I spent the next 8 years largely according to plan, waiting for the alliance of Spain-Austria-Poland-Venice to expire. I did no more than finish a few colonies, and war Lithuania for a second time, to take Masovia and vassalize them. I also got cores on Swedish held Finland around here.
During the 8 year wait indeed, neither of the alliance started a new war, the Portuguese/Danish alliance did, so alas for that target. The moment it expired, in august 1803, i invited the Austrians into my alliance with France, to which they agreed. I had gotten great relations with Spain too btw, courtesy of some event against Napoleon, so i asked if my by now arch enemy would join as well, and maybe in awe of my war tactics, they agreed.
I immediately went to play with my extreme alliance of Russia-France-Austria-Spain. Poland was now without an ally, and i dowed them, sending out six armies, into the three Baltic areas, Podolia, Volyn and Poltava, four of them fell in the first season. Austria meanwhile advanced on the Polish from the west, sandwiching them in a grand display. The Poles took Moldova and its surroundings, as well as the Transylvanian lands, who were stupid enough to ask Poland for an ally.
The next season Spain and France also entered the war zone with their armies, that had a slightly longer journey, they beat their armada, and captured Danzig and Poznan, while the Austrians took Krakow. Soon the Austrians pulled out of the war, taking their moldovan lands and vassalizing Transylvania. This dropped the warscore for a bit, no more allowing me to pick up the five cores and Poltava with its manufactory. A while later though, the other areas fell, we sieged Krakow from them, and stole some sieges from my warcompanions, and sued for peace for said six regions.
This single quick war eliminated poland pretty much from the map, giving me a land border with Austria.
Sweden was up next, i had some free cores on Finland, saw their tech was inferior, sent some presents to my allies and went on to the next war. Taking Finland was a piece of cake, i sent in four armies, assaulted the castles and got three out of four the first year. This wasnt enough however, as my allies were making a mess of things, landing army after army on Stockholm, where from what i saw about 70 infantry kicked them back in the sea. The spanish even went out of the war early and gave them money. In the end i had to go in myself, creating my first european fleet to ship over the infantry and cannons, the Swedish did have lost naval power in the area.
The sieging and beating armies of the Swedish went rather easy, but their diplomats were very steadfast, in the end i had to take each and every province of them before they were willing to give up Finland, including military access for the next war. (Rest assured though LS
, Skane was safely in English hands for the whole time. )The final five years of the game i decided to have some fun with my extreme alliance, and i dowed the Portuguese with them. My only target was Danish ally owned Osterbrotten, but i wanted to have a look at the grand melee. it would be numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5 of europe against number 3 and 7, in hindsight maybe i should've dowed england as well, to have a grand superpower war at the end. The Danish and Portuguese were all over america and africa as well, so things would be fun.
Portugal were the alliance leader, so i dowed them, my armies ready to take Osterbotten, but the Danish were afraid of us, and left the alliance. War started on Portugal as i waited for another diplomat, and when it came dowed Denmark as well, who had by then again invited the unlucky Polish.
The Polish were grandly kicked once again, as i took Krakow and Wielskopolska from them. The Portuguese and Danish however, were having fun on the other end of the world, racing trough Spanish south america, and French north america. I was sieging provinces around Lappland greatly as well during that time, but the warscore was -30 against both of them.
Soon the Spanish were out of the war, giving up uruguayan areas, chilean areas, the trade center in sacramento surrounded by my provinces, and even two Spanish mainland areas. A little while later they also sued for peace against the Danes, giving up lands as far in Mexico. France was having a similar experience with the Danish, and sued for peace giving up great strips of land around New York and Quebec. The Polish went out of the war as well, but less fortunate, the Austrians grabbed some more lands, while i took Wielskopolska to disconnect their capitol.
With the war a lot smaller the warscores were more to my liking, both around +10, and staying around there, the Portuguese and Danish won points by keeping control of their northern Germany areas like Holstein, while i gained points fending off their feeble attempts around the US west coast and Mexico. The end date of the game approaching i accepted peace from Portugal, i was aiming to get Sacramento from them to collect my us west coast, but after they landed 12 defending infantry i gave up on that and took a lot of gold instead.
This was somewhat erroneous, as the Portuguese held Bremen, making me unable to reinforce the siege in Holstein, and from the Danes i really wanted Osterbotten. In the end i decided to reinforce it by sea, even though that would mean sitting around Copenhagen with my ancient navy. The army never got off the boats, but strangely enough i won battle after battle over their navy trying to get them to unload. Their morale was very low, maybe from the trip back from the US, or by being attacked by the French navy, maybe from their diplo settings. I think i won about fifteen naval battles there before i had to retreat my by then only transports fleet. With that i could succesfully demand Osterbrotten and demand Finnmark along as a bonus.
Another bonus was heavy rioting in China btw, as in a series of revolts Manchu and Korea went their own way, and about three provinces chose me as their mother.
