Don't bother going for Economic late, it's usually very useless when you're big. Influence is far superior in your situation.
Post your Europa Universalis 4 Empire
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Playing as a confused Genoa that can't decide if its Genoa or Byzantium when this happens:
The war of religion was an absolute disaster in this game, basically everyone joined the Protestant side which hurt Austria quite a lot. Lithuania is independant.
The war of religion was an absolute disaster in this game, basically everyone joined the Protestant side which hurt Austria quite a lot. Lithuania is independant.
A good old mingsplosion. Been a while since I've seen one of those.
I posted a Silesia into Commonwealth Emperor a few weeks ago, and it inspired me to play more in the region. Bohemia is a very underrated start for some reason, it is a very enjoyable starting country with the goldmine, the stability and the 6/6/5 ruler. Poland, Austria and later on Ottomans also provide some challenge, so it's not that bad for an European game. I'm surprised it is not played more, it seems to offer a nice balance between an easy start, opportunities and challenge.
Anyway, I played that same campaign over and over.
Second one, with less luck:
And after that, the proper one, which I used to get one of the worst achievements there is, Trustworthy. I did not plan it, but I noticed I had quite a lot of favours from being a good guy and fighting for my allies, because AE was too high and I had money all over the place so I could do it for a change. It turned into an incredible pain, I had to throw guarantees and warnings everywhere to avoid my allies fighting each other over a third party and calling me in. And then League Wars happened. I was allied to Catholic Austrian Emperor, but Saxony and Palatinate who had been my good friends from day 1 decided to lead the Protestant League and they were joined by my other friend Russia, so I could not pick a side. I had to permanently call as many allies as possible into the same war, by paying their debt and helping them with all their troubles, in order to delay the League War while I was finishing my trust with Russia. League War still fired during my last war against Lithuania + Ottomans. I assaulted Constantinople to white peace the Ottos, and was barely able to peace out, to give Russia Lithuanian land to gain favors and to increase trust to 100 before CtA expired. That was... tense.
Friends were Austria-Hungary, Saxony, Palatinate, Teutonic Order and Russia, as one could guess.
After that, it was a matter of reaching Dublin to become the true Bohemian.
Special mention for the English AI. Not only were all of their troops in the colonies, but their navy has been totally unimpactful and my 11 transports were enough to invade them because they were all sitting in the Channel. Too bad for them that I had taken Orkney from Norway and I came by Scotland...
Anyway, I played that same campaign over and over.
Well, that's a decent Commonwealth, but I may have taken relaxing a bit too far. Or is it?
Much better. I just made France loyal after enforcing PU on them.
Oh, and I'm the emperor of a very sad HRE. Not that bad after all.
Plot twist, I started as Silesia.
It has been an insanely lucky run, Poland rejected the PU on Lithuania and got coalitioned early on after they took too much of the Teutonic Order, and they were even more of a failure than they usually are. They went bankrupt somewhere in the middle of their Peasant War in 1470. I got Emperorship in 1507, I started with diplomatic, Austria did not, and I was allied with Saxony and Brandenburg from day 1 as they were the ones supporting my independance. That made things a bit easier.
Talking about my luck...
Just a shame he's a babbling baffoon. But I can't complain, I'm drowning in monarch points. Over 50 years of rule with thoses stats, during which he scored 2 PUs...
I'm by far the strongest, but there is a bit of a stalemate as of now, because I'm not the popular guy of Europe.
This is quite a scary League War...
Despite that, the game is pretty much won if my French PU does not troll me by sending their troops in America if I declare on Russia or on the Ottomans. From now on, it's a conquest spree, and I started this campaign to get some rest in the middle of a conquest spree, so I guess I'll stop it here.
