Right before bidding on Georgia's fate, I've been completing my Mughal series.
I had been struggling with Horde wars in the West for a couple decades when I decided to try that strategy to get me out of there : get tribute from Novgorod, Muscovy and Lithuania ; vassalize Moldavia, Georgia and Armenia, as buffer states to keep me away from other foes - and especially the Ottomans and the Mamluks. Once that long term peace was assured, I turned against the fellow hordes and carved my way through their territory, to the future heartland of Mughal in Northern India.
Nogai and Kazakhstan were conquered and/or vassalized and diploannexed later on. Khiva and Khorasan were vassalized as future non-Horde muslim allies for the Mughal empire. The Timurids were severely dealt with, while bravely facing the Mamluk conquest (which was stopped by the Ottomans invading the Mamluks anyway). I conquered Samarkand and kept in mind that it would make a fine and very central capital in a distant future, if I was to get tired of Delhi (I had decided not to go back to Sarai - too small and poor for a capital city).
When I reached Northern India I conquered all the required provinces as fast as I could. Indian armies were starting to be dangerous for my Steppe troops, but I was still taking advantage of the large manpower numbers provided by the vast GH territory. Finally, I took the Mughal decision right before another horde war against Vijaynagar broke out, while I was still at war against OPMs Rajputana and Delhi (just had to pay full BB to annex them in the peace deal, and get away with it).
There's still a long story to tell after that. I had to conquer all of Timurid territory before someone else did, obviously - but still gave them a chance to destroy the Jalayrids and Najd for me. I had to modernize. I had to conquer India - I didn't intend to go for China this time, but Vijaynagar was allied with Ming as they often do, so...
But I never forgot where I was coming from, and that former European enemies were still standing there. So once I was practically done in Asia, I turned my eyes back to the West. The balance of powers was quite interesting there, especially since Burgundy had inherited Castille with all its early colonies, which made them a bit overpowered but also got us rid of a notoriously annoying conqueror.
The Ottomans were resisting quite well against Christian Holy wars, and they even conquered bits of European territory in Sicily, Ireland and Northern Germany. I had alliances with them from time to time, but our relations were not very stable. What I wanted was a PU with them and I finally got it, albeit quite late in the game. They were very good allies after that, and quite useful when I started my wars against Muscovy and Lithuania.
Morocco was something else : they were extremely aggressive and had conquered all of Northern Africa, up to Judea. I had a RM with them, but was actually planning a war to kick them out of the Middle East, when we suddenly got a PU - and I inherited them less than a decade after. Some troubles with the rebels until all those provinces were cored, but other than that, a big worry less !
Other muslim states in the region were either vassalized and diploannexed later on, or partially conquered. The Syrian case was a bit special : I helped them to rebel away from the Mamluks, then I fought and vassalized them in some war, then diploannxed them. But 2 of their coastal core provinces were held by someone else (the Ottomans I think) and got some nationalist rebels. Meanwhile I had sold Beyrouth to Corsica, who I had chosen as a westernization partner. I let the rebels take it after I was done. So a new 3pm Syria emerged, which I diplovassalized... and annexed for a second time.
In the late17th century, I started to focus on whatever territorial gain I could still get in the West, hoping to inherit the Ottomans some day (it happened but I prefered to release most of their European provinces as vassals, especially in the HRE). I even had occasions to conquer Southern Iberia and Portugal, and perform a glorious invasion of Burgundy which allowed me to annex the Flanders region. But my real obsession was to get the whole territories of the countries that had once defied the GH : Novgorod, Muscovy, Lithuania and Poland.
And so did I...
