Succession Wars: Part 10: 1599-1624: Roman Emperor and Hegemon Carlos I de Trastamara of Spain, France, and Bohemia

I was barely beginning my reign when the French decided to give me their throne. I allied a few countries I hoped to get like currently East Rome, Sweden, Bengal, and Annam, but so far 3 countries I got for free (Bohemia, France, Vijayanagar) were all by accident, and my many long term alliances with Austria (because it's HRE), Poland (because it's elective), and Pope (because it's Pope) are excluded from free subject events. So I'm not even close to really optimizing my way here.

I also inherited Vijayanagar by event. For the first 100 years felt like the mod barely makes any difference, and now it's overcompensating giving me free stuff all the time. I'll try to deal with mod balance at the end of the series.

The campaign reached the stage where AE is just a number. And for that matter so is money, as I struggle to find anything to build.

I just bought myself Bangkok from Ayutthaya with its 15% gov cap monument, because I had a ton of money, never enough gov cap, and I didn't want to open another front just yet.

There was a surprise opportunity to force vassalize the Pope, so I took it. That's also my 3rd HRE vassal elector, but getting vassal electors to vote for you is still a huge struggle, so I finally made a decision on take over or destroy.

HRE was rotting already, with 1 elector Ferrara under Polish PU, and 3 others - Teutonic Order, Cologne, and Papal States under my vassalage, so it was time to end it.

The war to destroy the Holy Roman Empire

Muscovy got entangled in this war through some alliance chain, so I broke Muscovy's alliance with East Rome's, and it was finally time to do a small detour and vassalize them as well.

The war was nastier than I expected. It was just 4 capitals to take - Gelre, Mainz, Wien, and Pest, but they changed hands multiple times. And level 6 forts started showing up. But in the end, there wasn't much Austria, Hungary, and assorted minors could do against me and Poland.

Now Rome and Constantinople are both held by my vassals, making me the true successor of the Roman Empire.

Absolutism started, and I'm not really sure how to get 100 max absolutism. Just mana and gov cap privileges really tank it, and court ideas -20% max absolutism loss from estate privileges is not meaningful enough. And I'd really rather not deal with Court and Country. I even rushed Nizwa monument for +10 absolutism, but I only got to 77 (80 if I got perfect legitimacy and religious unity, which is not easy while expanding). Harsh treatment discounts are stacked so high, that my absolutism is at max at all times.

I'll get remaining max absolutism eventually. Once I unlock Town Halls, I'll be able to drop gov cap privileges, and there are some government reforms that give absolutism.

I did a lot of expanding all over the world, trying to feed myself, my subjects, and my colonial nations.

To restore the Roman Empire you need to hold 425 of 475 provinces in its historical borders, and if I integrated my subjects I'd already be at 400, but by myself I'm still very far.

For world conquest progress, I'm at 49% of global dev (excluding uncolonized provinces), so maybe I could turn this "I'm going to play really chill" campaign into my first EU4 WC. Yes, mods make it easier (unintentionally), but if I wanted a "legit" WC I could roll back to 1.31.0 Leviathan, and it would be far easier than this.

Minor countries will be quickly swept away by diplomacy or force. HRE was just destroyed and two OPMs already got annexed (not by me), and three countries got vassalized (by me)

It's very satisfying to paint the map with unique Spanish gold color. I'd hate it if I still had Aragon salmon, just like Denmark, Poland, Hungary, and Milan.

Could this be a One Faith run too? Reformation got crushed early, all major colonizers were Catholic, Europe is mostly Catholic, and it's just Asia and North America that need a lot of converting. In most campaigns Protestant England and others would have pained half of North America blue by now, but we managed to avoid that.

I'm not sure if I can manage this, as I'm already pretty much maxed out on missionaries and missionary strength, and they're barely keeping up with my expansion. Soon I'll be expanding a lot faster.