Finally caught France at a weak moment and launched a 'change of government' war that brought in enough allies to allow Languedoc and half of France to be sacked and looted...while French armies were off... somewhere? Probably in America, since France, Netherlands, and Britain are the only ones colonizing. One province removed from the blue blob in peace deal...hurrah!
Papal State refused to accept the overlordship of the great Spanish Empire, which meant slowly annexing provinces from them. One province taken every 5-6 years didn't seem to cause much alarm, so coalition was avoided. Mantua decided to help out with her own war to steal Romagna, which let the Papacy be vassalized one war sooner, and Mantua slapped upside the head right after to return one core plus take Ferrara, her only port. Mantua itself can rot for all I care, I need it not.
Ottomans and Crimea both got hit by nasty wars resulting in the abolition of their treaty together. Yes! Thus Crimea itself fell under my sway.
That left only wildly-interlocked alliance blobs that would be a puzzle to undo. Most of my allies are also targets, and most of them are allied with each other.
In the French war, I peaced out Bohemia by annulling treaty with Lithuania and some various others. As our marriage had ended due to the 'death' of the regency there... that gave me a good opening to attack without dissolving alliance or using the curia (which I have had an iron grip on for centuries now) to annul the marriage.
A purging of heresy war against Wallachia brought Austria, Hungary and Poland, 3 of Lithuania's allies, to my side, thus preventing them from coming to Lithuania's aid shortly. I wanted Crimea and Ferrara to finish coring, though...and Poland decided to white peace out in the meantime. Hmmm... actually, that would work out, since I needed Bessarabia along with the Crimean-turned-Lithuania Yedisan. Two provinces finish coring, another war begins. The eastern tech units are butchered heavily by my full-offensive-full-defensive-full-quality western troops, despite Lithuania still leading a Muscovy PU that meant hundreds of thousands of troops on their side - but stacks of 30-40 regiments were being cut like butter and adding 5-15 warscore each. pow! Occupied the two targets quickly and ran around sieging and killing until they would accept the peace.
The Black Sea is mine.
Papal State is annexed and Rome added to the great Empire. I'm sure the Catholics will complain about the loss of the Holy See soon enough...oh well.
Sightings of "ships" grow infrequent along the coastline of great Spain, as only the mighty Armada Real sails together to bring troops from battle to battle. Several trade nodes go completely unpatrolled, with nations no longer able to survive the hostile waters to reach them. Only a few stalwart nations in Italy have the audacity to keep sending light ships around, and worries of 'pirates' grow in the minds of the serfs.
10 Provinces remain in the hands of 4 nations : Milan, Venice, Austria, Hungary. Overextension, Aggression, incredible coring costs, world wars, and treacherous backstabs must be endured to acquire them.
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