Back in 2016, while I was a little EU4 nooblet, I was struggling at this game. We've all been there. I decided to turn to YouTube to jump ahead of the learning curve. I found a Byzantium Easter Egg video, saw that four easy steps would enable me to annihilate the Ottomans, and gave it a try.

All I had to do was take out exactly 12 loans, send a diplomatic insult to Denmark, send 100 ducats to Scotland, then rename my army. I figured if my armies are invincible why not save a ducat or two by turning down my army maintenance. I eagerly declared war on the Ottomans with all the gusto that would come with a Make Rome Great Again speech given by Donald Trump. Then I was stackwiped. I totally didn't see it coming. I thought maybe I didn't go far enough with Denmark, so I declared a no CB war on them, trained up a 1k stack, and got stack wiped again. I figured why not hurl a no CB war against the Mamluks, maybe that will work. All that got me was a massive coalition where everyone dogpiled me.

I noticed that with no armies my budget was running a surplus. That's a silver lining I thought. Then I saw the Game Statistics screen. That's odd, I thought. I didn't click on that screen. Then I realized that meant the game ended. The saddest part was I totally didn't see any of that coming.

I learned several things in that ill-fated play through:

1. Stackwiping is real and it can happen to you.

2. Aggressive Expansion can lead to coalitions (even when you haven't done any expanding).

3. That loading screen that Paradox has that says don't get discouraged by losing a province or two is meaningless. Losing a few provinces means losing the game. You can't strike back the enemy in their moment of weakness. Ottomans don't have moments of weakness.

4. Don't turn down army maintenance right before declaring war.

5. If you do lose the game, Paradox likes to rub salt in the wound by taking you back to the main screen and allowing you to continue your campaign from the last autosave. Just in case you wanted to resume your game in the final days and lose all over again.

6. Don't listen to anything DDRJake tells you.

Soon after that, I found a Trebizond Opening Moves video by BudgetMonk119. It was a good video. I learned a lot - like tiny nations can do well if played properly. If I remember correctly he went yolo on the Ottomans right from the start and won, with only Candar and Byzantium as allies. It was a turning point. I started getting some of the easier achievements like Poland Can Into Space or The Spice Must Flow after that. I even got Marshy Marche after a few attempts and a few save scums. But for over a year I never got the Komnenoi Empire achievement.

Then earlier this week I decided to give Trebizond another try. I played very carefully, really examined all my options, came up with a grand strategy, got all my ducks in a row, and then got stackwiped by Theodoro, and lost just like I did before. At least I didn't give all my money to Scotland.

The second attempt went a little better. So that brings us to this guide. Here's a video summary of what I did.



I'd like to emphasize that this strategy relies on luck, especially in the beginning. Don't be discouraged if you have to restart several times. It might happen. You're a OPM surrounded by Mongolian hordes and the Ottomans, so I mean, yeah.

The overarching strategy of this entire play through will be making sure the Ottomans don't ruin your day. I'm sure there are better players out there who could probably 1v1 the Ottomans in 1444 and win, but I'm going to pursue an easier strategy.

Right from day 1, offer yourself as a tributary to QQ. It looked like the Great Horde, Crimea, and Kazan could be willing (if not, restarting is an option). But the Great Horde will eventually get wrecked by Muscovy and they would not be a good benefactor. Crimea might become a subject of the Ottomans, leaving you high and dry. And who has ever heard of Kazan? It sounds like an energy drink or something. QQ might be the best choice. Between that and the Georgian guarantee, you should be safe from the Ottomans for at least a few years.

For an easy view of the diplomatic situation, click on the Production Interface, then type "0" for Diplomacy, then type "d" for Influence. Try typing "s" for Alliances. Practices these keys on the keyboard. Get used to checking this screen regularly. Study the screenshot below. This screen will be your most useful tool for avoiding the Ottomans ruining your game.

