Okay, just a heads up. After I researched government tech 27 I switched to
absolute monarchy (one of the things that could make this game better would be a tech tree instead of tech branches, and less generic names than "government tech 27"... why not just Absolute Monarchy instead? Paradox...
). I hesitated, because Empire sounds more fun, but after comparing the two government forms I decided it was a strict upgrade.
And suddenly:
That's pretty sweet, as the game was getting boring. So, when Tirol decides to troll me with spies, I declare war at once. I could go with the discovered spy CB, but I go with imperialism instead. I could annex Tirol's three provinces (for only 6 infamy), but I'm not sure yet if I want to expand into central Europe. OTOH, why not? The few provinces in Italy are worth it (some have universities), but half of Italy is my vassal already anyway. One of the benefits of expanding east is easy access to Austria. Austria is getting too big, they're even grabbing north african provinces now. Luckily everyone and their mothers are coming to Tirol's aid (must be the hubschen maedel).
So, short term goals: make Austria release some nations. I wish I could give provinces to my vassals (although I noticed that I am now able to demand unoccupied provinces that have a vassal core... but not with discounted infamy (and I get the infamy, not the vassal) I really wish there'd be missions for this).
Long term goals: own Italy and the Hiberian peninsula. Or just Europe.