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https://preview.redd.it/mn9jh86ik4151.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2214afaeeb52e8eb150b7ba6830f2159eac5ebc8

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Image shows the bordergore horror of my Three Mountains run I thought you might enjoy, but this thread is meant to provide a few ideas for challenging achievement runs which combine several hard to get achievements into one so people can get inspiration during these troubling times if like me you dislike doing an entire game just for one achievement. Please add on any other achievement run ideas you might have!

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Oirat -> Mongol Empire Tengri World Conquest: This is in my opinion one of the best setups to collect a whole bunch of fairly difficult achievements. Oirat is the easiest WC to do, and can be quite easily achieved by 1720 even playing on Speed 5 the entire way. Off the bat, you can easily get World Conqueror, Over a Thousand, That's a Silk Road, and I'll Graze My Horse. Around late game when you're overflowing in mana, switch to diplo and start culture converting everything you see to get These Banners need a Saga. Once you've successfully annexed the world you can then form Rome for Mare Nostrum, and you probably still have a decent amount of time left to do some of the other achievements creatively. At this point make a backup save, and by making vassals, giving them provinces, diplo-annexing, and then releasing them and playing as them, you can quite comfortably get It's All Greek to Me, A Hero's Welcome, Why Is The Rum Gone, and Home and Away. Finally when you're ready to end you run, move your capital to a sub 10 development province and start giving away your high development provinces to various vassals to get Rags and Riches.

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Korea -> Japan: Tips to remember are that as Korea you can quite comfortably spawn Colonialism, and after that its best to just colonise within Southeast Asia and East Africa. It's best to stay on Ming's good side until the late game, and in the meantime, you can conquer all his Tributary States. This and colonisation gives you access to Sunni (Malaya), Shinto (Japan), Theravada (Southeast Asia), Vajrayana (Tibet), Hindu (Philippines), Animist (Philippines Ryukyu) for you to get Sweet Harmony. It's recommended to conquer Ainu early before Japan gets to it in order to have a foothold for your conquest of Japan, which is easiest to deal with in the mid game when the daimyos have coalesced into two or three large blocs all hostile to each other. In your first war, take just Settsu and Kyoto, which will cause all the daimyos to splinter into independent states that are much easier to take in subsequent wars. Next, unstate your Korean provinces and fully state Japan. This will let you switch to Japanese culture and then form Japan, which comes with a 10% ship durability bonus to help you get Turtles All the Way Down. If you're quick about it, you should have the riches required to spawn Manufacturing before 1655 for the Made in Japan achievement. Once you conquer East Asia, you'll also get the Choson One achievement.

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Sindh -> Yemen: Start as Sindh, make your way to Ethiopia, conquering the entire region and Yemen as well so you can form Yemen. Then colonise Southeast Asia and invade the Sahel from the East to pick up all the coffee provinces. Along the way, convert to Coptic. This gives you both Protect the Secret and Forgive me, for I have Sindh.

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Manipur Horde: Manipur is pretty tough, but you just need to play conservatively and attack Bengal when Orissa does. Then you continue playing until you can convert to a Horde. This gives you both Animal Kingdom and Ganges Khan.

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Najd -> Arabia: Quite a bitch to start, but just aim to get to Ethiopia and snowball from there, taking military ideas all the way to get the strength required to take down Ottomans and Mamluks reliably. Once you form Arabia, you'll get Arabian Coffee. Next you need to declare a humiliation CB on all three of your rivals one after the other, this has to be done before you snowball too hard so you still have viable rivals. Humiliating all three of them at the same time will get you Sworn Fealty. Then you just blob until you get the 500 provinces for Jihad.

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Kandy -> Hindustan: Oddly not as difficult as it may appear, you declare independence as soon as you can, then when Kotte starts sieging your capital you turn on the Defensive Edict and siege his. You will siege faster than him, so you'll get to 100% before he does and you can full annex him. After that you ally Bahmanis and take down Vijay. This is essentially the same strategy as Pandya Empire and Tiger of Mysore. Eventually you'll get Cotton Kandy, and by taking religious it's not hard to get The Buddhists Strike Back as well. Finally once Imperialism arrives, you take your boys and conquer the 4 provinces needed for The Sun Never Sets on the Indian Empire.

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Ardabil -> Persia: Start as Ardabil, immediately ally QQ and attack Shirvan, which will cause Gazizmukh to also attack Shirvan. Give just one province to QQ and take the rest, and then dogpile Ajam when the Timurids are in town. Once you form Persia, you will get Shahanshah. You next need to spend the rest of the game going pure military, then build forts across your mountain provinces and systematically disassemble Ottomans and Mamluks by cycling between the two until you annex both of them and get This is Persia.