Second one, with less luck:
And after that, the proper one, which I used to get one of the worst achievements there is, Trustworthy. I did not plan it, but I noticed I had quite a lot of favours from being a good guy and fighting for my allies, because AE was too high and I had money all over the place so I could do it for a change. It turned into an incredible pain, I had to throw guarantees and warnings everywhere to avoid my allies fighting each other over a third party and calling me in. And then League Wars happened. I was allied to Catholic Austrian Emperor, but Saxony and Palatinate who had been my good friends from day 1 decided to lead the Protestant League and they were joined by my other friend Russia, so I could not pick a side. I had to permanently call as many allies as possible into the same war, by paying their debt and helping them with all their troubles, in order to delay the League War while I was finishing my trust with Russia. League War still fired during my last war against Lithuania + Ottomans. I assaulted Constantinople to white peace the Ottos, and was barely able to peace out, to give Russia Lithuanian land to gain favors and to increase trust to 100 before CtA expired. That was... tense.
Friends were Austria-Hungary, Saxony, Palatinate, Teutonic Order and Russia, as one could guess.
After that, it was a matter of reaching Dublin to become the true Bohemian.
Special mention for the English AI. Not only were all of their troops in the colonies, but their navy has been totally unimpactful and my 11 transports were enough to invade them because they were all sitting in the Channel. Too bad for them that I had taken Orkney from Norway and I came by Scotland...
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How exactly do you make that much money that early?
Does it all come from peacedeals? Trade doesn't look like it's giving you much ..
Does it all come from peacedeals? Trade doesn't look like it's giving you much ..
Gold mines, juicy HRE lands, great trade and yeah, lot of money taken from peacedeals (you can get 2k ducats from attacking a free city) I assume
Trade is a bit irrelevant as Bohemia, even now that I have Lubeck it's a very small part of my income. But I have 20 production in my goldmine (you gotta use Jiri Podebrad stats), great trade goods and I get tons of money from peacedeals. I re invest all of that in buildings, live at 0 maintenance and at 20% maintenance after I wiped the ennemies. I abuse estates to get value from the conquered land even if I increase autonomy (to avoid revolts which are a waste of money). It's all about the small details that snowball in big gains. No forts, obviously, but I protect prosperity, and no need to get high level advisors if you can disinherit your way to 12 MP rulers. In Europe it's really easy to become super rich. There are so few opportunities if you don't no CB out of Europe because it's an AE hell. It makes you expand super slow, but at least you keep your money because there's no point in spending it. The fact I kept my allies means I was even slower in my expansion, so even more unused money.
While we're at it, I'm still getting easy achievements.
I did not expect Disciples of Enlightenment to be that easy. I originally wanted a powerbase, and then a no CB in Philippines to convert all the small new nations, but I remembered there are actually quite a lot of releasable nations around your starting area.
I conquered Champa, then Ayutthaya attacked Khmer and I picked up its remnants, force vassalised and force converted. Ayutthaya attacked Lan Xang, I jumped in too, I forceconverted their allies Hsenwi and Taungu. I took the provinces needed to the 2 OPMs north of them and forceconverted Lan Xang. I converted so that nations would be released as Mahayana, and released 5 vassals. I could have done it faster if I remembered all the releasables, you can actually do it in 2-3 wars and be done in barely 5 years.
And then, another quick one. I could have it several years ago, but I integrated my vassals and colonized a bit to make borders nicer. A White Horn, if not golden.
Quite the expansion.
And since we were talking about my economy... It's all about the gold, really. Don't mind the colonial expenses, I planted colonies to get nicer borders for my final screenshot. Before doing that, I had 1200 ducats, built everything of value, and was making confortable money.
Time for another achievement, I like to see that number rise. I did a good 20 in the last 2 weeks.
While we're at it, I'm still getting easy achievements.
I did not expect Disciples of Enlightenment to be that easy. I originally wanted a powerbase, and then a no CB in Philippines to convert all the small new nations, but I remembered there are actually quite a lot of releasable nations around your starting area.
I conquered Champa, then Ayutthaya attacked Khmer and I picked up its remnants, force vassalised and force converted. Ayutthaya attacked Lan Xang, I jumped in too, I forceconverted their allies Hsenwi and Taungu. I took the provinces needed to the 2 OPMs north of them and forceconverted Lan Xang. I converted so that nations would be released as Mahayana, and released 5 vassals. I could have done it faster if I remembered all the releasables, you can actually do it in 2-3 wars and be done in barely 5 years.
