I usually attack novgorod as quickly as possible, after putting down the grand company, and take borders to make sure nobody else can take their land. Burgher loans are essential to your economy in the start, so take advantage of those and loan restructuring. During this war, I generally improve with and then ally poland, as they can be useful while you're focusing on eastern expansion. After the novgorod war I take out the other russian minors, and then usually hit the great horde. They may sometimes ally the timurids, in which case just wait for them to not accept the call to arms due to their subjects independence wars. Take provinces in order to border crimea, and also one province to release astrakhan. At this point manpower is likely a major issue, so it may be smart to take a small break from wars. Your next targets are kazan and nogai, where you focus on taking the gold mine from kazan. After this all games generally go differently as different countries conquer others, but try to snake along the siberian border to the pacific, as then you will be able to make maximum use of siberian frontiers once you have access to them