Scandinavia update:
It's 1800, and things have been well. I noticed that Great Britain had gone bankrupt (in part from being stuck in a long-running war with a Dutch-led HRE). I took advantage of the situation to declare a Colonialism war with GB, tromp all over their colonies in Southeast North America, and landed three 25,000-man stacks in Britain itself. Completely occupied the whole of the island (along with my Scottish allies). Meanwhile my Austrian allies took Britain's outposts in India, Ferrara, and Albania.
By the time it was all over, Britain has been reduced to holding Mexico and Florida (and the Pacific Coast) in North America; Wales, Wallachia and Ferrara had been liberated; Britain had been forced to renounce all their cores in Scotland; and the once-grand Royal Navy had been annhilated.
This paved the way for me to DoW on Lithuania. Even without Austria (who was still busy in a war against Milan that I got out of ASAP), I had pre-positioned my armies to drop about 150,000 troops (who are now fully upgraded to Napoleonic Square, Latin Lancers and Flying Battery) into their borders. I was winning battles where I was outnumbered 3-to-1, and doing it with minimal casualties. By the time that was over, Lithuania had been forced to cede Samogitia (which I had a core on), a slew of provinces on their eastern border (including Astrakhan with its CoT). Infamy bumped up to within 0.5 of my badboy limit, but I have a Cabinet and a good diplomat, so the Infamy comes back down relatively quickly.
Oh, and I got Russian as an accepted culture, which was an instant +50 gold per month in taxes. And then implemented Smithian Economics as my final Idea, which bumped up income another 80 gold a month or so. I'm making so much money that I can mint 100 gold a month and *still* have deflation.
A superpower is me!
I'm debating my final moves, but I'm tempted to see if I can break the Franco-Dutch alliance, as they're the only credible Catholic threat to me. Great Britain has been reduced to second-tier status and Lithuania probably further than that, considering how savagely I mauled their armies.