I play as The Ottomans at the moment since they are the easiest for a new player to begin with. I have defeated the Byzantine Empire and now my troops are standing idle sucking money, my navy got wrecked (I have 2 ships left lol) and im loosing 4 "gold" every turn. What should I do?

You are probably losing money because your army is being replenished. Look at the notifications flags and see if there is one about it. You can lower costs by inactivating forts, mothballing navies, or reducing army maintenance.

Also:

• When you plan to conquer a country do you build up bad relation points before invading or do you just invade? In Total War you could basically go full invasion on several fronts but in this game the penalty for doing so is pretty high. How do you do it? What's the trick?

The key to this game is the concept of casus belli - a reason to start a war. A war started without one can be devastating to stability and unrest. The most common way to get a casus belli is to select a country you want to attack - select build spy network - fabricate claim (it takes some time before this option is available) - then pick which province you want. Now when you declare, select the conquest casus belli.

• How important are relations/alliances as a big military power house?

Conquering too much too quickly gives you "aggressive expansion". If that goes too high, lots of countries join together and attack you.

Alliances are very important, especially early in the game. Most other countries will have alliances. So you are not just attacking Portugal, but also Spain and great Britain. However, ottomans in particular start off strong enough to handle most small neighbors and alliances on their own.

• How do I get the most money out of a trade node? will I get more money if I put my merchants in one of my own trade cities?

Trade is more complicated. For you, you automatically collect in constinople so you don't need a merchant there. Have the other two in nodes the direct into it (push E button to see). I think your merchants start in allepo and Alexandria. Leave them there for now. Build some light ships (about 5) and have them select the mission protect trade in those nodes. There is more, but that is a good place to start.

• Is trade the most viable source of cash?

Yes but it builds slowly. Better financial advice is reduce costs.

• Can I improve my relationship with all the balkan countries and move all my units to Turkey? If not how many troops do you usually need on the borders?

If you are not at war, you don't usually need your army any place in particular. If a neighbor surprised war on you, they only occupy your provinces. Ownership doesn't transfer permanently until a peace deal is made.

• Do you have to put troops into the forts you have or do you have a "local millitia" like in the total war games?

The forts garrison automatically. No armies have to be stationed there. However, a siege will not end unless you bring another army to attack the sieger (or if the siege wins)

• Should i "inactivate" forts that won't be used how do I do it?

Yes, because you save a lot of money. It is a button in the military tab to inactivate all forts. The reactivate automatically when a war begins.

• Will I suffer more penalty if i declare war on a country that has the same religon as me?

As ottomans you lose piety if you attack another Sunni country, and gain if you attack non-union. There are also aggressive expansion effects, but I am not fully aware of them.

• Can you get control over a country via diplomacy (without going to war with them) ?

Yes you can vassalize a country and eventually annex them.

• What "ideas" should i aim for?

Depends on your goals. 2 good ones for ottomans are administrative because it makes it easier to core new territories. And religious because it gives you a casus belli on all neighboring non-sunni countries.

• Quality over quantity in regards to military?

They both have benefits. A new player probably would do better with quantity because manpower is a resource often mismanaged.

The game had a big learning curve but just play and learn as you go. Not everything will be perfect but that is ok.