Bohemian Empire: Part 03: 1466-1484: Bohemian Crystal

So far my track record of wars:

• Teutons - technically a draw, but I got Stettin, which turned out to be a lot less useful than I thought
• Venice - loss
• Hungary - win, got Slovakia
• Wolgast - win, converted 4 minors
• Venice - extremely bloody draw, really I lost piles of gold
• Hungary - win, got PU

I wanted to improve my track record, so I attacked Bosnia, hoping to chain it into a bunch of easy vassalization wars.

Unfortunately my targets attacked each other, dragging me into awkward truces and non-cobeligerent wars, and then Ottomans and even Ragusa wanted some of that land as well, so I only managed to setup fairly small Bosnia for all that effort, and got some cash from the rest.

Then I tried to spread Hussite faith to HRE minors.

Cologne got annexed, and Austria nominated Ansbach to be became replacement elector.

Austria called me into their reconquest of Trieste against Venice. It's only fair, I'm the reason they lost it in the first place. It was far too long as AI wars tend to be, and I helped a lot. Austria got its province back, and I got two provinces on Dalmatian coast.

During that war I finally finished Balkan wars, getting what's left of Serbia and Byzantium as vassals.

You can probably guess where that's going.

Varna will not be forgotten

My original plan included Wallachia as extra vassal, and a few more provinces for my vassals Bosnia, Serbia, Byzantium, but Ottomans and Ragusa snatched them first

Austria/HRE and Poland/Lithuania/Danzig both rivalled Ottomans, and owe me a lot of favors.

Brandenburg and Hesse likely won't join as it's too distant for them.

Meanwhile my economy is booming. One of my provinces had its Glass turn into Gems. Overall my economic success is crazy. I make more money than any other Christian country, in spite of terrible trade situation, and only a third of it from gold. Only Mamluks, and Ottomans make more, and not by much.

I took diplomatic and administrative as first two idea groups. I'm not sure what to take as third.

I can't really colonize or even conquer much outside Europe so exploration and expansion are not really useful, at least not yet.

I don't have terribly much need for either Humanist or Religious. As Bohemia I get very high tolerance of heretics for free (+3 tolerance and -1 unrest from national ideas, +2 tolerance from estates, plus some other easy to get bonuses), so extra heretics don't bother me terribly much. Maybe if I ever expand beyond the Balkans it would make sense to take Religious?

Influence would be obvious for all the subjects, but it recently got nerfed and lost its AE discount, which was huge part of its appeal.

Trade is good for most nations, but I make like 2.5 / 40 of my income from trade, and I have easier path to making HRE Hussite than to conquering an end node.

There are some low tier ideas like Innovative, Economic, and Espionage.

So maybe some military idea? They always feel like a waste, but I wouldn't completely hate winning battles more easily, or actually having some manpower for a change.

I've not been too aggressive at spreading the Hussite faith

Centers of Reformation only convert Catholics, so once Protestantism hits, it will pass over Hussite HRE minors, and fast convert remaining Catholic ones.

If I succeed at liberating Constantinople I'll take it as a sign from God and try to form a Hussite League

I could also get PU CBs on Poland and Brandenburg, and perma claims on half of Austria, but backstabbing strong allies might not be the best idea right now.