OFFICIAL THEME SONG
So I went with the Black Sheep. QQ start in quite an interesting position, surrounded as they are by the Ottoman, Timurids and Mamluks, a poor country riven by the Sunni/Shia split, and as a Shia nation finding allies is hard. So I was hoping for a bit of luck starting off, which I didn't get when my first humiliate target, Aq Qoyunlu, allied the Ottomans straight away. Grrh.
Thankfully Ajam got embroiled in a war with the Timurids shortly after I snagged a claim against one of their Shia provinces (need to get them all to help with religious unity), so I opportunistically jumped on the back of that and grabbed a province and a humilate. Gotta push up that power projection! Of course, both Aq Qoyunlu and Ajam fell out of the possible rivals shortly afterwards, leaving me with the Mamluks, the Ottoman and the Timurids as possible rivals. Which feels right, but are hardly the easiest of rivals to get one over.
At least the North is in a better shape, and a possible route of expansion. All Orthodox lands, so hell for my religious unity, but it just so happens that Georgia is a brilliant march with cores on their neighbours and fort defence/manpower traditions. So I vassalised them in a what turned out to be an easy, but long war, as they were also involved in wars with the Golden Horde and even Trebizond due to them getting a Personal Union over Imereti. But I fed them Samstkhe and Trebizond, and will feed them Imereti in the next war.
Also in the North, I smashed Shrivan and Ardabil, getting more previous Shia provinces as well as some high value trade provinces, vital for my shocking economy. There's some more possible expansion possible in the East, with Mazandaran looking vulnerable. Though, the provinces they conquered are Timmy cores, and being directly on the border with them might not be the best idea. Of course there's also talk about an opportunistic war against the Ottoman given that they're currently fighting Austria and Hungary. Hmm. Decisions decisions.
Provinces Gained: Shaki, Shamakhi, Shirvan, Ardabil, Mianeh, Zanjan
Vassals Gained: Georgia
Vassal Provinces Gained: Lomsia, Tao, Trebizond