Serbia suggestions? (non-exile)

[Lt. Condition]

After my Karaman run I decided to try an old achievement that I never got around to--Lazarus.

Hard as the Karaman start was I'm finding this one to be much more difficult. From anywhere else, you can hope the Venetians and Hungarians knock the Ottos around a bit, but as Serbia they're your main problem, too. Tackling either of them leaves Otto untouched, and they invariably come after me, hard.

Neither Austria nor Poland have been able to deal with them in my games so far, and I can't ever seem to get both allied at once. Austria seems less useful, since they never want to take on Hungary for obvious reasons and they invariable get distracted by the HRE, which leaves the Turks an open window. The "Conquer Serbia" mission they get really seems to give the AI a big shove in my direction, and so they always get it sooner or later.

For people who've done this, what strats can you recommend? (all expansions enabled)

 

[petertju]

Just gather power by uniting the Balkan, try getting aliances with Poland and Austria and gain some favors. Strike Venice with promising Austria land, give them this land to get favors and make Austria stronger. Strike Hungary when Austria won't honor, or is in a war on the same side as you, in this case just drag that war out while quickly beating the Hungarians. Probably Poland would join in this war as well. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to jump to Italy for extra land and power, plus trade power.

The Ottomans are always tough, I always advocate waiting for them to be in a big war in the east. It doesn't matter if it's Mamluks, QQ, Persia or another powerblock on that side. While they are fighting there, jump them and quickly conquer their European part. Hold your side of the Bosphorus and let them die for a bit for extra warscore. You could also jump over, but that is always risky. When you have enough warscore, you peace out and take your first stretch of land. After the first war, you can repeat it again until they are weak enough that you could do it by yourself

 

[Dominion]

You used to ally Albania, hope for them to get allied by Hungary, win the first war and grab a separate peace.
That way you get provinces and Albania+Hungary wins without you if you've wrecked them enough beforehand so you get a fresh Byzantium to force vassalize.

If that still works, there's your Lazarus.

Not gonna lie though, Lazarus without exile or HRE was one of the tougher achievements.

 

[Lt. Condition]

You used to ally Albania, hope for them to get allied by Hungary, win the first war and grab a separate peace.
That way you get provinces and Albania+Hungary wins without you if you've wrecked them enough beforehand so you get a fresh Byzantium to force vassalize.

If that still works, there's your Lazarus.

Not gonna lie though, Lazarus without exile or HRE was one of the tougher achievements.

Dunno why I didn't think of that, considering I waited for exactly that situation as Karaman.

Thanks!

 

[Schrod7]

Maybe you did it already, but here's how I made it happen (vanilla, no dlcs).
Only ally in early game was Hungary, I rivaled Wallachia and Bosnia. Declared on Bosnia, defeated their army and waited until Ragusa declared on them. Then you take some lands and vassalise Bosnia, so you get called against Ragusa and you can annex them too (that's how I got around Otto guarantee). Albania nowadays starts guaranteed by Venice, so maybe it will have to wait.
Until you get some lands bordering Wallachia, you want to declare Humiliation Wars so you can get some free Monarch Points and Power Projection, there's no rush to vassalise them and Hungary will give you access. Then I allied Austria at some point, defeated the Ottomans once or twice and when you have a solid hold in Greece, you must eventually ditch Hungary and start grabbing lands there. Poland is surely the most valuable ally in the mid-late game, when Austria and Hungary have outlived their use. Late game allies for me were PLC, Bohemia (Emperor of HRE) and Naples. Generally, it is a run spent mostly checking how many troops your enemies have in the stats window.
Good luck!