You can also grab one province in Syria, release them as a vassal, and fight another reconquest war for that whole region. If so, great! Vassalize the Ottomans and fight a reconquest war against the Mamluks. That will make you as strong as the Mamluks, who will probably attack the Ottomans from the southeast and weaken them further. Either way, take all of your cores and as much money as possible in the first war, most of the rest of the Ottoman European provinces and as much money as possible in the second, and start tearing up Anatolia (while getting as much money as possible) in the third. That's fine-build up favors and bide your time until you can call in your allies and attack them instead. If your alliance is too strong, the Ottomans will be scared to take you on. You can also annex Epirus while you're waiting. While you're putting your alliance together, build to force limit, destroy the fort in Morea, and wait for the Ottomans to attack. For example, Albania's Skanderberg is an amazing general and enables you to win battles that would otherwise have been hopeless. In addition to the big allies, some small ones can also be useful. Which of them rivals the Ottomans on Day 1 plays a big role in who I ally. My standard approach is to ally with at least one (and preferably two) of the following: Austria, Poland, Hungary, and Venice. I can always beat the Ottomans as Byzantium without taking out a loan by putting together a powerful alliance and fighting well, and you can do the same. My biggest pieces of advice for you are 1) don't go into bankruptcy and 2) expand faster. Honestly, it's way harder to take out the Ottomans as Byzantium than the Mamluks, and as you get better, you'll see this clearly.Īnyway, the best way to deal with "humongous nations" is to be even more humongous. However, 200+ hours isn't much at all, and your performance will continue to improve as you get deeper into the mechanics. First, congrats on beating the Ottomans! That's a good sign that you're learning the game.