And then, another quick one. I could have it several years ago, but I integrated my vassals and colonized a bit to make borders nicer. A White Horn, if not golden.
Quite the expansion.
And since we were talking about my economy... It's all about the gold, really. Don't mind the colonial expenses, I planted colonies to get nicer borders for my final screenshot. Before doing that, I had 1200 ducats, built everything of value, and was making confortable money.
Time for another achievement, I like to see that number rise. I did a good 20 in the last 2 weeks.
Inflation is money. Goldmines are more money. By developping my goldmine, I increase my income by 20% immediately, and my inflation by 0,1% yearly (random numbers, but that's the idea). And I use that money to snowball my economy, so they always pay for themselves.
Hopefully we won't see anymore of this in the next patch with the naval AI and army changes
Also, really nice Ajuuraan there.
What mod are those continents from?Classic Qing run with the best RNW out there.
I even managed to get Colonialism as Manchu.
I'm fairly certain that those are one of the regular RNW setups available ... one of those added in, in one of the more recent patches (... I kinda want to say 1.22?)
Let's keep on with the quick and easy achievements before next patch.
Hindu Bengal Tiger, because of Shiva and the synergy between Hindu's tolerance of heathens and Bengalese traditions. I waited for Bharat before finishing it.
Ming is barely gaining any mandate anymore, I'm half tempted to turn Vajrayana and claim mandate to get perma claims on both India and China. But I need to restrain myself from blobbing...
Hindu Bengal Tiger, because of Shiva and the synergy between Hindu's tolerance of heathens and Bengalese traditions. I waited for Bharat before finishing it.
Ming is barely gaining any mandate anymore, I'm half tempted to turn Vajrayana and claim mandate to get perma claims on both India and China. But I need to restrain myself from blobbing...
I'm the only one feeling the need to share his games, but whatever.
This one was really enjoyable.
Just in time.
I had to do two trucebreaks, but one of them was to get the Jolofian provinces in Guinea who were not needed and i could probably have avoided the other one if I played better. I also took the time to integrate my vassals, to have this nice looking little blue nation. The colour, the flag, everything is adorable. I have 95 core provinces before 1500 but I can't get more, so no "Big Light Blue Blob" today.
That's not especially hard once you did the initial expansion and can take on anyone alone, but god how hard it is to get to that point. There is a lot of luck involved with the alliances, you can't wait for someone to dishonor, you have to chain wars literally all the time. This is my fifth attempt after several deadlocked ones or mistakes from my part, and several restarts to get good inital setups.
The dynamic of the region was super enjoyable, a lot of action, similar sized nations, different alliance webs every time, very similar to India except it's a lot smaller so a lot faster to unify. I had played as Songhai and Mali before, but playing an OPM in that situation is really super fun.
I'm really tempted to do a real Dahomey run, or to play as another minor there. I killed this one to get the achievement, unfortunately:
I think I've never had that kind of tech, even as an American nation.
Good point is that does not prevent me from being a GP:
I honestly think I never expanded that fast and that agressively before, even for the real "Big Blue Blob". It puts things in perspective. I multiplied my country by more than 200 in a mere 50 years. That was... intense.
This one was really enjoyable.
Just in time.
I had to do two trucebreaks, but one of them was to get the Jolofian provinces in Guinea who were not needed and i could probably have avoided the other one if I played better. I also took the time to integrate my vassals, to have this nice looking little blue nation. The colour, the flag, everything is adorable. I have 95 core provinces before 1500 but I can't get more, so no "Big Light Blue Blob" today.
That's not especially hard once you did the initial expansion and can take on anyone alone, but god how hard it is to get to that point. There is a lot of luck involved with the alliances, you can't wait for someone to dishonor, you have to chain wars literally all the time. This is my fifth attempt after several deadlocked ones or mistakes from my part, and several restarts to get good inital setups.
The dynamic of the region was super enjoyable, a lot of action, similar sized nations, different alliance webs every time, very similar to India except it's a lot smaller so a lot faster to unify. I had played as Songhai and Mali before, but playing an OPM in that situation is really super fun.
