I took the bite in the end , and launched the attack on Austria.
I tried to take make the most of my advantages:
0-Ottomans had low manpower (Russia on my side too) and Austria had a low number of troops at the start of the war.
1-Military ideas: I was the only one with 2 military ideas fully unlocked: Quality and Offensive. Initially I intended to unlock Maritime at level 14, but when all the superpowers joine d the other side, I had a change of mind. Every other superpower had only fully offensive with exception of Austria (defensive) and Spain (Quantity, without the last 2 quantity ideas).
Also I had professionalism at 100%, and when the war started my armies were almost fully drilled.
2-Infinite source of money: when the war started I had 20k in the treasury. I went slightly over my force limit on land (121 vs 109 limit( and heavily on thesea (up to 190 vs 120 limit).
Ottomans were still in the process of rebuilding their fleet and this allowed me to keep on check the wholeMediterranean. Luckily British navy stayed on the sea, as also most of colonial fleets went there instead of the Mediterranean., blocking the passage at the Gulf of Almeria. Still had lots of heavy Spanish and French heavies to be aware of, but some early victories reduced their threat.
3-The advantage on the sea proved to be decisive. I had territories in Africa which attracted Spanish ,Portuguese, and initially part of the French troops. I took fully advantage of the fact that I was the only one who cold move fast my troops using the transport ships between my North African territories blitzing the AI medium-small armies (5k-12k).
My initial move was to take few strategical forts in the alps: Savoie, Inntal, Etchland. With those under my control+ Milan on the protestant league, I would be sure that in the worst case scenario I could use the Alps as a shield and destroy the enemy when they'd try to attack those forts. Also they were essential to give me freedom of movement.
I had a general since a few years with 5 siege pips. One of the 2 I recruited on the dawn of the war had 3. With those 2 and many cannons units I took the 3 within a few months, and started to venture outside to take more forts : Lyon, Auxerre, Liege, France-Comte, Brisgau. The fact that all those forts were level 2, while technologyy had reached level 14 meant that it didn't take long to conquer those.
All thise initial phase lasted about 18 months. I played only a few battles in the European continent during this time frame, when I had the chance to defeat some small armies (5-10k) getting too close to mine. I lost relatively few troops (only 10k in battles) mostly due to attrition. But overall my manpower remained constant (very close at max)/
In the meanwhile, my allies were being beaten repeatdly by the French with the help of some Spanish troops. The Austrian started with few troops. About 10 years ealier France attacked Austria (back when France was allied with me) ,calling me into the war and Austria lost the whole army and got near to 0 manpower.Then about 5-4 years before the religious war they lost another war inside the HRE . The defeat must have been very hard as Austria was forced to revoke an imperial reform. So Austria didn't do much in the beginning. Another important factor was that Spain has peasants rebels in its territories, which presumably slowed them down.
During this phase my side took way more casualties, about 30%-40% more casualties, and in the worst moments the enemy's alliance had nearly twice the amount of troops.
Russia was on my side, and their troops didn't prove to be very effective. But the key advantage they provided was that they kept busy the ottomans, Sweden, Norway, Livonian, Riga e part of Bohemian troops for all this phase.
After I conquered the those 7 forts (I also took Paris, as it could have possibly given me the chance to white peace with France should I have needed), the odds of the war started to spectacularly turn in my favor. As I gained geographical advantage in the Germany's area, I could easily isolate the Franch armies and wipe them out. At one point, all within 6-9 months France had remained with 12k troops and just 20k manpower reserves. At this stage I leave alone the remaining French armies to move my attentions on the british/scottish armies disembarking in the area of Bremen/Ditmarshen and the Austrian/Bohemian/Saxonian/Ottomans(only a fifth of their army) troops in the east side of Germany/Austria.
My troops at this stage were so divided: 45k wiping the disembarking british troops, 45k dealing with the east side and 30k being moved by sea as they were required supporting the east side and harassing the invading Portuguese/French/Spanish armies in North Africa. I found that destroying the invading armies in North Africa and then leaving was very effective against the AI as the AI after having part of their armies destroyed would turn back to France (left unprotected). This going back and forth between France and Algeria, made them waste lots of months while I could move within 20 days.
After regaining full control in the north of Germany, I moved those troops to conquer first Saxony then Boehmia, along with the other 45k that was already there. Vienna was also occupied in the process.
In the best moment during this phase my alliance had nearly 15% more troops more then the enemy (considering they had a fewn months before twice the troops compared to my side, it was a huge swing in my favor). The problem with the AI is that, not matter how you beat it, if you give it time, it will reform its armies very quickly.
France , Spain and Portugal quickly rebuilt the stack that were wiped out. I move half of my troops to France but I was outnumbered, wone a few small battles but then lost a big one (even though I still inflicted more lost then the ones I suffered). To not put everything gained so far in geopardy, I quickly made peace with France (I was able to also get a few coins ).
At this stage I thought the war was in my hands, and I started to think how to close this war. I decided to use 60% of my troops to deal with Spain and Portugal once for all, and 40% to make Sweden and Norway surrender. The campaign against Sweden and Norway proved to be easy: the bulk of their troops were in Ukraine. On the way to the Scandinavian lands I destroyed again some newly disembarked British stacks. Within 15 motnhs I made Sweden surrender (was ablt to ask some money too). Those troops were sent to complete the conquest of Bohemian troops. Don't know why, but they were quite passive and didn't reform their army.
The war against Spain and Portugal proved to be way more difficult and longer. Eventually I maanged to make peace with Spain and Portugal getting also some money in the process.
The last part was to subdue the Ottomans who also rebuilt their army. I maanged to gain some good score. I could have gained 100% if my allies helpded in the process (they were the only one in the continental part of Europa left to fight along with Albania). My AI allies unfortunately stalled (they were very effective in the first half of the war) so I left asking whatever money I could, plus some land for Chili as I was reaching my limit with the manpower. Then I made peace with Austria with 100% score.
