Chapter I -- Fortune Favours the BoldTheodoro’s starting position is a perilous one, weaker as they are than their northern belligerent neighbour. That very belligerency works to your advantage, though, as you can reliably count on them to declare on you within a year or so. This is preferably to declaring yourself, as you’d have to face their allies as well. Crimea on their own are strong, but with some allies of your own not particularly dangerous.They start with a solid ruler, although I set admin focus right away to help alleviate his relatively poor admin stat. He is old, though, and his heir far too young—best hope the king stays alive long enough for the son to come of age.Before The Cossacks I’d have considered this to be ideal for an Orthodox game in this region, but now I’m not so sure. You will easily be able to call Poland in when the time comes to fight the Ottomans, but it’s likely that Moldavia will fabricate claims all over their northern coast. As Theodoro’ll never come close to matching the contribution of Poland/Lithuania, you could end up having to give Poland practically everything to keep them happy. We’ll have to see how that pans out.First things first. The nobles provide a good general—3 shock isn’t amazing, but it’ll do the job nicely. I elected not to expand my army in the hope that Crimea would attack sooner, but in retrospect I should’ve built up to my FL, as hordes hit hard on flat terrain. I secured alliances with Circassia and Trebizond (no RMs, though--they’re prime targets for expansion once we’ve dealt with Crimea).I secured MA from Circassia and shipped my troops over, and sold my fleet. It’ll have to be rebuilt later, but early on you need funds, and the ships are an expensive asset with little real value at this point. Then it was time to wait for Crimea to attack, once I’d started fabricating a claim on them, improving relations with Muscovy and lowered maintenance.Crimea oblige by declaring on me, and after combining my forces with those of Trebizond and Circassia I march on them. With a fort in Crimea there’s no way to chase down their stack, so instead I simply lay siege to their capital.Only a matter of time before Georgia is vassalized. Hopefully Trebizond and Circassia’ll survive long enough to become parts of Theodoro.Once Crimea is taken, the war’s over. Since I’m skirting the lines of a Sunni coalition here, I leave Crimea with two provinces. Only two will actually be cored, however—the rest will be handed over to my soon-to-be Sunni vassal.With Muscovy on our side, the Golden Horde shouldn’t pose any problems. I’m going to have to give Muscovy most of the land in this war, but I only need a province or two so I can release Astrakhan. I won’t need Muscovy for wars after this, but if I cheat them my plan to use Poland against the Ottomans won’t work.This doesn’t look too scary.I like to beeline for full PA, but stability is nice at this point.This could be problematic.Fortunately my good allies are more than willing to clear my rebels for me. It’s always worth looking for opportunities to have the AI take care of your rebels early on, because OPM starts are extremely vulnerable to them.I settle for the two provinces I have a claim on and war reparations. Muscovy receive a number of provinces to keep them happy (and to ensure I can call in Poland within a few years).Astrakhan is released and fed the Crimean provinces I didn’t core. Since they’re Sunni and part of the same culture group they won’t have any problems with those. As there’s some time left before the truce timers with Circassia and Trebizond expire, I decide to sit tight and let WE drop down.Alliance shenanigans allow you to ally even powerful rivals. In this case, I secured an RM with Poland and then broke my alliance with Muscovy. Because I still had great relations with them and they don’t exactly have a lot of potential allies, they sent me an offer to renew it in short order. Of course, Poland sent me an offer as soon as I was no longer allied to their rival, so by accepting them I ended up with both as allies. Not a long-term solution, but it provides some security.Kastor Atan gets the job done.Circassia is annexed and immediately released. Circassia is dead. Long live Circassia.Time for the first real test. We have a clear advantage in numbers, but nothing is ever easy. The plan is to engage and severly damage (ideally destroying, but that is unlikely) the Ottoman army, and then lay siege to Constantinople.Once this war is over, either Shirvan or Gazikumukh are next. To that end I'm securing a CB against Shirvan.The Battle of Basarabia is a boodbath. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority, my alliance takes a worse beating than the Ottomans, though we win the battle. That general...History repeats itself as the Ottomans attack across the Sea of Marmara.Stability never hurts.That general is a monster, but with the Ottoman forces depleted we keep fending him off.We're winning the war, but my allies aren't doing so well. The Ottomans are similarly running low on manpower, but they are comparably wealthy. Rather than drag this conflict out much longer, I decide to put an end to it so that I can pursue other goals.My share of the spoils are four provinces and war reparations. This'll set Theodoro up nicely, and with different separatists in every province, revolts aren't particularly likely anytime soon. Now I have a presence in the Adriatic, and can prepare for war with Bosnia and Serbia--that gold mine is a priority acquisition.To that end, I rival Serbia. I like keeping a rival slot open early on given the choice, as expansion'll frequently give you new options that you didn't previously have, and locking yourself into certain rivals can be problematic from a diplomatic PoV.War reparations are crucial for early game expansion, as there's no way to build a sustainable economy.Comedy gold. Poland decide that they don't want Tarnovo as they can't core it. Nevermind that they're currently coring Silistria and would be able to in about two years... This suits my plans just fine, though.