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Mongolia WC using the ironman save game exploit (started as Ming)

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Trade
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Timelapse timeline video

 
The free people of Dithmarschen, having finally crushed the Danish oppressors (never mind that they've not actually been a thread for the last 150-ish years)

I decided to play a hyper-tall game, focusing on development. Every European province is 30 dev or more, and I'm the 2nd-ranked great power when my vassals (Norway and Wessex) and my colonies are taken into account. I'm ludicrously wealthy, thanks to dominating the English Channel, and I've got the highest army morale in the world.

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England -> Great Britain Ironman
Managed to gobble the north coast of Iberia after Castille got wrecked by Aragon in their first war. Took Portugal from there and began colonising the Americas. I helped Sweden gain their independence from Denmark, who were at the time allied to the Commonblob, after the Ottomans interfered in the war on my side.

Have moved into Africa and i'm currently warring with Jolof and Morocco mainly so i can force the latter into breaking their alliance with the Ottomans.

Haven't had a war with France yet but i can feel it coming at some point once i finally stop spreading my army so thin across the globe.
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An interesting map! Taken just before I integrated France.

In Asia we have a Manchu, a Tibet, a Deccan (Bahmanis) and a Mughals.
In Europe I have Spain, France and Hungary as PUs. Northumberland is a vassal. Brandenburg, Austria and the Livonian Order helped me out by adding a ton of provinces to the HRE.
I revoked Privelegia maybe 20 years ago. Brandenburg had Prussia as a PU subject for much of the 1500s.

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My 'Lion of the North' run !

Early on I made full use of my rich copper mine and militaristic ideas what resulted in an easily dominated game.
Sweden is definitely not overpowered ;)

The Northern Realm
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After I became the dominant ruler in Russia, I decided to fully integrate the Russian lands into the realm and make sure that the folks stay united under a common language and culture.

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At some point, the British came under a PU what made the northern Realm complete ! :)

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Screenshots of a 1.25.1 Austria-->HRE run I just finished up:

Political map as of the official end date. I managed to get a claim on the throne of GB right toward the end, and I was still involved in the war to enforce the union when the time expired. Other than the British, I held all of Europe, was the only European presence in Africa, and had a majority of the Americas as well.
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I had hoped I could blitz the channel with a massive fleet, but it turned out being much trickier to get around the Royal Navy. If I'd gotten across easier I might've been able to finish the war without extending the end date.
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Religious map. Protestantism? Oh, you mean that heresy we stamped out a century or two ago?
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I extended the end date, and managed to win the war to enforce the union over GB. Then I cleaned up the last couple of native countries in the Americas, as well as some of the tags that broke free from Britain while I was busy subjugating them. With all of Europe and the Americas under my control, I decided to call the campaign done.
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This was an incredibly fun run, I had a great time with the vassal swarm of a revoked HRE. Keeping the princes in line and managing IA got a little annoying at times, but overall it wasn't as much of a hassle as I expected--and I don't think I ever had to defend a prince from an outside attack.

As a bonus, this is always a nice screen to see:
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Venetian Sea (before releasing client states etc):

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Currently number 2 great power whilst being barely visible on the map. Didn't want to take exploration so being able to buy trade company provinces was pretty useful for once as its allowed me to grab territory in Malacca. Also a game where building the Suez canal would be particularly useful.
 
Sadly I dont have any screenshots of the progress. But here is my first world conquest.

Started as the Great Horde, quickly conquered the hordes around me and beat Muscovy in 1480s something. Reformed to the Golden Horde and used vassals to keep growing while balancing the state/territories corruption and moving through Persia towards India. Around 1520 I hit India and focused my expansion in to trade company areas. After some wars with Ming I reformed the Mongol Empire.

The last 2 contries I conquered were native american opms that I hadn't discovered and I had to take exploration ideas just to find them. Though it was quite funny to see one digit opms as great powers.
 

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The real gem is that Animist British Colombia though. United under the One True Pagan Faith :D

...You know, I was so caught up in finally winning that war and that big, beautiful yellow Europe that I didn't even notice that. I honestly don't know how or when that happened. Maybe rebel demands over the course of our war? I'm honestly not sure.
 
