatists imported from Pomerania, intending to siege my fort in their former capital. I will probably get a rebellion myself from these separatists at some time (40% progress atm). Unfortunately I am not allowed to solve the problem by increasing autonomy in Berlin. Because Pomerania did that already.
On 15.Jun.81 I could start the Golden Era, finally.
After the short interruption coring of Berlin is now scheduled for 16.Aug.83, that of Lucania for 29.Oct.82.