Revolts in enemy realms

[Dharnasius]

Hi guys, i've started an African pagan game in 769. After a few years i managed to reform the religion and create Mali empire.
My problem being that Abbassid conquered the whole Africa , Egypt Vassal owning the whole African continent except me of course. So my only way to expand is to fight them by holy wars and claims. I can barely beat their 85k troops with my 13k by exploiting the attrition and getting in more than 800golds debt each time. But i could never actually finish the war and gain some territorries even tho i was sometimes about to win because Egypt keep revolting against his liege which cancel my claims and stops the war.

So how can i overcome that ? It'ds been already 3 wars i launched without being able to finish it because of revolt in Abbassid empire. Is there anything i can from outside to split Egypt Vassal in 2 ? May i add that the whole empire converted to Zoroastrian so i guess it's suppose to be less stable than a muslim realm ?

 

[mrinku]

Depends a little on what DLCs you're running with. Conclave has a councilor mission system that can help, but even vanilla should allow some form of Spymaster role to sow dissent between a foreign ruler and their subject.

Careful use of the basic murder plot is very useful here. If you can kill the ruler and force succession it may well result in split inheritance or civil war. Best to study their inheritance law and court politics first, as you might get better results taking out other family members first (there's little reason to kill off an unpopular, incompetent ruler so that his popular, hyper-competent son succeeds - nail junior first if you can, so that his hated sister gets the crown...).

The thing with revolts is to try to choose CBs that will survive the revolt (which pretty much means working out the likely winner and making sure they do), and to speed things up as much as you can so that neither side win before you do. Don't be afraid to attack the other side of the civil war than the one you declared on, if that will help balance their warscores.

Them being Zoro will help a bit, as they're likely to have succession laws you can exploit more than Open (it will most likely have changed to Agnatic Gavelkind or Agnatic Primogeniture). There is also the trick of inviting some courtier with a claim to your court and pressing their claim. Land them if you want their claim to be part of your empire (though if you're pressing their claim on an Imperial tier title that won't work. But it may result in the fractures and instability you're after).

 

[Sunshine Moon]

You could always wait until a civil war starts that you're reasonably sure will last a while, then attack and try and quickly win your war while the revolt is ongoing.