The important things are already said, but I want to add something:
Austria is in the middle of europe, it's not extremely strong and there are some tough guys around you. Diplomacy is the key to get to the top - besides some occasional wars against Venice or any other interesting weakling.
BB:
DOWing is bad, Annexing is worse. You'll get more BB points per province if you or one of youre allies started a war and you decide to get provinces instead of money. Wait until somebody declares war on you or your allies. It's much better concerning BB when you take the provinces in a defensive war. Annexing is counted like an offensive no matter who started the war.
"I annexed them just to be able to defend my country a bit better in the future..." :rolleyes
Normally you don't need to annex any country. The centre of europe is filled up with other nations who like to annex. Let them do the dirty job and then take their newly gained provinces later.
Fighting:
Don't fight. That's not a joke. Fight if you're strong or rich enough but if the outcome is uncertain avoid fighting. Walk around your enemies with small armies to besiege their cities. Usually all of your enemies walk into one of your provinces and besiege it (exploit of poor ai). Get out of their way. Attrition combined with winter in the austrian mountains is horrible. If they get the province: retake it later. A war in EU isn't won by fighting but by controlling more cities than your enemies.
BB wars:
This is an exploit. You don't have to DOW, you don't take the stab hit etc. Even weak nations start to dow you. And you save the diplomats for a better purpose. BB wars are good for your country if you're strong enough.
Russia and Turkey are nations where I stay at war as long as I can - just to double my diplomats per year.
The longest time I've been at war was with Russia. 1570-1792
(it's no problem if you can have only orthodox provinces within your realm)
It's the only way to get your pagan provinces to revolt and convert them after some genocides. Time of Troubles was even a bit more fun than usual with war exhaustion at maximum
Austria is in the middle of europe, it's not extremely strong and there are some tough guys around you. Diplomacy is the key to get to the top - besides some occasional wars against Venice or any other interesting weakling.
BB:
DOWing is bad, Annexing is worse. You'll get more BB points per province if you or one of youre allies started a war and you decide to get provinces instead of money. Wait until somebody declares war on you or your allies. It's much better concerning BB when you take the provinces in a defensive war. Annexing is counted like an offensive no matter who started the war.
"I annexed them just to be able to defend my country a bit better in the future..." :rolleyes
Normally you don't need to annex any country. The centre of europe is filled up with other nations who like to annex. Let them do the dirty job and then take their newly gained provinces later.
Fighting:
Don't fight. That's not a joke. Fight if you're strong or rich enough but if the outcome is uncertain avoid fighting. Walk around your enemies with small armies to besiege their cities. Usually all of your enemies walk into one of your provinces and besiege it (exploit of poor ai). Get out of their way. Attrition combined with winter in the austrian mountains is horrible. If they get the province: retake it later. A war in EU isn't won by fighting but by controlling more cities than your enemies.
BB wars:
This is an exploit. You don't have to DOW, you don't take the stab hit etc. Even weak nations start to dow you. And you save the diplomats for a better purpose. BB wars are good for your country if you're strong enough.
Russia and Turkey are nations where I stay at war as long as I can - just to double my diplomats per year.
The longest time I've been at war was with Russia. 1570-1792
(it's no problem if you can have only orthodox provinces within your realm)It's the only way to get your pagan provinces to revolt and convert them after some genocides. Time of Troubles was even a bit more fun than usual with war exhaustion at maximum
