Well, I wouldn't want to keep this from you. Brunei declared holy war on me (doesn't the AI get stability hits for breaking truce?), so I captured all provinces of their loyal ally Atjeh. Again. But since Brunei declared war, apparently I couldn't get Atjeh's provinces with the holy war BB discount. Sigh... so I went after Brunei, and now that whole island is mine for a measly 5 infamy. These provinces have a large population, and three of them have spices. In the one with naval supplies I will build a manufactory (eventually). Oh, and of course I took that center of trade on Java as well. French East India is taking shape
Which apparently is something Baden has a problem with, so they started the Badenese Reconquest of Sundgau. Why is it that wars have names that most of the time don't cover accurately what happens? The Third Badenese Folly would've been a more fitting name. Unfortunately for Baden I was preparing to invade Aragon. Even worse, one of my large armies is usually sitting on top of Sundgau or Franche-Comte, so within a few days there wasn't much left of the Badenese army. My Swiss allies took the Badenese provinces (what a shame that you can't give your vassals or allies captured provinces without taking the infamy hit yourself...) so I sent my army after one of Baden's allies: the Papal States. I mentioned earlier that I was neglecting religion, but after several excommunications I simply pay the Papal State to keep good relations. But this war doesn't do our relation much good. The Papal State is pretty big, they have most of the lands in the Italian boot. Modena and Ferrara are blocking my army unfortunately, so I can't punish them for attacking me. I make peace with Baden before the Pope can capture my vassal Florence. I want to get my infamy down, so I'm not grabbing any provinces. But history has decided that this war will be known as the Badenese Succesful Attempt To Lose Their Core On Sundgau.
Back to my plan to punish Aragon. Oh look, the Papal State gets me excommunicated
Styria seizes this opportunity immediately to declare war on me. Ungrateful bastards: I crafted Styria from the remains of Austria myself. They're bordering me because they took the remaining Milanese provinces (the lands I left Milan to keep my infamy at an acceptable level). Someday in the future I will get back at them and form Milan from their lands. Pretty soon I'm in three seperate excommunication wars. My land tech is superior and I was gearing up for war anyway, that was my luck. One of the three wars involves Castille, and I annihilate their army and navy. Since they're attacking me, I lack a proper Casus Belli to take decent compensation (this is what's annoying me in this game: I want my revenge, isn't being attacked enough Casus Belli to get some infamy reduction?), but at least I destroyed their army and fleet. Those three excommunication wars involve about everybody, except England, Aragon and those countries involved in the Badenese Succesful Attempt To Lose Their Core On Sundgau. But my luck hasn't run out.
My army is absolutely huge because I was recruiting in all my provinces after the excommunication, so I decide to go after Aragon right away. And look, Aragon is allied with Portugal and the Papal States. Heh. I ship one army around Modena and Ferrara, then move my fleet next to Barcelona where the (decently sized) Aragonese fleet is, and attack. My two stacks are so large that I annihilate the 20k Aragonese army swiftly, and I can take their provinces without extended sieges. Portugal doesn't even have an army, so that's a cakewalk. The Papal States go down without much ease, and from their lands I form Urbino and Naples. The circle is round: I started this game with a war against Provence that was in a personal union with Naples (pretty dumb in hindsight, it's tough to extort provinces out of a personal union if you can't hit the leader of the union), Naples eventually perished but now I have a grateful ally in the south of Italy.