Since we're showing our Vic 2 empires I might as well join in.
After I bought the new dlc, hearts of darkness I decided to start a new play trough.
The country? The Netherlands of course.
First I used to new Crisis system to get the Wallonie back from Belgium and after that I allied with GB and took their last state by force. skip ahead to the year 1889.
Second Great war!
Yeah, I kicked France ass, with most of their armies trapped in their colonies France was quickly overrun by my forces.
In the end they offered me my wargoal of French Guyana and 7 Times Great War capitulation, I quickly accepted and got around 250 Prestige, this also brought their military strength to ZERO.
The year is 1907 now and I'm comfortably sitting between the other great powers, Italy and the Franco-Austrian coalition are still busy fighting the Great war that became a stalemate after I accepted France's offer Russia left the war victorious after taking a state from Italy and demanding a few great war capitulations.
And finally, the world map, as you can see I was busy taking Egypt but they suddenly became civilized during the Second Great War and allied themselves to the USA, I'll figure out a way to get their states but I will take some more time. The North German Federation also finally formed after the Great War (Prussia and France signed a white peace) but the Germans are crippled by rebellion and France is sending every soldier it has into Italy, this leaves me and Russia as the Major Military powers of continental Europe.
On a side note, the military power you get from Dreadnoughts is just crazy! I build a attack fleet of 12 Dreadnoughts and I got more than a hundred points from it!