I'm really tempted to do a real Dahomey run, or to play as another minor there. I killed this one to get the achievement, unfortunately:
I think I've never had that kind of tech, even as an American nation.
Good point is that does not prevent me from being a GP:
I honestly think I never expanded that fast and that agressively before, even for the real "Big Blue Blob". It puts things in perspective. I multiplied my country by more than 200 in a mere 50 years. That was... intense.
OK, here's my Sun God run that I finished a few weeks ago, so that you don't have to feel lonely
The campaign was honestly a lot easier than expected, although I suppose that the additional whack-a-rebel that you have to go through is a lot less severe than the Mayan and Nahuatl ways of reforming their religions.
Since I already invaded Europe as an American nation in my First Come/Ideas Guy/For Odin run and will do so again when I attempt the Sunset Invasion at some point, I tried and succeeded to go through the game without ever declaring directly against a European nation - the only wars directly against the colonizers were an early wardec by England shortly after I reformed off of them, and a punitive war in which Castille called in France, Portugal, and the Netherlands.
I used that one to secure a few isolated provinces from Portugal and Castille - otherwise, I managed to make sure that all colonies went to a CN at some point.
Otherwise, I just went westwards for a bit, although I was pretty lazy and didn't attack the Ming until (iirc) almost 1700. I suppose that going eastwards around the Cape would have been more powerful, but it's not like money is ever an issue for a reformed Incan nation.
Tips? I mean, you are kinda in a pickle with this oneI'm the only one feeling the need to share his games, but whatever.
This one was really enjoyable.
Just in time.
I had to do two trucebreaks, but one of them was to get the Jolofian provinces in Guinea who were not needed and i could probably have avoided the other one if I played better. I also took the time to integrate my vassals, to have this nice looking little blue nation. The colour, the flag, everything is adorable. I have 95 core provinces before 1500 but I can't get more, so no "Big Light Blue Blob" today.
That's not especially hard once you did the initial expansion and can take on anyone alone, but god how hard it is to get to that point. There is a lot of luck involved with the alliances, you can't wait for someone to dishonor, you have to chain wars literally all the time. This is my fifth attempt after several deadlocked ones or mistakes from my part, and several restarts to get good inital setups.
The dynamic of the region was super enjoyable, a lot of action, similar sized nations, different alliance webs every time, very similar to India except it's a lot smaller so a lot faster to unify. I had played as Songhai and Mali before, but playing an OPM in that situation is really super fun.
I'm really tempted to do a real Dahomey run, or to play as another minor there. I killed this one to get the achievement, unfortunately:
I think I've never had that kind of tech, even as an American nation.
Good point is that does not prevent me from being a GP:
I honestly think I never expanded that fast and that agressively before, even for the real "Big Blue Blob". It puts things in perspective. I multiplied my country by more than 200 in a mere 50 years. That was... intense.
My three best runs (and the final one) have been with that initial setup and the same path: Ally Mossi, Benin and Zazzau, rival Oyo and Dagbon, have Oyo only ally Dagbon. Get diprep as your fetishist cult.
I could declare on Oyo, with only Dagbon as their ally. I've encountered two options: either Mossi and Benin are willing to join, or Zazzau and Benin are willing to join, call them in with promess of territory. Give the southeast province to Benin so they border Nupe, the northern provicne to Zazzau or Mossi, get the other two, you now border Nupe too. Full annex Dagbon (either as non cobelligerant, or cobelligerant if they had no meaningful ally). That's extremely important, that "unlocks" you by giving you new borders, and that allows to call Benin against Nupe.
You now border your allies, Nupe, and Bonoman. Bonoman is usually allied to Mossi, so you need to call Mossi in another war, likely with favors, or wait until Mossi dishonors. In all my games, Nupe was allied to at least Katsina, and sometimes someone else (Yao in my successful run). Call Zazzau and Benin in, they'll both border Nupe and will likely rival. Get provinces from Nupe to get a border with Kano, break the alliances of the allies of Nupe. Kill Kano to border Katsina and Kanem Bornu, Kano usually have no allies (and in my last attempt they were actually already dead).
