Tips on survival
-Build infantry for the first about 70 ducats you have (you have 75 but spending them all will cause you to take loans to soon, and eventually bankrupt you - that can be avoided).
-The first time the political slider can be moved, I usually move it towards defensive, as it will decreas the time it takes to siege - and that is the trick.
-Ofcourse be tolerant of only sunni and catholic in the beginning
-I usually only mint money in the first war, to avoid taking those devastating auto-loans and be able to build more infantry once I have captured more provinces or lost men.
-Do NOT ingage in battles with spain. Unless you are sure to win them, always flee. Your troops are only usefull as a sieging army, and Spain usually moves it's main army to Granada - let them, uoy can always siege it once you controll 1 or 2 spanish provinces.
-Don't use more men at each siege than nessesary to maintain it (app. 6.000)
- Siege up to 3 provinces at a time. Spain often chooses to siege the provinces they own but you controll, which will work in you advantage as you will never loose that critical last province.
- I usually make peace with them when they offer me Andalusia, Murcia and Toledo.
- Once you have won the first war, start promoting bailiffs - not any sooner.
- You can also begin building some cavalry for your armies. Don't excede your supportlimit!
Where to go from there (vanilla):
As a five province state the ods have even out by the second war. Also Portugal tends to join forces with Castille - they are terrible at defending Tago, so sieging out tago will give you a good warscore against Castille if you are loosing the war.
Finish off Spain and Portugal before they start colonising for real. You can let spain keep one costal province so that they can explore for you, but remember not to let them have it too long, as they might build up a colonial empire, which will be hell to dismantle. Aragon can wait for some time. Portugal must be annexed as soon as posible. If you can, take all the colonies that have less than 1000 population, as they will not give you badboy points, and Portugal will not be able to build them into a colonial city.
Once Iberia is yours, I propose that you go for North Africa and westafrica (atleast the pagans, as the straight between Gibraltar and Tangier will give you landconnection through the saharan corridor, and you will get lots of manpower. Also colonized like Spain would have.
Do not allow yourself to lack behind in landtech, France, Spain and Aragon will surely punish you for it if you do.
Convert - convert - convert
Hope I was helpfull to you! (Granada is one of my favourits)
