My Brandenburg->Germany game in More Provinces Mod:
Got off to a slow start; I was allied to Poland/Commonwealth and by the time I felt comfortable attacking them they were too strong to take on my own. To give you some perspective, this is what they looked like in 1717, right before I caught a HUGE break.
They got involved in a war with the Hordes+Ottomans, which killed their armies and reduced their manpower to 0. Russian accepted my alliance offer and 60 years and 4 major wars later we had wiped them off the map (save for Azov, which fell near the end of the game).
Income:
Ideas:
Religion (stayed Catholic and allied Austria, which meant that the Protestants never declared war and so we got Catholic Empire):
Vassals:
When I united Germany I disbanded the HRE.
I really like the Client state system:
Niederlande:
Initially created from provinces won from Burgundy, grown by lands won from HRE minors and France, and ruled by a Hohenzollern, these guys started as a March and got so big they lost the bonus. Not that it mattered; there fleet was bigger than mine and their income was insane, allowing them to field an army better and bigger than all my other vassals combined.
Danmark:
Only created this one because I wanted to hold on to Schleswig. Strong navy and high income due to Sound Tolls. Native dynasty.
Litauen:
Created for border/rpg reasons. A native Samagotian state, mostly takes up space that neither me nor Russian wanted/had cores on but couldn't be left to the Commonwealth.
Livland:
Thank god for the Prussian culture in Riga. Made them a Hohenzollern holding, rpg as a semi-colonial state.
World map:
I confess I did use the console a couple of times to swap provinces in peace deals in order to clean up the borders, including a colonial war that Britain won against France where instead of taking colonial territory in Canada that bisected there colonies forced them to release OPM Bar and a reduced Burgundy.