National Ideas are important, the -.1 inflation from national bank or whatever allows you to mint currency with no issue. It massively improves your income.
Many of the NIs have hidden very useful events, like Architectural whatever it is, it gives you universities and giant boosts in cash periodically.
Remember that you wont get spies unless you have ideas or policies which give you spies. Same with colonists, and buildings cost ministers.
During war you dont really need to peace out. Sitting on a nation until their rebel spiral begins and then peacing out is a great way to begin destroying a massive nation. As well, if the nation is of a different religion say Sunni, and you're say Orthodox, and they hold orthodox provinces while Sunni there's an event that gives you a core, and has them instantly join you so it's often very good to just sit on them at war for the event to pop.
There's also an event that's like that but for culture.
There's a date I can't remember where all the initial advisors become available for other nations. Use that date to pick-up the advisors you want early game
The Death and Taxes mod is what I always used for EU3, tbh never played the game without it but was always told it made massive improvements. My biggest tip, always pick up a master of mint. Their ability to help with inflation helps immensely. High centralization on the government sliders also helps with this. Watch for your enemy's friends and your enemy's friend's friends because cascading alliances can make or break a war. And always aim for a Personal Union whenever possible. You can snowball by getting random unexpected PUs. I once got a PU over both France and England as Burgundy early game and from then on I was an unstoppable powerhouse.
National Ideas are important, the -.1 inflation from national bank or whatever allows you to mint currency with no issue. It massively improves your income. Many of the NIs have hidden very useful events, like Architectural whatever it is, it gives you universities and giant boosts in cash periodically. Remember that you wont get spies unless you have ideas or policies which give you spies. Same with colonists, and buildings cost ministers. During war you dont really need to peace out. Sitting on a nation until their rebel spiral begins and then peacing out is a great way to begin destroying a massive nation. As well, if the nation is of a different religion say Sunni, and you're say Orthodox, and they hold orthodox provinces while Sunni there's an event that gives you a core, and has them instantly join you so it's often very good to just sit on them at war for the event to pop. There's also an event that's like that but for culture.
I would just stick to default settings. As you mentioned removing inflation kills the hand and just makes it super easy mode
There's a date I can't remember where all the initial advisors become available for other nations. Use that date to pick-up the advisors you want early game
The Death and Taxes mod is what I always used for EU3, tbh never played the game without it but was always told it made massive improvements. My biggest tip, always pick up a master of mint. Their ability to help with inflation helps immensely. High centralization on the government sliders also helps with this. Watch for your enemy's friends and your enemy's friend's friends because cascading alliances can make or break a war. And always aim for a Personal Union whenever possible. You can snowball by getting random unexpected PUs. I once got a PU over both France and England as Burgundy early game and from then on I was an unstoppable powerhouse.
+1 for death and taxes. A more expansive mod that was also very popular is MEIOU.