You now unlocked the east, Kanem Bornu and Katsina are relatively easy to take, and things will likely start moving because you destroyed the alliances, so Yao, Air, KB and Katsina will usually go to war with one another. You can pick their remnants any time. It should be time to get Bonoman, which means you border Kong, or more likely Mali who ate Kong. That's something that should be replicable consistently if you have the initial setup I mentioned, and be done relatively quickly. (by 1460 I'd say).
I went quite heavily in debt for my first wars but started swimming in money from the second one, by getting 100 ducats from each of Nupe, Katsina and Yao. As peacedeals is your main source of income, I found it more useful to give the first provinces you conquer to the nobility and not the clergy as one usually does. You want force limit more badly than you want money, and you have to increase autonoy because you can't afford revolts that would delay you too much. Later on, once you take the goldmines and develop them, you have a massive income to support the mercswarm (the issue is not so much the wars than the 20k men constant rebellions in Sunni land, so you have to use mercs or you'll run out of manpower).
Then, I guess it's time to look for new alliances depending on who is strong, who ate who, and who rivalled who. In my successful run, I could rival Mossi at that point who became irrelevant and just blocked me, and then ally their rival Songhai. Luckily in my game, Mali was only allied to Songhai, and Jenné and Macina both rivalled Mali. I think I was allied with Zazzau, Songhai, Macina, Jenné and Yao (Benin rivalled me). I don't know in which order I proceeded, but I ate Kanem Bornu and Katsina. Soon, Songhai had revolts and the combination of their opinion of me and their revolts meant they dishonored against Mali, I called Jenné and Macina, we crushed Mali two times in a row (the second time I had also allied Jolof). That's where I did a mistake, I was fighting wars in the east and dealing with revolts in the Sunni land taken from Katsina and KB while my allies fought Mali, and I let them get the occupations. I said screw it, and I full annexed Mali in that second war, feeding their land to Macina and Jolof who had the occupations, which is why I had to trucebreak to finish them.
At some point, Jenné attacked Songhai and called Macina and Timbuktu, I dishonored and everyone ate Songhai: Jenné, Timbuktu, Mossi and Zazzau. I attacked Mossi, released Songhai as a vassal.
I think at that moment we were around 1480 and there were almost exclusively my allies left. There was probably Jolof, Macina, Jenné, Timbuktu, Mossi, Zazzau, Yao and Benin, with only Timbuktu, Mossi and Benin not my allies. That's the point were things were really easy. I betrayed my allies one by one, doing reconquest wars for Songhai cores to make things cheaper. Yao, Zazzau and Benin were free to pick, Mossi too. At that point I had two alliance webs to face, because Macina and Jenné ended up rivalling each other. Jolof was allied to Macina. Jenné was allied with Timbuktu. Morocco was allied with both Timbuktu and Jolof. Jolof was 80% WS, Macina 140%, Jenné 80% and Timbuktu 45%, or something like that. That's what I mean when I said I overfed Jolof and Macina. I knew I would have to trucebreak Macina anyway so I kept them for the end. I attacked Jenné, full annexed them and Timbuktu as non cobelligerant. We were around 1490, and I wanted everything by that point (I had started integrating Songhai). That's why I just broke Jolof from Morocco instead of taking their Sahel provinces they had gotten from Fulo (I could have done that and avoided the extra trucebreak, you don't need the coastline). I got 100% from Macina, then trucebroke the two of them as soon as I finished coring (to avoid keeping provinces I can't core because I'm at war with someone who had a core there). So I could have saved a few years, but that would have meant I'd get 200% overextension, -3 stab and 10 WE at the same time. Let's avoid that if we can
I finished right after getting mil 7, so I could use cannons for the final wars.
Overall, the beginning is relatively straightforward with the good setup. The key is really to be able to get Oyo and a border with Nupe, and give Benin a border to chain wars immediately on Nupe. In runs where I could not get Oyo but only Dagbon, I was way too slow, and in one run where Benin did not want to join against Oyo and thus did not border Nupe, I lost against Nupe+Katsina+Air because I could only bring Zazzau. Another opening could be to go on Mossi immediately by trying to ally Songhai, but I have not explored it because Mossi usually had good allies at start, and I found good success with my starting moves.
