I've started another campaign (long, 40 provinces to win), and am playing very diffferently to how i did in the report at the start of this thread.

Swapping Mughals for Ottomans as trade partners early on is going well so far.

Have complete monopoly over trade in the East Indies and overbearing majorities in all three other trade areas. (Spam Fluyts & merchantmen in your first turns).

Considered appropriating Westphalia and then Hannover, but their starting armies are as good as - if not better than your force in Amsterdam.

Instead invaded new-andalucia (with 6 line inf) and took Flanders (with the start-up army) on the turn following the declaration of war.

After taking Flanders, I made peace with Spain -so as to focus on new-spain alone, but this hasn't panned out as I'd hoped as new-spain has now been incorporated into Spain proper, who i'm still at peace with.

Pirates next i guess...

On trade, i've found it hard to secure trade rights with Austria in the past. They are certainly a more reluctant ally than britain. In my previous game, i had to shell out 10k to get the deal (which pays off quickly) -anyone get a deal for less?

Stealing tech from the german states is a fruitful strategy, there are about 4 school/colleges within a turn's march, so it's easy to move about and cherry pick.

Does anyone know of a way to increase a gentlemen's likelyhood of succeeeding at tech stealing? I've not yet noticed an apptitude/trait that increases with instances of academic kleptomania...