They were my allies, but only against the Ottomans, they expanded in India and China on their own.
Post your Europa Universalis 4 Empire
- Thread starter calvinhobbeslik
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I present to you, a true pacifist run!
This silly run was quite difficult. I had to go back many times because I accidently took attrition. Winters, allied troops walking over your stack,... there were many sources of accidental casualties. Which is why I don't think this challenge could work for an achievement. The AI will screw you. The fear of getting random allied stacks on your own stacks got mostly eliminated once I conquered most of Europe.
This silly run was quite difficult. I had to go back many times because I accidently took attrition. Winters, allied troops walking over your stack,... there were many sources of accidental casualties. Which is why I don't think this challenge could work for an achievement. The AI will screw you. The fear of getting random allied stacks on your own stacks got mostly eliminated once I conquered most of Europe.
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Lol at the name placement.
Soon about to form Mughals, probably takes about 10-15 IG years before I annex Punjab and i need one more war against Delhi (or Jaunpur possibly).
Allies: Malwa (which i will soon break, didn't renew RM)
Vassals: Oman, Punjab, Biapas, Shirvan, Iraq, Najd and Nepal
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My 53rd EUIV run: Morocco.
It was very similar to my Granada -> Andalusia run, since the 1st war involved destroying Tlemcen, allying Tunisia and the Ottomans and then fighting some very tough wars with Portugal and Castile. No wonder, because now England actually knows how to transport its troops and fight with you, instead of just comfortably sitting in their islands. I had to retry my 1st war with Portugal multiple times until I could finally defeat them. They were obviously allied with England and Castile, while I only had Tunisia as the only ally. I managed to win by sieging Sebtah and tricking the Castilian armies to attack me over the straits and once they were defeated, I blocked their path with my fleet and they got stack wiped. It didn't get much easier once I crossed my army over to Iberia, England had sent its forces, even though it was losing a war against France, it still choice to send all of its army to attack me. Eventually, I was able to make a peace with Castile that it breaks its treaties with Portugal and then occupied all of Portugal and made them break their treaties, as well.
After a while, Castile decided to attack my ally Granada, it was expectable, but not that Castile would be allied with France! So I reloaded my game and broke the alliance with Granada, since we had no chance to defeat them. To save the situation, I had to attack Portugal again and needed to make Castile break its treaties. Only then I could attack them directly. Yeah, in my 1st actual war with Castile, I took all of Granada, Sevilla, Cordoba and Gran Canaria.
Now that I had gained the Canaries, Madeira and the Azores, I could start colonising the New World. I started with the Caribbean, even though my mission tree suggested to start with Brazil. I couldn't afford to do that, because Portugal had already set up a colony in the Caribbean region. It wasn't a bad thing though, these intruders only accelerated my colonial growth as I took them by force. After I had finished growing a colonial nation there, I moved to Brazil and Colombia. By the end of the game I had the following colonial nations:
Qurtuba al-Jadida (Mexico)
Gharb al-Jadida (Florida)
Sala al-Jadida (the Caribbean)
Balansiyah al-Jadida (Colombia)
Garnatah al-Jadida (Brazil)
Marakish al-Jadida (Peru)
While America and Iberia were the main focuses, I also slowly expanded into West Africa and took over the salt trade.
I have had many runs in Europe and Africa lately, I have yet to play in Asia with the 1.34 update. I guess I'll try something there, most likely in India.
Colonial nations:
Qurtuba al-Jadida (Mexico)
Gharb al-Jadida (Florida)
Sala al-Jadida (the Caribbean)
Balansiyah al-Jadida (Colombia)
Garnatah al-Jadida (Brazil)
Marakish al-Jadida (Peru)
Vassals: Galicia, Mzab, Kanem Bornu, Oyo, Bonoman, Jolof.
Allies: Bohemia.
I was also allied to Italy, but I had to break the alliance to free up a diplo slot for Oyo.
Russia gained a PU over Scandinavia and later on integrated it.
