1564:
Ferdinand wasn't in his room. On the table, though, was a piece of paper. It was his will, written because the emperor was in a very bad shape from a wound gotten from a hunting accident. In this paper stood this:
"I leave all my possessions, including but not limited to my country, my heritage from other countries, my Turkish gain, my army, my imperial palace, my refineries, my vassals, my other imperial palace, my servants and my two cats and five kittens to my son, Maximilian II." and a whole other lot of nonsense. It turned out to be necessary, as on November 28th,
(not really ingame, but I can't give it to December always) the Emperor has finally passed away. After a big mourning, the new emperor was coronated though on New Year Day.
Yeah, so we got Maximilian II. I liked Ferdinand more but he's OK. No HREship though... that'll have to wait then.
1565-71:
-Let's see.- Maximilian leaned over the African map. -The Saharan Africa is very inhospitable, but easy to reach. I'll place colonies there. Then there's the Ivorian part, but that's yet out of reach. Alright.
-Colony master!-A man of around thirty ran into the room and saluted. -Here's a map, and I marked the target with an X. Sail there and establish trading posts, subjugate any natives that don't show signs of peace, and then colonise it. Report when you succeed.
-Yes, your Imperial majesty-the man replied, and walked out, taking the maps.
We went for Sahara. -Lololololol- you may say, but my thinking was thus: I'll get warped to Catholic anyway and then I'll have to wait for shipyards. So I'd better go for 1000 settlers... which don't reduce further and then who cares about -2%. Later we also went for Nigeria but as of yet failed to make much more than a mere trading post of Slaves there. There are so MANY natives, and so HORRIBLE attrition... Apparently, I forgot to write it down but Milan must have been vassalised by this time.
1573-74:
-Your Imperial Majesty, a war between France and Spain, the two foolish warmongers, broke out for the zillionth time.
-Great! At least they won't attack us. Oh, and I wanted to tell a target for your diplomats. Annex Baden.
-B...but what to tell them?
-That they're annexed. You don't want to lie, do they?
-Sir, let me remind you that they have an army of nigh 50000 at their disposal.
-Really? Well, there, we got territorial, provincial, military and perhaps even technological advantages. I'm sure that they will not be like those Bavarians.
Maximilian's voice was nothing like the voice his precedessors talked with about an annexation. It was more of casual. He was as confident, actually, in their success, as Turkey was in winning a Persian war around '60. Except that the Habsburgs succeeded, which is a HUGE difference.
Yeah, Baden and an army of 46000 inherited. A simple click of Annex. Barely any Catholic minors left by now, most are Protestant. Maybe we could force-convert some enemies though... WHADDAYA THINK OF THIS? France and his slaves stroke out versus Spain and his subjects. Eventually Spain ceded Roussilon to end the war.
1575:
-How long have we been out of war?
-Last time we were in armed conflicts, that was in 1557.
-Well, that was a good war. Let's make another and attack Turkey.
-I'm sure they'll be unoccupied by now, sir.
-Yeah, well... wait! We have an excellent leader, by your person, General Franz Josef. And I invented a new tactic.
-What is it?
-It's called Blitzkrieg. As the name implies, it's about quickly subjugating as much as possible and then taking as much as possible. The targets of this Blitzkrieg should be Bosnia and if possible, Temeschburg.
-Right then, sir. I'll get on it.
Did you know that Blitzkrieg was from the Austrians? 
February brought the declaration. We raised a few levies in January, to make a second army, and while Franz-Josef's regiment (actually, the stats are 3/3/3/1) waltzed through Bosnia, the second army went to attack Temeschburg via Hungary (generic army, no special leader) Franz-Josef was so powerful, not even the Turkish general could stop him, especially after capturing Bosnia and uniting with the other army (this combined army has been cut into two after the war), they attacked Temeschburg. Fearing Franz Josef will simply waltz right through the Turks, they offered Bosnia. And even though the general wanted more, after much talking, the Habsburgs accepted. Franz Josef was then sent to Bosnia to quell rebels.
1576-77:
Maximilian II wasn't in his room. On the table, though, was a piece of paper. It was his will, written because the emperor was in a very bad shape from a wound gotten from an experimental arquebus accident. In this paper stood this:
"I leave all my possessions, including but not limited to my country, my heritage from other countries, my old and new Turkish gains, my ever-bolstered army, my imperial palace, my refineries, my vassals, my other imperial palace, my most skillful general Franz Josef, my servants and my two cats and five kittens to my son, Rudolf II." and a whole other lot of nonsense. It turned out to be necessary, as on December 16th, the Emperor has finally passed away. After a big mourning, the new emperor was coronated though on New Year Day.
A normal period, save for the monarch change. African Nouadibuh is now almost a full-fledged town. Also, in an interesting sequence of events, Pommerania is annexed by Brandenburg.
