Austria : 1410
I immediately left the Holy Roman Empire to try something new, and began building up my army. I was planning on attacking Bohemia first before anything else so they couldn't hit me later. I was going to wait until I got my first NI and make it a morale bonus one. However I was attacked first. Soon Switzerland jumped in and Aquellia did too. Late in the war Tuscany did also, but they didn't really do anything. Bohemia attacked too early before my buildup, so I retreated and built up lots of cav quickly and destroyed their main army. I sieged Prague and Brno and peaced out for the Morovia province. I then fully annexed Aquellia. Switzerland however was not worth the trouble for me, I didn't want to deal with overstretch at this point so early in the game, so I just made them remove 10 treaties after occupying everything, peaced out with alot of prestige from the war.
Right now I am courting Poland into an alliance as well as Milan. France is fighting too often for me to justify joining up with them. Goals at this point are to destroy Bohemia, then Bavaria. My first NI was National Bank *since I need it now with Aquellia's gold mines*. This is my first EU3 campagin on DW, so I wanted to try somewhat easy Austria. Next game will be with an eastern one, probably Manchu again, hopefully I do as well with them as I did before. Only thing that bothers me so far is Cascading alliances, I saw ridiculous things like Novogrod getting dragged to war somehow with England in 1403 due to this chain of alliances. Lucky Nations are off and Ai Agression is Low.
Update 1 :
Austria : 1430
The war with Bohemia has come and gone faster then I ever expected.
The 2 decades in between the war was spent consolidating my treasury, infrastructure, and armed forces.
All territories currently have a constable and church, docks if possible.
My army is currently 24,000 Cavalry, 8,000 Infantry.
I took the "Last Jousting Tournament" decision in 1419 in order to better my army tradition. It helped greatly with Bohemia.
I also became a Despotic Monarchy before the war, so have no fear, I am not in BB range just yet!
Plans Prioritized top to bottom:
Consolidate Infamy
Improve Relations with Hungary *over 100, want Poland and Hungary perpetually allied on my Eastern Flank*
Grab Venice
Take down Brandenburg
Take down Pommerania
Push West until I own all of Europe.
Update 2 :
Austria : 1485
I have spent many years consolidating and waiting for infamy to drop. I initially planed on maintaining Hungary as a perpetual buffer, but I somehow got cores on all of those Hungarian provinces you now see me in control of, I just couldn't resist the target. I have switched my diplomacy around accordingly. I am still best buddies with Poland, but I also aligned myself with Denmark, and soon hope to do so with Castille. I am preparing for the inevitable war with Burgundy. I have a CB on them, so I want to attack them when they are at war with someone or are weak, so for now I wait for my infamy to continue to drop before I move on.
I am going to cancel the mission and hope I get to attack Milan / Venice. I really need a COT due to my infamy and land focus.
Update 3 :
Austria : 1504
I have finally defeated Burgundy in a war! *Thanks to Spain and England helping*.
I compensated my loss of Hungary as an ally with Spain and England instead. Currently Spain is an ally while England is simply a +200 co-belligerent. I attacked Hungary and took another province which brought me into a war with Milan and Burgundy too. It turned into a stalemate in the Alps with them, but then Bavaria attacked me alone. so I took all of Bavaria's provinces except Munich.
Protestant reformation has also started, plan to convert when more provinces convert as well.
Update 3 :
Austria : 1562
Austria has undergone a half century of revolution, rebellion, and war. In 1512 the last Hapsburg King Ferdinand IV I died without an heir, prompting the only two legitimate protestant claimants*since the state decreed it to be the state religion* were Strychnine Jagiellon of Poland and the Grand Duke of Hungary *whose name escapes me*. The Austrian nobility proclaimed support for the Polish heir, prompting an invasion by Hungary. Austria was then attacked by Burgundy, Salzburg, Milan, and Augsburg from the west. The leader of the Austrian forces, apolitical general Johacmin Shruden led the Austrian forces to a crushing victory against the encircled Burgundian lead army at Lienz, marking it as one of the greatest battles in history to fall alongside Hannibal. Eventually Hungary was unable to maintain control over its farflung eastern territories, and the Boyar of Kiev seized Hungary's eastern territories, effectively ending the war.
Having defeated the armies of the coalition, Austria stood slightly larger, augmented by Hungarian allies around Bavaria, and with some Hungarian provinces. However the most important part of the war was not territory, but the resulting political turmoil in Austria. Despite Poland being nominally Protestant, the king of the throne was Catholic. This meant that the king of the now protestant Austria was a Catholic. The situation was further inflamed when the Polish King attempted to model the bureaucracy around himself and his new cadre of nobles *switched from Empire to Administrative Monarchy*, and the Polish King suggested the division of Hungarian territories, surrendering acquired Hungarian territories to Poland to form the creation of a "Dual Monarchy". This was the final straw, the King of Austria considering giving away land turned the nobility, clergy, populace, and most importantly the army against him. In a brief but brutal civil war the general of the first war of the coalition, Johacmin Shruden, took his new model army and marched to Vienna, dissolving the monarchy, and proclaiming a new nobility-dominated nation. He was named Lord Protector for life at the young age of 34. Now Austria has a very well developed infrastructure, a large army *the 2nd largest in Europe*, a religiously united populace, and a plethora of weak neighbors. With his statements that Protestantism must redeem the rest of Europe *Historians would later dub his supporters redeemers* he proclaimed a never ending war against Catholicism. *5th national idea was Unam Sancatum*