It was very similar to my Granada -> Andalusia run, since the 1st war involved destroying Tlemcen, allying Tunisia and the Ottomans and then fighting some very tough wars with Portugal and Castile. No wonder, because now England actually knows how to transport its troops and fight with you, instead of just comfortably sitting in their islands. I had to retry my 1st war with Portugal multiple times until I could finally defeat them. They were obviously allied with England and Castile, while I only had Tunisia as the only ally. I managed to win by sieging Sebtah and tricking the Castilian armies to attack me over the straits and once they were defeated, I blocked their path with my fleet and they got stack wiped. It didn't get much easier once I crossed my army over to Iberia, England had sent its forces, even though it was losing a war against France, it still choice to send all of its army to attack me. Eventually, I was able to make a peace with Castile that it breaks its treaties with Portugal and then occupied all of Portugal and made them break their treaties, as well.
After a while, Castile decided to attack my ally Granada, it was expectable, but not that Castile would be allied with France! So I reloaded my game and broke the alliance with Granada, since we had no chance to defeat them. To save the situation, I had to attack Portugal again and needed to make Castile break its treaties. Only then I could attack them directly. Yeah, in my 1st actual war with Castile, I took all of Granada, Sevilla, Cordoba and Gran Canaria.
Now that I had gained the Canaries, Madeira and the Azores, I could start colonising the New World. I started with the Caribbean, even though my mission tree suggested to start with Brazil. I couldn't afford to do that, because Portugal had already set up a colony in the Caribbean region. It wasn't a bad thing though, these intruders only accelerated my colonial growth as I took them by force. After I had finished growing a colonial nation there, I moved to Brazil and Colombia. By the end of the game I had the following colonial nations:
Qurtuba al-Jadida (Mexico)
Gharb al-Jadida (Florida)
Sala al-Jadida (the Caribbean)
Balansiyah al-Jadida (Colombia)
Garnatah al-Jadida (Brazil)
Marakish al-Jadida (Peru)
While America and Iberia were the main focuses, I also slowly expanded into West Africa and took over the salt trade.
I have had many runs in Europe and Africa lately, I have yet to play in Asia with the 1.34 update. I guess I'll try something there, most likely in India.
Colonial nations:
Qurtuba al-Jadida (Mexico)
Gharb al-Jadida (Florida)
Sala al-Jadida (the Caribbean)
Balansiyah al-Jadida (Colombia)
Garnatah al-Jadida (Brazil)
Marakish al-Jadida (Peru)
Vassals: Galicia, Mzab, Kanem Bornu, Oyo, Bonoman, Jolof.
Allies: Bohemia.
I was also allied to Italy, but I had to break the alliance to free up a diplo slot for Oyo.
Russia gained a PU over Scandinavia and later on integrated it.
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Campaign #10: Mann (Ante Bellum)
I returned to the British Isles updated in the 1.7 "Pendragon" update of Ante Bellum a few months ago. This time, I decided to play the Empire of Mann, with a mission tree created by Chewy!
As the Isle of Mann does not exist at the start of AB game, I had to start as Norway and wait for an event which allows you to release and play as newly-independent Mann. Another problem was bad economy, as I had only 1 province with only 3 development, but it started getting better as I conquered the British Isles and moved my trade capital to the English Channel node. In the meanwhile, I got another event which allowed me to convert to Norse Paganism.
Afterwards, I started waging wars outside of the British Isles, conquering Scandinavia, Baltics, as well as parts of France, Germany and Russia in process. In the meanwhile, I also had to weather the Dutch Revolt, but I managed to defeat all rebels and prevent the Netherlands from declaring independence. Initially, I did not intend to go colonial, but as I suddenly got a free colonist, I started a limited colonization, mostly around the West African coast.
No subjects; my only ally was Iceland.
I returned to the British Isles updated in the 1.7 "Pendragon" update of Ante Bellum a few months ago. This time, I decided to play the Empire of Mann, with a mission tree created by Chewy!
As the Isle of Mann does not exist at the start of AB game, I had to start as Norway and wait for an event which allows you to release and play as newly-independent Mann. Another problem was bad economy, as I had only 1 province with only 3 development, but it started getting better as I conquered the British Isles and moved my trade capital to the English Channel node. In the meanwhile, I got another event which allowed me to convert to Norse Paganism.
