Montferrat: Part 03: 1467-1482: Great Power Montferrat

I had quick war with Provence for their coastline and humiliation. France started to meddle in Italian affairs - they allies Venice and Lucca, and warned me against going to war with any of their neighbors. Which is Papal States as the only one we share (they hold Avignon).

Pope was allied with Austria, and protected by France, so I just allied them as well, can't really fight them anyway, and they could be useful.

Then I had a show strength war against Milan to steal 3x100 of their mana. It's unclear what that's even supposed to represent, are we stealing holy relics from their churches so our clerics can cast stronger spells? Anyway, my AE was too high for taking any land. Best I could do was stack up diplomatic modifiers and look elsewhere.

Ottomans started their recovery by taking Karaman, which briefly swelled after Venice gave them a bunch of Ottoman lands. They also got Crimea as free march by event. If they were allowed to keep expanding, they could potentially threaten the Christian world again, so we had to strike before that happened.

After the war, I got all East Roman cores, released Bulgaria as a vassal, and got a few provinces on Anatolian coast with spare warscore. I finally became a Great Power, for now only #6. Of course the real reason I wanted Bulgaria is that it borders Serbia, and Serbia has gold mines, no allies, and generates almost no AE.

Even my AE it Italy is low enough now that I should be able to take over Milan in the next war. There are still significant challenges to connecting my realm into one and becoming the dominant power in the world, but it feels like the hard part is mostly over.

Castile is doing a bit too well, it took Portugal's throne by force. France is doing great as well. As is Venice, who'd be a great power if they counted by income. They all annoyingly want to interfere with Italian politics.

First Ottoman War we had 3:2 advantage. Second Ottoman War it's 3:1.

Super fast favor accumulation makes it way too easy to just use the AI to win your wars.

But I'm definitely loving not having magical straits crossings, I'll need to build a proper fleet now.

I might have to fight the Third Ottoman War alone, as my allies might consider it too distant next time.

My realm is big but divided into too many parts, with far too few ships. At some point I'll need to fight Venice and various minors to connect it all, but it shouldn't be too hard as long as France and Castile stay out of it.