7. Projecting that power
Exploration idea group is taken and due to still having Emil as a ruler with juicy -25% idea cost, first 3 ideas are taken which allows us to establish a colony in Gros Friedrichsburg, our staging port for our upcoming operations.
Gotta love dynamic province names
Bohemia was the only non-reformed, non-catholic elector and as victory in league war automatically removes electorate from everybody who's not winner's faith they became sole elector in the HRE. They got force vassalized for that to ensure they'll vote only for us once Emil dies.
Basically 6th imperial reform passed, without passing 6th reform.
Quick war against papal state, unfortunately I've dismissed a pop up after stackwipe of routed Papal armies in Romagna.
Papal state cedes Rome (everything beyond that would provoke coalition as in Rome there's staggering 34 development), the reward for that is an extra missionary and a bit of yearly prestige.
Few provinces were added into Empire to strengthen our authority inside HRE. Reward for that is passing 2nd (extra diplomat and +1 diplomatic reputation) and 3rd imperial reform (+0.5 legitimacy and -10% coring cost).
There are severe penalties for reform passing if you're overextended so keep that in mind when you're adding land to HRE in order to pass reforms. It's always better to do it while having 0% overextension.
A claim was made for Aragonese held Sardinia as we're not directly bordering them for cleansing heresy CB.
But the real goal is not Sardinia - it's Iberia. Iberia is geographically and culturally isolated so taking land there will only anger Iberians and France. Plus half of the Iberia is controlled by Morocco, which won't bat an eye.
Silly Russia, this is not how you fight wars. Russia went bankrupt shortly after 2nd war with them and they're in non-stop bankruptcy spiral.
My personal observation is that in 1.20 where you can go voluntarily bankrupt countries go bankrupt more often and often end up in horrible bankruptcy spirals even with full revanchism which was designed to prevent this.
The result is 100% peace deal, 154 development.
The peace deal was carefully tailored to take full 100% worth of occupied provinces (unoccupied provinces do cost more warscore in a peace deal).
Time to show Iberians how reconquista is done.
As our navy no longer fights in inland seas it's time to switch from galleys to heavies.
Tlemcen and Tunis also joined the war, but they're no match for Prussian soldiers. And in the end they're forced to annul aliances.
111 development with 50% increased coring cost, luckily for us these cores will expire and most of them will be fed to Portugal anyway.
Portugal is released as vassal and forced to become Protestant so they'll convert land for us, if released as a vassal Portugal takes religious as 4th idea group which makes converting Sunni land easier.
Map reveals for us and we discover Ming sitting at 100 mandate with all reforms passed. Scary

The ongoing war is against Crimea, not much to say as it was a mere landgrab to access Shivran and Nogai.
We're slowly making our towards Ming.
As it's now year 1600 it's time to peek into ledger - countries sorted by development.
Countries sorted by standing army size.
That Ming

Also France, Ottomans and Denmark made a triple alliance of doom
Global trade spawns and age of absolutism is imminent.
Due to nearby colony we get a holy war CB on Kilwa. Time to start projecting our power into different corners of the world and start monopolizing Zanzibar trade node. Cape is already controlled by us so there won't be anyone stealing trade from Zanzibar node.
What's so interesting at Zanzibar node?
It has only one outgoing node which can be also easily monopolized so there won't be any competitors trade power propagated upstream which in the end results in absolute control of Zanzibar node which basically makes it an endnode to which you can steer trade from India, Indonesia and China in order to make absurd money.
I foresee this will get even more ridiculous with new changes to trade company provinces.
Maldives are attacked and annexed thanks to the claim made from Diego Garcia, our colony.
Another war against Russia, which is still enjoying bankruptcy loop. This time no battles were fought.
As annexation process of Karelia has finished Perm is released as a vassal and will be fed rest of Russia.
Perm, when released, takes religious as 1st idea group and administrative as 4th idea group which makes them an ideal vassal for feeding a lot of land.
Vinegar is attacked and stomped. A base in India will be established soon.
In the end just 3 provinces are taken so noone in India apart from Vinegar cares.
My general rule in these proxy war is to cause only enough AE so nations which I will have truce with could only join, but due to to truce and improve relation the AE will be gone once the truce is over.
Threaten war is used for Ibonia, this way we'll have a staging port there and also Holy War CB.
Time to feed Portugal a bit more. Morocco renewed alliance with Tunis, but they're both badly beaten in their attempt to recapture Moroccan capital Fez.
In the end just four provinces are taken as our AE in that corner of the world is still quite high, time for us to shift attention.
Age of reformation ends, long live age of absolutism!
The age has barely started and we already have fulfilled 4 of age objectives!