My first post on the forums and first 1.6.1 WoN Game. Tuscany > Italy, Ironman.
Still very unfinished. I'm hoping to take the entirety of the Alexandria and Gulf of Aden nodes so I can transfer power to Venice and collect trade from India.
France and I have been very good friends for the past 120 years, thanks to our natural hatred of Austria. We have fought roughly 7-8 wars against an Austria-Castille-England Alliance and have emerged victorious every time. France has also been very kind to me and given be roughly 5-6 provinces that I sieged during wars against Austria in which Italian Minors have been included. Whilst it made me happy, it screwed me over at times and threw my AE to about 80-100 with most of my neighbours.
Believe it or not, that France was reduced to a 5PM around 1450-60 after a number of Invasions by Burgundy. The turning point came during the 3rd Invasion when French, Tuscan and Savoyan armies were assaulted in Piedmont by roughly 50,000 Burgundian men. We were victorious and proceeded to stackwipe small disorganized armies before sieging provinces. 2-3 wars later, France emerged dominant after the Inheritance by Austria. I helped France some more in wars against Austria in which both me and France grew significantly. Hopefully this alliance can keep going whilst I conquer the Eastern regions - I wouldn't like to fight their armies right now.
Austria lost their emperor status in 1540 after losing a war against me and France. The Current Emperor is Bohemia and has considerable hold over all the electors. I'm thinking about pursuing the Emperor title myself, however I am unsure of how I might go about this. Austria also lost the majority of their Low Counties against France who proceeded to absorb all the minor nations released. Currently Austria is still a considerable threat to me thanks to their military size and generals (my army tradition sucks currently).
Castille was a threat to me between 1483-87 after they had the Iberian Wedding event. They lost it thanks to negative prestige and were unable to get a PU over Aragon or Naples because their dynasty changed to Lancaster. Aragon was knocked around by me, France and Castille in the 1540's due to wars for land and call-to-arms. The last Aragon lands in Italy were acquired by me in 1552 and I promptly formed Italy to get those sweet CB claims. Naples and Sicily was absorbed by 1570 and I had just finished the last war with Venice - acquiring Venezia 1 year before the claim expired.
The current state of Eastern Europe is thanks to Novgorod being super aggressive in 1450's. In 1456 they fully annexed the Livonian Order which started a Coalition from Muscovy all the way to Denmark. Nations took pieces until Finland formed and Muscovy formed a PU over them. In 1513 Lithuania declared a Succession War against Muscovy after the PU they formed with Finland and was beat into submission. Muscovy demanded that Lithuania give back cores to Ukraine, which is why there are currently Ukrainian lands in the middle of the Commonwealth. Speaking of the Commonwealth, Poland never got a PU over Lithuania in 1440's. They formed a PU in 1523 and shortly beat Denmark in the Succession War - forming the Commonwealth and becoming the 3rd most powerful nation in Europe. They currently are advancing into Denmark (weird, they started doing this after acquiring Mecklenburg almost 30 years before) and Crimea. With around 100,000 troops, they have the 2nd biggest army.
My current ideas are:
I. Naval
II. Innovative
III. Offensive
IV. Economic
I took Economic thanks to the ridiculous amount of inflation events whilst I was a Noble Republic. When I became a Monarchy I had about 30 Inflation. Not sure what I should take next, probably Trade or Defensive as I want to expand into Alexandria and Gulf of Aden.
Also, current world map for all those wondering. Russia has not chosen Expansion Ideas and are therefore superlate in Siberia. Not sure why Castille prioritised Canada and East America over Brazil in terms of colonisation. Also you can see Portugal has established a South African Trade Company and will soon reach India most likely.