I started as Russia on H/H. I am in 1707 now.

Like everybody else, I took out Crimea first. As I suspected that I would have to go to war with Sweden soon, I was simulateneously increasing the size of my army near St Petersbourg.

Few turns in the game, the war with Sweden indeed started. But since I was ready, I managed to take over St Peterbourg by destroying their stacked up army in the region. Once you destroy their main army, they do not have many units left to protect the surronding provinces. So, by constantly bringing more units from Moscow, taking over Riga and Alma (spelling?) was easy. After that, since I had a war going with Otoman Empire (OE), I decided that I am not ready to spread myself too thin, and offered Sweden a peace agreement. They accepted.

As I mentioned, at the same time you will have a war going on in the south. I made sure that I had enough troops before I besieged and took over Moldavia. Since Moldavians are quite happy to be part of Russia, I then proceeded with my whole army to take over Bulgaria. This is as far as I got to with OE. I will need much more troops to take over Istambul.

But my real problems came from...Degestan. Degestan and Georgia, these tiny states, declared a war on me! Georgia wouldn't really do anything about it, but Degestan actually pillaged some villages and farms around Don Voisko. So, I sent my Crimean army of 1,700 soldiers and Ivan Mozepa as their general to crush them. I was met by a force of approximately 2,100. "400 less soldiers will make no difference when led by such as great fieldmarshal as me", I thought. And...my whole army vanished in that battle! Great learning experience, because things like that would never happen to me in previous TW games. Now I have nobody to protect my south-eastern border...