Byzantium AAR part 3 - to unite the world with fire

This is where we left off
On diplo view to save you the border gore...hope i can fix that

And while I do have france and russia, which have colonies everywhere...
I still can see shit

Spain puts up a fight, but frenchmen just pour in
Still, i'm not a leader in this war, and I keep forgetting to flip province ownership..

While that happens, I keep an eye on possible PU targets
And GB is without an heir, yet again. No, must resist. I mean, their capital is hard to get to and my army sucks. Let alone my navy. We already established AI under PU is retarded, so I can't count on France.

See, queens tend to be built to last
Love my queens. Also the austrian heir could've died instead of the king - it would be too perfect.

Seriously, what was spain thinking?

Here's my prepping to sell roma to siena, so it would core
Didn't know about the event for catholics someone told me in the comments. Thanks!

Here's what happens

And here's my solution
You will be orthodox, dammit

Please, venice.
I'm still going to erase you.

Because Croatia is a competent vassal
And fabricates claims galore. Russia seems to have stopped and so does France

Like, see brittany?
France will not try to claim it for the rest of the game.

The spanish armada is scary this game
Even with glass bottoms

My pants acquire a brown tint
My heir died and my queen is 68 years old....Apparently, a noble from my own house would succed (but britain and moldavia are same dinasty, so wouldn't they inherit me? i'm confus). Or, I dunno, a croatian lineage would take over. I pray a lot.

Austria DoWs commonwealth
Good, because my war with them is going badly.

Things go well.
Except not. They're the military apex here. That 27 stack wipes out a russian 50 with ease.

What
Again, What? My queen gets together with a lady and out walks a baby boy with no martial prowess. Of course his claim is weak, but I take it.

Not this time, pretenders
Not this time.

Also, notice the battle screen. Their army is just too superior. But I didn't notice. I mean, I'm used to my army sucking.

Oh, really
France is mine. Pax romana pax infinita

but then I notice something
Like, both my PUs are hostile to me. I hate myself in other courts. What in the fuck? Serbia was the same - doesn't matter if I took the throne or not. Paradox please fix. My vassals don't hate me that much.

See?
They're happy to be blobed.

First of many
Against my favorite punch bag, Spain

I keep expecting a declaration that never comes after this
Sissies.

So I ally (and RM) Sweden, just to have allies and give people pause
Central europe could do a number on me

Not the iberians tho
We wipe the floor with them

One is a military idiot
The heir is an idiot, but a huge one

You were orthodox before anyone else
Why would you take so long? But, come on...

And Done!
Take that, catholics!

Something I keep forgeting to show you
Just how many cultures are accepted, thanks humanist ideas. This gives me quite a lot less trouble.

I got some lands from spain, I'll make a vassal here
but I'll convert it to orthodox first

Like yemen

Still 4 provinces short

Lets take some more people?
But I back off, fearing I can't take austria yet....not yet

Why do I get CBs against my PU partner, paradox?
I mean, I should only get "Restore union" CBs when they break it. Otherwhise, this just hurt relations.

Also, something else paradox
Everything's fine with you guys trying to spice up the game by adding more provinces. But, in this case, you forgot to add a claim for bardyiah on the recover alexandria mission (which still pops up even if i'm only missing 1 province)

Yay, one more!

That stack sure is scary

But ottomans fell behind in tech and never recover
And GB goes at it again

connecting the empire

Since I hardly play nations that get colonial nations, this surprises me
I mean, this should be handled on the new world exclusively but noooo

This surprises me even more
Didn't know it could happen

Well, truce is up and everyone hates them
And I did some catching up no tech

I just didn't westernize
And they did, and this is the results - 2 whole techs ahead of me, and wiping me out. France is nowhere to be found.

Yemen can find its way into the fray
but france? nah

Finally getting rid of ragusa
I mean, helping it

I'm not suffering from lack of manpower
Just of how to apply it efficienctly

New events, just in case you didn't get them yet
First option is this. The first one is the only logical conclusion

See, my best general, with 100k troops
Gets defeated by 40k troops

I have to give up a little land
To stem the tide

Horrible, transilvania is released again, and wallachia
Oh, my balkans

Out of nowhere

Goddamn british colony against a french colony

Lets keep them afloat
While I try to unify more parts of italy

See, i forgot to do this

I answer, hoping to get those lands back
Surely, scandinavia's army better than mine

They already took the capital
Shit

...yay....

Their armies are worst than mine

While france is still sitting pretty

My vassal
I forgot you. I declare on the blue contry for my vassals core

And again and again and again!

Thanks for the honor!
But I have no way to reach you

France is target of a coalition that I'm not

But I didn't forget yemen. Lets get some of its lands back from hedjaz
Like, all of them

Once, hedjaz was all of this and yemen was forgotten

Treaties are nice, right?
Also, border gore

I dare you guys to get byzantium written as ridiculous as this

...yay, more provinces for me to core
Like I wasn't behind in tech already, and no, france won't take them even for free

Oh look
I do it

But I lose before i'm able to declare war, because GB is my ally against ottomans

Not a problem apparently
The kind dies and the heir is too young. Also, almost all of them are George

So we go for another round

And wrap up the ottomans
So I can declare on britain

Troops in position

Russia almost done integrating

Done
Yay!!!

It bankrupts me because it pushes me over the forcelimit

But nothing can stop the invasion now
gee, I sure hope france helps

Here's a tactic straight from Vic2
There's always a problem in reaching london, in that GB will always keep a megastack home policing the shores after you. So, instead of a piecemeal amphibious attack, you cross from ireland with a megastack after transporting everyone, since you'll hardly have 150 transports to do it in one go. Let's see how it works. France is just fine watching, apparently...and GB's navy is absent, thankfully