Afterwards, I started waging wars outside of the British Isles, conquering Scandinavia, Baltics, as well as parts of France, Germany and Russia in process. In the meanwhile, I also had to weather the Dutch Revolt, but I managed to defeat all rebels and prevent the Netherlands from declaring independence. Initially, I did not intend to go colonial, but as I suddenly got a free colonist, I started a limited colonization, mostly around the West African coast.
No subjects; my only ally was Iceland.
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1777 start USA
I wanted to try the US experience from the historical american war of independence., and ended with a very fun (and wacky) playthrough. SinceI didn't start in 1776 (I had tried but my default armies are rubbish and my skill level's not that great, so I failed miserably) my leader wasn't the Continental Congress but some Prince Salisbury. I decided to run with it and turn the US into an oligarchical pseudo-republic under de facto hereditarial rule by the Salisbury family.
The war with the british was quite easy because their whole empire erupted in rebellion soon after the beginning of the game and they shipped most of their forces back, leaving me to fight against mostly Newfoundlandian regiments which were much easier to best. I got my independence and a few newfoundlandian provinces.
Then I picked expansion ideas and began expanding westwards, trying to annex and colonise as much as I could before New Spain got there (Spain went completely berserk on the americas here, almost always at war with a tribe or other.) Then I brought american democracy to greenland and iceland after sweden and prussia had crushed denmark on the mainland. The war took years because my navy got halved in the first naval battle and I had to build dozens of new ships from scratch.
Then I allied Ireland which had broken free from the British.
After that a brief war against Newfoundland to grab their eastern provinces (province cost was so low I could take it all in one go), and I finished my northern borders. Then the game ended but I was having too much fun to stop. I turned south and launched a couple of wars against Spanish Louisiana and Florida, cleaning up the south.
Then I ended my run by launcing a couple of colonialist wars that gave me control over sub-saharan west africa.
Wacky things:
- The ottomans had three revolutions. Each time the kingdom fell into revolution the russians invaded and took Istanbul. Then revolutionaries spawned and flipped the ottos revolutionary. Rinse and repeat.
-Parma joined the empire, triggering the shadow kingdom event.
-The small tribe of Ottawa had a revolution that never went anywhere because even as their provinces were all occupied by the rebels, the rebels somehow decided they quite liked to continue being rebels and so never enforced demands and just sat there in the controlled ottawa capital until I came to bring them democracy, the american way.
I wanted to try the US experience from the historical american war of independence., and ended with a very fun (and wacky) playthrough. SinceI didn't start in 1776 (I had tried but my default armies are rubbish and my skill level's not that great, so I failed miserably) my leader wasn't the Continental Congress but some Prince Salisbury. I decided to run with it and turn the US into an oligarchical pseudo-republic under de facto hereditarial rule by the Salisbury family.
The war with the british was quite easy because their whole empire erupted in rebellion soon after the beginning of the game and they shipped most of their forces back, leaving me to fight against mostly Newfoundlandian regiments which were much easier to best. I got my independence and a few newfoundlandian provinces.
Then I picked expansion ideas and began expanding westwards, trying to annex and colonise as much as I could before New Spain got there (Spain went completely berserk on the americas here, almost always at war with a tribe or other.) Then I brought american democracy to greenland and iceland after sweden and prussia had crushed denmark on the mainland. The war took years because my navy got halved in the first naval battle and I had to build dozens of new ships from scratch.
Then I allied Ireland which had broken free from the British.
After that a brief war against Newfoundland to grab their eastern provinces (province cost was so low I could take it all in one go), and I finished my northern borders. Then the game ended but I was having too much fun to stop. I turned south and launched a couple of wars against Spanish Louisiana and Florida, cleaning up the south.
Then I ended my run by launcing a couple of colonialist wars that gave me control over sub-saharan west africa.
Wacky things:
- The ottomans had three revolutions. Each time the kingdom fell into revolution the russians invaded and took Istanbul. Then revolutionaries spawned and flipped the ottos revolutionary. Rinse and repeat.
-Parma joined the empire, triggering the shadow kingdom event.