Here are my two campaigns since Dharma:

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Bharati Tibet, Bharati Mashriq, Gascony and Normandy are my vassals. I went for The Sun never sets on the Indian Empire" and the new Mewar achievements specifically, but I managed to get seven or eight in total.
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Thailand-Tibet, China, Germany and the Mamluks are my Vassals and Spain and Burgundy are my PUs. I actually managed to claim the throne of Portugal in 1814 or so, but for some reason I did not get the CB to enforce the PU. I'm actually very surprised that it turned out so well. Until 1600 I was drowning in debt, was 4 techs behind in admin and diplo and hadn't even finished my third idea group. It picked up after I got the "Talented and Ambitious Daughter" event, giving me a 6/6/6 heir (who fortunately lived until her 60-70s) and after I was able to consolidate Persia and go into India.
I have to confess, however, that I savescummed three times, although, in hindsight, it didn't help me at all.
Here I also have a picture of the achievements I earned, bringing my count to 126 of 285.
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Here is what I called my Rushed Compact Switzerlake. With the numerous new provinces, it is now a lot easier to do a Switzerlake by just doing a snake towards low AE area in Eastern Europe. Instead, I decided to keep it central around the HRE. I also did not take any coastal province to later on release them or anything of the like. Just raw conquest of inland provinces making pretty realistic borders.

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I wish I could have done it before the Age of Absolutism, but 1613 is early enough. The country is about to explode, I have near 300% OE.

The real beautiful map is this one imo:
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Everything is under control. I attacked 3 times into the coalition to dissolve it. Fighting hundreds of thousands of men that early is a lot of fun.

Republics are now extemely strong, Dharma really saved them. I ran Plutocratic Diplomatic and Economic for cheaper reelections and RT/year policies, and I have the RT/year government reform, meaning I almost don't lose RT by permanently reelecting. I was basically running on infinite monarch points. The lower absolutism cap is irrelevant if you finish your run before the Age of Absolutism.
 
Poland start in 1.27 for first time, used danzig to take over teutonic knights easy and fulfilled hungary PU and bohemia PU missions. Novgorod, brandenburg are vassals and france, denmark are allies. Denmark never lost PUs and i allied them to stop russia from doing it. Protestants won war, austria was all of lowlands, switzerland, baden, and were just rolling over everyone until i dropped alliance so i could PU bohemia :D
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I had pretty much completed a Burgundian Conquest run a few patches ago, but there was a bug preventing me to destroy the HRE so I abandoned the save and started new campaigns, letting it behind.

I decided to come back at it with a new philosophy: if you cannot disband the HRE, you become the HRE.
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I'm also glad because that is the most elegant way of making Austria your subject.

The game was really straightforward. I was already pretty strong when I had the opportunity to force a PU on my game-long ally Spain in the mid 16th century, under the Trastamara dynasty. With a Spanish pet, I could lead the Protestant League to victory and become the new Emperor. That was a funny reversed League War: Bohemia was the catholic Emperor, and I lead the Protestant League. This brought France, the Ottomans and England in the Catholic League, while my allies Austria and the Commonwealth and my junior Spain were the main members of the Protestant side. The opposite of what you usually see, basically.

From there, I played HRE police and conquered Italy and some Birtish land to add provinces. When I finished integrating Spain I could add the last needed provinces and revoke.

I got a foothold in the British Isles by annexing Tyrconnell who was allied to Britanny when I invaded them, but I never cared building a navy. That's why I did not clean Great Britain, their massive colonial Empire prevents me from getting a high warscore against them, and they have complete naval supremacy (I guess I could have spammed heavies, but I built 50 once and they sank half of these in a single battle so I decided to forget it). I just created a snake of provinces to connect with the Channel and be able to add all of these to the HRE.

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I basically ensure peace in Europe with my gigantic alliance web. Some interesting things to note are that Timmies formed Mughals, and that we have the most beautiful Bashkiria I've ever seen (the two are allied).

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I formed the Netherlands for the lol, which gave many of my provinces back to my subject France and created much prettier borders.
 
I formed the Netherlands for the lol, which gave many of my provinces back to my subject France and created much prettier borders.

Dutch-controlled Spain and Italy, I approve! :)