|
I feel like that will likely be where I'll call it. I finished doing what I was looking to do, and I have built a powerful platform for success moving forward.
I would pursue a diplomatic annexation of Novgorod next, and then add Yaroslavl, Perm, Rostov, and Muscovy to my allies and vassals slowly, and then bring them into my territory slowly but surely.
In between each of those peaceful annexations (which often can take a decade) I'd see myself grabbing a large amount of land east or south, and expand quickly.
My first major target would be Crimea to my south and a little west of Astrakhan. Right now I get the bonus for getting territories in peace from other faiths, and want to exploit that with the wealthy territory of Crimea. I'd use my great power right now to break their alliance with the Ottomans, and then isolate them, but that creates a peace for 5 years, and then use that 5 years to drop my badboy from Muscovy and then prepare for war here, then wage war and mostly take out all the Crimea Muslim state.
Then I'd want to look at places like the Oirat Horde's five provinces, which is a tributary of Ming, as well as another war with Transoxiana that delves deeply into the central Asia with hopefully a drive that sets up a future war with the Chagatai Horde, and then maybe finish off the Nogai Horde.
So Crimea first militarily, and then look east. I would expect that within 50 years I would have peace vassalized three Russian minors, removed Crimea completely or mostly from the map, had a minor war with the Ottomans, finished colonizing Siberia, taken out the Oirat, Nogai hordes, and won a major amount of land from both Transoxiana and the Chagatai Horde, and be looking at potentially moving to places like Sakhalin, Mongolia, or the pacific for future colonial options. I would expect to be fully Russia as you expect, in terms of the map, roughly around 1600
|