-The small tribe of Ottawa had a revolution that never went anywhere because even as their provinces were all occupied by the rebels, the rebels somehow decided they quite liked to continue being rebels and so never enforced demands and just sat there in the controlled ottawa capital until I came to bring them democracy, the american way.
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My 54th EUIV run: Malwa.
Like I said last week, I wanted to play something in India. I was thinking about Orissa at first, but decided to go for Malwa instead - the main rival of Mewar. I think I ended up with really beautiful borders, I based them on Paramara dynasty's borders and a successful Malwi conquest of Rajasthan.
I think that Malwa has a pretty good start, it has a great ruler (5/5/6), who has careful personality. The economy is pretty strong, too, so you can afford level 1 advisors very early. The only problem is that almost everyone in India rivals you, but I managed to deal with it. My 1st war was with Mewar, they start with 2 trading centres and a gold mine that are just inviting you for conquest. After a few retries I managed to beat them and take most of their country, after that Gujarat and Sindh finished them off. Gujarat actually grew pretty strong, they even allied with Jaunpur, it didn't allow me to attack them early on.
Eventually, Bengal stopped rivaling me and became friendly, so I immediately allied them. Now I could finally attack Gujarat and break their alliance with Jaunpur. I took as much as I could from them and they never recovered from this war, in 2 more wars I fully annexed them. After that I had to fight with Delhi, my ex-ally Bengal, who decided to rival me again, and Vijayanagar. Soon enough I was the dominant power of India and no one could challenge my status anymore.
My vassals: Sindh, Punjab, Oudh, Bengal, Golkonda, Bijapur.
My allies: Persia, Uzbek.
Japan colonised most of Siberia, but in the late game got bullied by Manchu, Uzbek and Yue. They still have 1 colony left in Nenets lol.
Like I said last week, I wanted to play something in India. I was thinking about Orissa at first, but decided to go for Malwa instead - the main rival of Mewar. I think I ended up with really beautiful borders, I based them on Paramara dynasty's borders and a successful Malwi conquest of Rajasthan.
I think that Malwa has a pretty good start, it has a great ruler (5/5/6), who has careful personality. The economy is pretty strong, too, so you can afford level 1 advisors very early. The only problem is that almost everyone in India rivals you, but I managed to deal with it. My 1st war was with Mewar, they start with 2 trading centres and a gold mine that are just inviting you for conquest. After a few retries I managed to beat them and take most of their country, after that Gujarat and Sindh finished them off. Gujarat actually grew pretty strong, they even allied with Jaunpur, it didn't allow me to attack them early on.
Eventually, Bengal stopped rivaling me and became friendly, so I immediately allied them. Now I could finally attack Gujarat and break their alliance with Jaunpur. I took as much as I could from them and they never recovered from this war, in 2 more wars I fully annexed them. After that I had to fight with Delhi, my ex-ally Bengal, who decided to rival me again, and Vijayanagar. Soon enough I was the dominant power of India and no one could challenge my status anymore.
My vassals: Sindh, Punjab, Oudh, Bengal, Golkonda, Bijapur.
My allies: Persia, Uzbek.
Japan colonised most of Siberia, but in the late game got bullied by Manchu, Uzbek and Yue. They still have 1 colony left in Nenets lol.
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The new patch has fixed the Ottoman death blob, Ottomans currently have the world's 4th largest army somehow and are allied to Russia that has the largest army. But at least I have a way in Ottomans are allied to Tunis. I can force them to break their alliance with Russia then swoop in.
