Ive followed a couple popular ones posted these past few weeks, but have only succeeded in the first with Ming once or twice... and stupidly peaced out before the disaster fired.

My problems are almost always:

That Ming declares war on Oirat so much that me being an ally and not being dragged into every war with them is impossible. Which means, unless if the stars align and I manage to get tech 5, enough manpower, and Ming is in a war who-knows-where, I always lose the first war.

Ming has such large armies that its very difficult to beat them without running out of manpower and being so economically weak that fighting a second war is almost impossible. It also makes winning battles difficult, unless the bulk of their army is fighting against an enemy in the south that I cant see. Before you ask, yes, I am fighting in flat terrain with generals that have at least 3 shock pips.

I feel like Im missing something here, it seems like they made Manchu so much easier through this update, but I can't ever succeed. Hell, I think I've done maybe 12-14 playthroughs, and I've never once been able to get anywhere near forming Qing.

If you comment, please dont post something about 'historically this was difficult.' I know, but this post isnt about the challenge, but that everyone is having such an easy time with the Manchu but me and I want answers and advice.