You'll want to get news on everything going on around you. For instance it helps to know that the Ottomans attacked Candar the day it happens. Take some time to mark everyone around you as nations of interest. You can do this by clicking on one of their provinces, right clicking on the flag, and left clicking the little star that appears under the flag. Check the screenshot below for details.



For an additional level of knowing what's going on, type the Esc key. You'll see a menu popup. Believe it or not, you can do more than just Load and Save games from here. I know, it took me like 18 months to figure that out. We've all been there.

You'll want to click on the option that says Message Settings. From here you can customize the popups you see, and how the popups behave (such as whether the game pauses to give you time to contemplate). Below is a screenshot of a keyword search on "relation". You could theoretically have the game pause and let you know whenever one nation of interest begins to improve relations with another. It could be useful when Cyprus begins improving relations with Iraq - that probably means Cyprus is agitating for a war of independence and looking for allies. In 15 or 20 years you could conquer Cyprus by attacking Iraq, who will call a Cyprus in in a defensive call to arms. That's just one possibility among many. It helps to be in the know.

From here start growing as fast as you can. Take loans and go over your force limit for those first few wars. Attack whoever looks weak. If Theodoro is isolated, make sure you can get military access and attack them. If it happens to be Circassia, start with them. If you can handle Georgia, attack them. Fabricate claims on anyone you can, especially if you see other nations are planning to attack them (you can see claims they have). While someone bigger than you is getting wrecked, ninja your way in there and steal some provinces. Only fight wars you're sure you can win, and if you're unsure, take loans and go over your force limit.

If you absolutely must declare bankruptcy, spend all your monarch points developing provinces then declare bankruptcy. I've never done that myself, but that was one of my backup plans.

Probably about 10 to 12 years after starting, start improving relations with Muscovy and mark them as friendly. If you get moderately sized, you should be able to ally them and cement it with a royal marriage. Do everything you can to maintain this alliance. Give them military access. Don't mark any provinces near them as provinces of interest. Don't ally their rivals. If you can, rival their rivals and ally their allies. For at least the next 150 years this alliance will be the biggest deterrent to an Ottoman invasion you have. Hopefully the Ottomans never mess with you. Even if the Ottomans invade, perhaps the Russians can beat them into a white peace.

If, God forbid, Muscovy does poorly, try to warm up to the PLC. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.

An alliance with Russia, unfortunately, probably won't be enough on its own to deter the Ottomans. Try to pick up one or two more big nations in Europe if you can. I allied Spain for a while until they ditched me. Then I allied Sweden (who was Russia's ally). Help Russia grow if they call you into wars, and they will protect you.

Please remember this - if you don't have at least Russia plus one other big nation as an ally, you're at a real risk for an Ottoman invasion. Those defensive alliances are extremely important.

By the late 1500s you may discover Ming. An option is to become a tributary to them. In the most recent patches the Ming always survive and thrive. If Russia is doing very well and the Ottomans have stalled, you may not need to become a tributary. Then again, as a Ming tributary you can attack other Ming tributaries. It really depends on how your game has gone up to this point.

You can either expand out a lot, or expand out a moderate amount and develop your provinces the rest of the way. If you go the development route, I'd recommend Economic Ideas at some point for the -20% development. You could probably stack that with another Idea group to get national policies to really lower development cost. I didn't look too much into that, but there's probably something for that.

As for other ideas, anything that gives you more diplomats will help. I had diplomats improving relations with Russia and Sweden full time to maintain the alliances, one improving with the Ottomans to reduce my AE, and everyone else was fabricating claims. Some of those idea groups will also give you diplomatic reputation. That will help with securing alliances too.

As for the AE, try not to ever go over 50 AE with the Ottomans. The only thing worse than the Ottomans ruining your day is the Ottomans and half the nations around you jumping into a coalition against you. You have plenty of time to get the achievement. If your AE is getting close to 50 with the Ottomans, slow down.

I went for Quantity Ideas too. I think your force limit, manpower, and total army size are all factored into whether the Ottomans decide to attack you.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below, and I can make updates to this guide if it looks like I missed anything. Good luck with your achievement run.