BRA > PRU > GER
Slow and comfy campaign. Nothing special. Modest Germany was the goal; my first since dear old patch 1.10, and I got a few cheevos along the way. Allied with Russia, Netherlands, and France. Poland got off to a very hot first century and Muscovy was on the ropes. They called me in once but I wasn't strong enough. Live to fight another day. That day was the League War. I left my Austrian ally, nurtured Friesland into the Netherlands out of Austria's inheritance, who never really recovered after that. They owned far too much German land for their own good, and always end up a convenient punching bag. Poland was gradually beaten back after taking big chunks of Russia proper. The only reason I ever allied France was because Spain and GB both pushed her to the point of irrelevance. I am a kind and enlightened Germany, so I saved them; one war for each of her aggressors. The Swedes did well with me by their side, and finally went Protestant in one of my games. We were allied for a good 200 years, but they had Schleswig Holstein as well as Hamburg, and I had a nation to unite. The Ottomans took advantage of a weakened Austria and Poland, while forging the unholy alliance with Russia. Their undoing was their guarantee of the Kingdom of Whocares. I called in our common ally of Russia, along with the Dutch and the Swedes. Eventually of course they came back, annexing Poland and Lithuania. I didn't like to border the Turks so far north so I made them cough them back up. The Ottomans declared on PLC again in the mid 1810s, and their only ally Russia got caught with their pants down in China, so I had to play hero. I politely asked the Ottomans to back down, knowing full well they weren't going to, so with an eye on the time, I went full blitzkrieg on them, hoovering up their stacks in Siberia while fort hopping in Europe and the near East. Lithuania our war leader only just peaced out at 99% in mid 1820.
Some notes:
Very nice Western Europe borders.
Prussian Monarchy malus is a lot easier to nullify than I expected.
Considering my modest expansion, I was generous with developing my tax base. I took the Expand Temple Rights as planned to boost my income and it felt effective. Tax remained a high proportion of my income for the whole game.
Tying leader limit to force limit was a stroke of genius.
Protestant is a lot stronger with the additional aspects and associated zeals.
Full Professionalism and over 200% drill gain is OP.
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Save converted from CK3. I made sure to hold Sinai at the end of CK3 for easier time transfering troops between Mediteranean and Asia. Quickly expanded onto East Africa for that virtual end node in Zanzibar, then onto Malacca node. Then I decided to focus on trade after finding my trade income to be like 80% of my total. From then on I avoided taking more land and instead started pumping out ships and became a Naval Hegemon.
Some time after Global Trade spawned in Zanzibar node I decided to route trade around Africa and moved my main trade city to Devon in English Channel. Been collecting from there ever since. By 1743 I was routing trade from Canton -> Philippines -> Moluccas -> Malacca -> Bengal -> Doab -> Deccan -> Coromandel -> Gujarat -> Gulf of Aden -> Zanzibar -> Cape of Good Hope -> Ivory Coast -> Caribbean -> Chesapeake Bay -> Gulf of St Lawrence -> North Sea -> English Channel, multiplying at least 112% whenever my merchant's involved.
7 Ideas taken so far are all focused on trade through direct bonuses and policies. The 8th idea will be Offensive for another 10% Trade Efficiency. After that I'll be sinking those British ships to further my dominance on the end node, as well as sink other's ships along the whole chain so more trade values go through. Maybe I'll force a few of them to transfer trade power to me while I'm at it depending on whether I'm able to beat another 11 nations with bigger armies.
Some time after Global Trade spawned in Zanzibar node I decided to route trade around Africa and moved my main trade city to Devon in English Channel. Been collecting from there ever since. By 1743 I was routing trade from Canton -> Philippines -> Moluccas -> Malacca -> Bengal -> Doab -> Deccan -> Coromandel -> Gujarat -> Gulf of Aden -> Zanzibar -> Cape of Good Hope -> Ivory Coast -> Caribbean -> Chesapeake Bay -> Gulf of St Lawrence -> North Sea -> English Channel, multiplying at least 112% whenever my merchant's involved.
7 Ideas taken so far are all focused on trade through direct bonuses and policies. The 8th idea will be Offensive for another 10% Trade Efficiency. After that I'll be sinking those British ships to further my dominance on the end node, as well as sink other's ships along the whole chain so more trade values go through. Maybe I'll force a few of them to transfer trade power to me while I'm at it depending on whether I'm able to beat another 11 nations with bigger armies.
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Netherlands, 1658. (Ongoing)
"The Dutch Colonial Empire in the late 1650s began to suffer from commercial decline and unrest in its colonies of Antillen and Nederlandsch Indie. Eise von Oranje rules the increasingly developed Dutch lands after devastating wars against the Habsburg Empire and the Kingdom of Portugal, where Dutch soldiers fought from Lisbon to Vienna, with the Dutch navy indisputably dominant at sea."