Be mindful never to betray your allies, always give them land, you can't afford to be unable to call them in for several years, that fucked one of my runs. And set provinces of interest before the war to get the occupations.
I think I got to the point where I have to abandon Mossi and I border Mali 3 times, but in two of them Mali was too strong and had too good allies. My final one was successful because everyone rivalled them. In one of the others I was completely locked and I think I messed up. In the other one, Mali was allied to Jenné and Songhai, so I tried to go on Mossi, and later on call my ally Songhai against Jenné, but Mali declared on me during the war against Mossi and Songhai dishonored.
Basically, there are two turning points: initial setup, and how things look once you border Mali and built a powerbase. If you're lucky with the two of them, you can do it. Once Mali is dealt with and you cleared up the east, you're the uncontested superpower and you just have to betray your allies in the West/the North.
Generally speaking, important thing is to use mercs, at least after your second war, and to slowly increase their number by consolidating infantry after every battle and replacing regular with mercs. Manpower was tense early on. Increase autonomy BUT give provinces to the nobility, as I said. You can't lose resources on revolts early on, and as I said, you'd rather have Force Limit than tax income. Sunni land around Katsina will revolt anyway, and you want to decrease autonomy on the goldmines. That's the point where you can handle the revolts, the goldmines give you enough income to throw mercs. I developped all of them to 10 prod. The rest of my dip went in doing separate peaces, integrating Songhai and buying WE (you're constantly at war/in revolts, often with several wars to bypass alliances, without access to DotF or any way of reducing WE). My admin went in developping goldmines so that they could reach 10 prod, coring everything and stabbing 5 times at the end with the overextension and lack of religious unity. I focus on admin early, or else you can't get to +1 stab and core the Oyo + Dagbon + Nupe + Kano and you have to sit on OE. Then on mil. I get money from burghers and 150 adm and mil every time it's possible. Keeping forts you conquer can be a good idea to avoid the spread of separatism in the North East while your armies fight in the West. There are ones in Kanem Bornu, Katsina and Air on game start iirc, and that's the land always unhappy becaue they're Sunni and you won't accept their cultures (accept the cultures from the goldmines, obviously).
I guess I was lucky that I could avoid fighting Morocco, and that I had two 2 siege generals (rolled several ones, got others from nobility (you can safely ask for generals because no need for a diet, they'll be happy from you giving tons of provinces)). My ruler died in 1475 and I fell in a real regency for 9 years even if my ruler was not a general. I'm not ashamed to say the game instantly crashed.
That's exactly the achievements I like. You never face insurmountable odds but you are so pressured that you can't afford to lose any resource or to take too bad of a decision. Every ducat, monarch point and manpower count early game, and there are real choices you usually don't do, like "do I use more men to siege that fort to get more participation and thus more money in the peacedeal, or do I park one unit and let my allies siege it to save manpower?". There is not a lot of micro skill required after the first wars, but a lot of game knowledge to minmax resources and get around alliances. There is an element of luck but it's not that massive (It's not Electable --'), it has flavour (I'm getting seriously bored of the "start as an OPM and blob" ones, especially if they are more specifically "start as an OPM near the Ottomans and blob"), and there is the threatening timer. In many aspects, it's similar to Manipur as you are the weakest nation of a medium-sized area and need to unite it. No wonder both stand together at the top of my list of funniest achievements so far (alongside a few others).
I could declare on Oyo, with only Dagbon as their ally. I've encountered two options: either Mossi and Benin are willing to join, or Zazzau and Benin are willing to join, call them in with promess of territory. Give the southeast province to Benin so they border Nupe, the northern provicne to Zazzau or Mossi, get the other two, you now border Nupe too. Full annex Dagbon (either as non cobelligerant, or cobelligerant if they had no meaningful ally). That's extremely important, that "unlocks" you by giving you new borders, and that allows to call Benin against Nupe.
