Initially just went the ruined England (coalition Irish OPMs with two no-cbs) route for the "This is Fine" achievement, but looking at possible achievements I figured I might as well go for Home and Away too.
I had surrendered Maine when just going for the first achievement. I had a foothold in eastern France after warring Burgundy, annexed Brittany and had Provence as a vassal. I declared on a smaller French ally with Austria as my ally, forgetting about the Great Power Intervene in War mechanic.
France's ally Commonwealth, quite strong and who prevented Russia from forming joined the war that way, crushing us. Austria stayed in the war a while after being occupied but eventually peaced out. I was aiming to eke out a white peace by keeping my British Isles in tact. Ottomans than intervened on my side, they could have possibly turned the tide but the length of war modifier soon got them disinterested in the war and they retreated their armies after not doing much so I white peaced while I still could.
With France crushing my armies 1 vs 1, I sought to grow my economy to catch up to their massive tax income. No-cb'd Morocco for a foothold in Africa, then no-cb'd plenty of natives and took their tribal lands for fast expansion. They kept declaring on my colonies, I used enforce peace to enter the wars which were mostly easy but annoying.
France + Commonwealth declared on me while I was a bit drained!
It soon became clear I had no hope of winning. and peaced out for everything France wanted, releasing my vassal Provence and taking all of my mainland provinces except Luxembourg.Another 120+ years went on, letting all of my French cores expire and playing the colonial game. The force limit from Crown Colonies helped a bit, and I had a total of 420 treasure fleet ducats rolling in. I expanded further into Africa and Scandinavia, and took Hamberg for the Center of Trade. Wanting to match France's national ideas of +5% discipline and +20% morale + defensive ideas, I avoided mercs and got my professionalism to 60%. I also took Defensive, Quality, AND Offensive ideas for myself.
In the middle of my Court and Country disaster, I saw an opportunity as Commonwealth + France + Sweden declared on OPM Nitra, bringing Spain, Portugal, Austria, and Papal States in on the other side. Austria tried to call me in, but I declined so I could fight a separate war as the leader against France. By this time France had a few colonies in Canada and Ivory Coast, so there forces were a little split. I brought in my ally Muscovy who kept the Commonwealth busy while I sieged down France.
A Sunni + native coalition formed against me soon after declaring on France, but I was able to split them up into separate wars that were mostly manageable, no cb-ing the native coalition leader. Lots of no-cbs this run, but with the States General reform and Admin ideas, I had few spare Admin points, especially towards the end.
After sieging down 40% of France and winning most battles with careful micro, I was able to snag Paris with around 40% total war score. Spain (who had a PU over Portugal) allied Papal States after I de-allied them, scaring me a bit before I realized I could just no-cb Nitra who would call Papal States in, facing only about 40-50k troops. Sieged down all 8 or so of the Popes land and they gladly gave me Rome.
Now onto The Three Mountains while the godly shogun vassal mechanic is still in the latest patches.
