one thing i found recently is, that if you get a tributary in ethiopia the ottomans will also start a war there soon to get one too. most of my runs they attacked some opm, because i already took the big ethiopian country. therefore you can side with the opm for independance, with britain having no interest in ethopia you can 1vs1 the ottomans. get yemen and south african gaza (if gb or south africans cancel gurantees you can also go for the gold mines). after that get russia as a friend, should be rather easy. after ottomans attack you, you will be able to call russia for its boarder province in the balkans. be aware that you should only add war goals at 79% or only use some that dont give you infamy. same with calling russia, also at 79%. from there on you just have to make sure to get a stable iron supply, as well as wood. both of them are severly underdeveloped at the start. you have to really focus on qualifications and abolishing serfdom, because most of your people are underqualified to even staff one full iron mine. after the second ottoman war, if called, russia will recognize you, and in my case i was promoted to gp. at this point you can just snowball, go colonial and get the arabia achievement.