You now border your allies, Nupe, and Bonoman. Bonoman is usually allied to Mossi, so you need to call Mossi in another war, likely with favors, or wait until Mossi dishonors. In all my games, Nupe was allied to at least Katsina, and sometimes someone else (Yao in my successful run). Call Zazzau and Benin in, they'll both border Nupe and will likely rival. Get provinces from Nupe to get a border with Kano, break the alliances of the allies of Nupe. Kill Kano to border Katsina and Kanem Bornu, Kano usually have no allies (and in my last attempt they were actually already dead).
You now unlocked the east, Kanem Bornu and Katsina are relatively easy to take, and things will likely start moving because you destroyed the alliances, so Yao, Air, KB and Katsina will usually go to war with one another. You can pick their remnants any time. It should be time to get Bonoman, which means you border Kong, or more likely Mali who ate Kong. That's something that should be replicable consistently if you have the initial setup I mentioned, and be done relatively quickly. (by 1460 I'd say).
I went quite heavily in debt for my first wars but started swimming in money from the second one, by getting 100 ducats from each of Nupe, Katsina and Yao. As peacedeals is your main source of income, I found it more useful to give the first provinces you conquer to the nobility and not the clergy as one usually does. You want force limit more badly than you want money, and you have to increase autonoy because you can't afford revolts that would delay you too much. Later on, once you take the goldmines and develop them, you have a massive income to support the mercswarm (the issue is not so much the wars than the 20k men constant rebellions in Sunni land, so you have to use mercs or you'll run out of manpower).
Then, I guess it's time to look for new alliances depending on who is strong, who ate who, and who rivalled who. In my successful run, I could rival Mossi at that point who became irrelevant and just blocked me, and then ally their rival Songhai. Luckily in my game, Mali was only allied to Songhai, and Jenné and Macina both rivalled Mali. I think I was allied with Zazzau, Songhai, Macina, Jenné and Yao (Benin rivalled me). I don't know in which order I proceeded, but I ate Kanem Bornu and Katsina. Soon, Songhai had revolts and the combination of their opinion of me and their revolts meant they dishonored against Mali, I called Jenné and Macina, we crushed Mali two times in a row (the second time I had also allied Jolof). That's where I did a mistake, I was fighting wars in the east and dealing with revolts in the Sunni land taken from Katsina and KB while my allies fought Mali, and I let them get the occupations. I said screw it, and I full annexed Mali in that second war, feeding their land to Macina and Jolof who had the occupations, which is why I had to trucebreak to finish them.
At some point, Jenné attacked Songhai and called Macina and Timbuktu, I dishonored and everyone ate Songhai: Jenné, Timbuktu, Mossi and Zazzau. I attacked Mossi, released Songhai as a vassal.
I think at that moment we were around 1480 and there were almost exclusively my allies left. There was probably Jolof, Macina, Jenné, Timbuktu, Mossi, Zazzau, Yao and Benin, with only Timbuktu, Mossi and Benin not my allies. That's the point were things were really easy. I betrayed my allies one by one, doing reconquest wars for Songhai cores to make things cheaper. Yao, Zazzau and Benin were free to pick, Mossi too. At that point I had two alliance webs to face, because Macina and Jenné ended up rivalling each other. Jolof was allied to Macina. Jenné was allied with Timbuktu. Morocco was allied with both Timbuktu and Jolof. Jolof was 80% WS, Macina 140%, Jenné 80% and Timbuktu 45%, or something like that. That's what I mean when I said I overfed Jolof and Macina. I knew I would have to trucebreak Macina anyway so I kept them for the end. I attacked Jenné, full annexed them and Timbuktu as non cobelligerant. We were around 1490, and I wanted everything by that point (I had started integrating Songhai). That's why I just broke Jolof from Morocco instead of taking their Sahel provinces they had gotten from Fulo (I could have done that and avoided the extra trucebreak, you don't need the coastline). I got 100% from Macina, then trucebroke the two of them as soon as I finished coring (to avoid keeping provinces I can't core because I'm at war with someone who had a core there). So I could have saved a few years, but that would have meant I'd get 200% overextension, -3 stab and 10 WE at the same time. Let's avoid that if we can
I finished right after getting mil 7, so I could use cannons for the final wars.
