Europa Universalis III

• The Napoleon's Ambition expansion is worth it for automerchants alone. In Nomine is even better.

• Playing as France is easy mode.

• The Magna Mundi mod adds a lot of intersting gameplay. It is also much harder and more frustrating. Hope you enjoy stablity hits for the stupidest of reasons.

• If you're in a position to do so, conquer northern Italy. The provinces there are rich and most of them have a university. Once you've grabbed all of them, set your government tech investment to zero and you can still be competitive there.

• Don't go overboard on inflation, but don't be afraid of it either.

• You know how the army details screen tells you how many regiments you have and how many you can support? It's sorta like the speed limit - you can go over it to a certain degree without disaster.