Galadriel... (oops! Edit...Didn't notice this was MP...sorry!)
I do NOT take the 3 Muslim neighbors, only Karaman's two provinces. Teke can easily be allied with and absorbed peacefully later. Karaman, once down to a single province, will sometimes be annexed by another power (from whom I can take it with far less BB cost because they bear my CB shields).
The 3rd nation (whose name escapes me) might be taken by Trabzon or Byzantium early, saving me, again, the BB cost. If not, it also can be peacefully annexed later. Neither it nor Teke obstructs expansion so why hurry and carry the baggage of BB for them?
Leave Sivas alone and Ak Koyonlu will annex them. When the time is ripe, Ak Koyonlu will fall to the OE, too.
Instead, I pick off the non-Muslim provinces/nations with my CB shields in Europe. Key, of course, is Byzantium. Once they've fallen, Venice is good early as they have many lucrative island holdings and usually haven't formed much in alliances. Once you have those islands you've created a sea wall of friendly ports and seas that enhance security and inhibit invasions.
When I'm sated in Europe Trabzon falls next, if it still exists, and trimming bits of Georgia (it often attracts rebellious provinces of the Horde).
After those, THEN I turn to the Mamelukes. They rarely get more than one religious conversion completed by this time.
Limiting BB by taking from non-Muslim countries enables you to be prepared for fortuitous circumstances (eg: Serbia swallows Bosnia, you DOW Serbia and take Bosnia and Serbia eats the BB for military annexation of a country) and continue war-making against countries distracted by too many wars, or those that just lost a war and paid out large reparations.
I build tax collectors in all provinces and commence immediate conversion, thereafter. Some OE leaders are better than others for conversion so you might consider waiting for a good leader and, when very fortunate, an excellent minister event.
). I was OE, and started the usual way with annexing the three small muslim countrys that borders OE and Greece and Byzan. The problem is, even after I got the 'move capital to Istabul' event that many provinces (I think seven) are ortodox which makes stability increases costly.
