since the server is down for now, I'll post imperial progress here (if you don't mind; I'll PM or something if you like, maybe even stop entirely)
http://i49.tinypic.com/m99iz8.jpg
Mighty Italy, finally had enough balls to fight a containment war with France, although now they're gobbling up their historical African colonies and only lost about 34 divisions since most are in Africa =( Huge budget deficit is because Italians are sissies who want free trade, which is bad for me since tariffs are my life line. Not shown here: Italian duchy of Africa.
Military comparison (from largest to smallest armies):
Italy 165 divisions, 86 ships
USA 142 divisons, 41 ships
France 134 divisions, 17 ships (lol)
Russia 118 divisions, 51 ships
Germany 68 divisions, ~20 ships
British India (basically a British dominion, they didn't want to annex it this game): 44 divisions, 20 (?) ships
UK around 10 divisions, some ships (they don't rebuild in a noticable matter; France destroyed their army)
Of course if America and France had the balls to team up on me, I might lose, since mobilizing (148 divisions) brings me only a bit above their standing army. Navies are so pitiable because the AI rebuilds too slowly (except France, they are the most militaristic nation I've seen in this game) and I haven't had the money or industrial capacity to produce any ships. =(
Next I'll be beating up the sick old man of Europe because they have a whooping 5 ships and 5 divisions and Constantinople, while the Italian Balkans has at least 30. :x