View attachment 5.png
"The Dutch Colonial Empire in the late 1650s began to suffer from commercial decline and unrest in its colonies of Antillen and Nederlandsch Indie. Eise von Oranje rules the increasingly developed Dutch lands after devastating wars against the Habsburg Empire and the Kingdom of Portugal, where Dutch soldiers fought from Lisbon to Vienna, with the Dutch navy indisputably dominant at sea."
View attachment 5.png
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I usually make my maps in Paint.net, is just editing some effects and trowing bmp images from the game and some historical arts or CoA.
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Tried to get Big Blue Blob with France and manged even with the mistake of declaring noCB war at the start of game.
I didnt annex Orleans as I wanted to get "One Family to Rule them All' and Orleans have Valois ruler. Northern route is pretty ok I guess its even easier if you dont summon a lot of AE from the start as I did.
Beside this Ill try to get Better than Napoleon achievement and maybe some other too
I didnt annex Orleans as I wanted to get "One Family to Rule them All' and Orleans have Valois ruler. Northern route is pretty ok I guess its even easier if you dont summon a lot of AE from the start as I did.
Beside this Ill try to get Better than Napoleon achievement and maybe some other too
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I did not use a ruler as a proper English lad would, but I painted the world in different colours:
Fourth world conquest for me, first one in years, this time while giving most provinces to subjects immediately. I inherited Naples in 1744 (and couldn't spit them out again as a vassal because Aragon forced their culture on them), but before that, Spanish Europe only went up to Genoa. Otherwise, the only non-colony provinces I'm holding are on the Philippines, Sulawesi, and all the tiny island tags in the Pacific.
Personal unions are Austria and GB (via missions), Ethiopia (dynasty spread via favours), and the Commonblob (who spread their dynasty to me twice, once while they were still in electoral). Everybody else is a vassal.
The initial regions of expansion were the Americas and the middle east. No-CB on Byzantium for the reconquest and then their mission claims; then first released Syria and then (just for the hell of it) Jerusalem via decision, who I just gave the Syrian cores after integrating them. Otherwise, the vassals did almost all the coring themselves - Naples got a pre-cored province because Poland gave it to me and it wasn't adjacent to them at the time, I initially took Sofala and Quelimane for myself before giving them to Antemoro for the better name placement, and Japan got the east siberian coastline to fix theirs as well.
I'm honestly pretty impressed with the vassal AI. I did pay off a lot of debts over the course of the campaign, but considering the overextention and near-constant state of war, they have not been in crippling debt very often. Vassals on scutage (which I probably should've used more often) didn't have any trouble staying afloat on their own. The biggest annoyance of this vassal-heavy style, apart from performance getting worse and worse during war, were the constant rebels from land revocation every time I was at peace for a few months.
One thing I really liked about this run was the opportunity to take Naval ideas completely unironically. Its policy with Expansion gives -20% liberty desire from devolopment, which stacked with the Age of Rev ability basically kept everybody in line. Getting effectively +3 siege progress to all coastal sieges for free is honestly pretty nice on its own, too.
Idea groups were Explo->Influence, Expantion, Naval, Offensive, Diplo, Humanist, and Explo again. I would've taken Religious last for another -10% liberty desire from dev policy with Explo, although that turned out to be unnecessary.
The biggest AIs, apart from the PUs before I PUed them, were Bengal, Shun (who Bengal started to beat up right when I was getting around to that, too), Transoxiana, and Bavaria (2nd largest German power after I disbanded the HRE). The Mamluks grew big, as they do when there's no Ottomans around, but I fought them pretty early.
Economy:
Ledger overview of all the subjects:
Rebels in 1713:
Fourth world conquest for me, first one in years, this time while giving most provinces to subjects immediately. I inherited Naples in 1744 (and couldn't spit them out again as a vassal because Aragon forced their culture on them), but before that, Spanish Europe only went up to Genoa. Otherwise, the only non-colony provinces I'm holding are on the Philippines, Sulawesi, and all the tiny island tags in the Pacific.