Overall, the beginning is relatively straightforward with the good setup. The key is really to be able to get Oyo and a border with Nupe, and give Benin a border to chain wars immediately on Nupe. In runs where I could not get Oyo but only Dagbon, I was way too slow, and in one run where Benin did not want to join against Oyo and thus did not border Nupe, I lost against Nupe+Katsina+Air because I could only bring Zazzau. Another opening could be to go on Mossi immediately by trying to ally Songhai, but I have not explored it because Mossi usually had good allies at start, and I found good success with my starting moves.
Be mindful never to betray your allies, always give them land, you can't afford to be unable to call them in for several years, that fucked one of my runs. And set provinces of interest before the war to get the occupations.
I think I got to the point where I have to abandon Mossi and I border Mali 3 times, but in two of them Mali was too strong and had too good allies. My final one was successful because everyone rivalled them. In one of the others I was completely locked and I think I messed up. In the other one, Mali was allied to Jenné and Songhai, so I tried to go on Mossi, and later on call my ally Songhai against Jenné, but Mali declared on me during the war against Mossi and Songhai dishonored.
Basically, there are two turning points: initial setup, and how things look once you border Mali and built a powerbase. If you're lucky with the two of them, you can do it. Once Mali is dealt with and you cleared up the east, you're the uncontested superpower and you just have to betray your allies in the West/the North.
Generally speaking, important thing is to use mercs, at least after your second war, and to slowly increase their number by consolidating infantry after every battle and replacing regular with mercs. Manpower was tense early on. Increase autonomy BUT give provinces to the nobility, as I said. You can't lose resources on revolts early on, and as I said, you'd rather have Force Limit than tax income. Sunni land around Katsina will revolt anyway, and you want to decrease autonomy on the goldmines. That's the point where you can handle the revolts, the goldmines give you enough income to throw mercs. I developped all of them to 10 prod. The rest of my dip went in doing separate peaces, integrating Songhai and buying WE (you're constantly at war/in revolts, often with several wars to bypass alliances, without access to DotF or any way of reducing WE). My admin went in developping goldmines so that they could reach 10 prod, coring everything and stabbing 5 times at the end with the overextension and lack of religious unity. I focus on admin early, or else you can't get to +1 stab and core the Oyo + Dagbon + Nupe + Kano and you have to sit on OE. Then on mil. I get money from burghers and 150 adm and mil every time it's possible. Keeping forts you conquer can be a good idea to avoid the spread of separatism in the North East while your armies fight in the West. There are ones in Kanem Bornu, Katsina and Air on game start iirc, and that's the land always unhappy becaue they're Sunni and you won't accept their cultures (accept the cultures from the goldmines, obviously).
I guess I was lucky that I could avoid fighting Morocco, and that I had two 2 siege generals (rolled several ones, got others from nobility (you can safely ask for generals because no need for a diet, they'll be happy from you giving tons of provinces)). My ruler died in 1475 and I fell in a real regency for 9 years even if my ruler was not a general. I'm not ashamed to say the game instantly crashed.
That's exactly the achievements I like. You never face insurmountable odds but you are so pressured that you can't afford to lose any resource or to take too bad of a decision. Every ducat, monarch point and manpower count early game, and there are real choices you usually don't do, like "do I use more men to siege that fort to get more participation and thus more money in the peacedeal, or do I park one unit and let my allies siege it to save manpower?". There is not a lot of micro skill required after the first wars, but a lot of game knowledge to minmax resources and get around alliances. There is an element of luck but it's not that massive (It's not Electable --'), it has flavour (I'm getting seriously bored of the "start as an OPM and blob" ones, especially if they are more specifically "start as an OPM near the Ottomans and blob"), and there is the threatening timer. In many aspects, it's similar to Manipur as you are the weakest nation of a medium-sized area and need to unite it. No wonder both stand together at the top of my list of funniest achievements so far (alongside a few others).
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