I decided to try a colonization run with portugal, and it is going surprisingly well ( for my standards, I am nowhere as good as all the people here who conquer the world by 1400) despite a rough start.
I focused all my resources on getting quest for new world, and so I could arrive in americas first. next idea, colonial ventures. however, colonists sometimes go wasted due to crippling economical crisis. which also leaves me unable to get anything more than a bunch of regiments to defend myself.
That added a quite strong sense of urgency when trying to keep my relations with castille good
I have been allied with them for most of the game.
bad thing is, at some point, just when colonization starts to give back some profits, I enter a PU with castille. as a junior partner.
usual routine, insult them and wait. thankfully they didn't attack, and I switched to administrative republic to avoid such a thing ever happening again.
with the influx of great leaders , conquest of maya shawnee and cherokee and colonization of carribean, gold finally started to arrive, and I have been able to start spending more, and even afford some small wars, to kick aragon out of MY south america!
I am finally able to stand up to any colonial power, with the notable exception of great britain. bad thing? the only 2 other people who have colonies in south america ( papal state and brittany) are allied with GB. which makes them extremely hard to conquer, and they don't allow me to link my colonized areas (north brazil, south brazil, inca, mexico. Which is bad for my plan to move capital there.
but with press gangs, I am going to build a fleet large enough to fight british navy!
(France formed a great blob, nearly destroying aragon and threatening castille, then imploded greatly. now it only has 3 provinces in france and 2 in italy.)