Personal unions are Austria and GB (via missions), Ethiopia (dynasty spread via favours), and the Commonblob (who spread their dynasty to me twice, once while they were still in electoral). Everybody else is a vassal.
The initial regions of expansion were the Americas and the middle east. No-CB on Byzantium for the reconquest and then their mission claims; then first released Syria and then (just for the hell of it) Jerusalem via decision, who I just gave the Syrian cores after integrating them. Otherwise, the vassals did almost all the coring themselves - Naples got a pre-cored province because Poland gave it to me and it wasn't adjacent to them at the time, I initially took Sofala and Quelimane for myself before giving them to Antemoro for the better name placement, and Japan got the east siberian coastline to fix theirs as well.
I'm honestly pretty impressed with the vassal AI. I did pay off a lot of debts over the course of the campaign, but considering the overextention and near-constant state of war, they have not been in crippling debt very often. Vassals on scutage (which I probably should've used more often) didn't have any trouble staying afloat on their own. The biggest annoyance of this vassal-heavy style, apart from performance getting worse and worse during war, were the constant rebels from land revocation every time I was at peace for a few months.
One thing I really liked about this run was the opportunity to take Naval ideas completely unironically. Its policy with Expansion gives -20% liberty desire from devolopment, which stacked with the Age of Rev ability basically kept everybody in line. Getting effectively +3 siege progress to all coastal sieges for free is honestly pretty nice on its own, too.
Idea groups were Explo->Influence, Expantion, Naval, Offensive, Diplo, Humanist, and Explo again. I would've taken Religious last for another -10% liberty desire from dev policy with Explo, although that turned out to be unnecessary.
The biggest AIs, apart from the PUs before I PUed them, were Bengal, Shun (who Bengal started to beat up right when I was getting around to that, too), Transoxiana, and Bavaria (2nd largest German power after I disbanded the HRE). The Mamluks grew big, as they do when there's no Ottomans around, but I fought them pretty early.
Economy:
Ledger overview of all the subjects:
Rebels in 1713:
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How are you not losing an absolutely crippling amount of diplo mana due to going over your relations cap? (I count 24ish non-colonial subjects, and you're clearly not doing the HRE vassal cheese.)
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What's 12 diplo points per month between friends?
I'm on a different PC right now, but I think 24 is the correct number. But between ideas (+3 from Expansion, Diplo, Influence), Policies (+2: Humanist/Influence and Offensive/Influence, the latter is a Mil policy), Strong Duchies estate privilege (+2), and the Representatives of the Crown government reform (+1), you end up with a max of twelve diplomatic relations before paying upkeep.
And in the later stages of the game, that is genuinely not the end of the world. Bird mana income is...
3 (base value)
+5 (advisor)
+1 (burgher privilege)
+1 (PP > 50, which it is permanently once you're a hegemon)
+2 (national focus - it's not like I'm wanting for Admin or Mil points)
...so 12 + whatever my monarch's skill is, which means that even Enrique would break even. I believe my last two rulers had a 3 and (currently) a 6 in Dip, which was enough to slowly fill out Exploration ideas again and catch up on tech afterwards (helped by a very low price between ideas and a golden age).
I should say that my speed of conquest was fairly slow before Imperialism became available. If I remember correctly, post-Imperialism subjects include Japan, the three Chinese tags, Dai Viet, Taungu, Gujarat, Denmark, Austria and GB (conquering all those lowland provinces to get the Restore Union CB is pretty rough on the AE, if Burgundy decides to rival you), Kitara, Kano, and the PLC. Not counting the last one, since I was permanently allied to them until I got their dynasty on my throne, that's minus 12 subjects, so even though I didn't have all 12 diplo slots at the time, I paid a pretty modest amount of diplo points for a long time, and often not even any upkeep at all.
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You can also get +5 relation slots from monuments (3 easily, with the I can't spell it Palace in Burma giving 2, and Petra 1, and there's one in Peru too which would give another 2 but colonial nations make having that unfeasible unless you one tag - but then you don't need the relations).
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Yeah, missing out on most of the monuments is a big power loss in general. I was considering taking some small exclaves (for example Palestine, Mecca, and that Norwegian province for the missionaries), but felt that it would go against the spirit of the run.