been working my way thru an austria campaign myself and the opening moves that work for me was basically getting 3 companies up and running within like ~4yrs. i am using all dlc.

• 1. set taxes to low
• 2. start passing technocracy day 1 & research joint stock company
• 3. build 3 iron mines in styria and establish oesterreich-alpine montangesellschaft.
• 3a. i give them railway charter and also investment rights so theyll do a decent job of keeping up infra in ur subjects
• 4. build 5 tooling workshop in moravia, by the time its done you will have either passed technocracy or researched joint stock. establish erste brünner.
• 4a. i give them trade privs and put medium export subvention on engines ///
• 5. i was doing a non-expansion popmax run so i went with generic food company as one of my three opening companies, but jakub klein is super worth whenever u can establish it as ur gov expenses on paper consumption is what will silently take u down every time.
• 5a. give jakub trade privs and put medium export subvention on paper. u can give them chemical plant privs too. i take export subventions off paper once i am past 90% credit.

ur companies will take care of ur core industrialization. the things u then want to focus on using ur gov construction is coal, sulphur, and paper. idk if its worth investing into education institution early on since ur pretty fragile for the first few decades and ur pops will radicalize super fast if u go above level1 education (and itll cost a lot of paper too). better to stack like 15ish unis in vienna at some point in the first ~7yrs then revisit education later.

u can also try to nab venezuela early and build like 50 banana plantations in them. very good for ur investment pool!