you are gone be easily invaded if u play as a small country in europe
But that’s all part of the fun!
I really enjoyed an ironman game i played has Cyprus, I’d originally planned to go for Kingdom of Jerusalem but chose the other option on the succession event, i managed to fight off the ottomans then the Mameluks and take on an alliance of Venice, The Knights and Crete whilst Venice was distracted, i took Crete but failed to take Rhodes.
Then i pretty much hung around Cyprus surrounded by Ottomans i invested tall in Cyprus an with no allies waiting for the day they’d finally break me.
Then i got out an started colonising , Cypriot Columbia & Cypriot Louisiana, circumnavigated the globe an started colonising the spice islands, Spain, Britain and the Commonwealth was my allies, Spain had swallowed France an Portugal after personal unions and the Commonwealth swallowed Austria.
I lost Cypriot Columbia an Louisiana to natives, i spread myself to thin an just didn’t have the capabilities to protect em plus colonial ai

but the spice islands never had any threat so i kept em, took alaska an california , then lost California towards the end.
But the time had come for me to strike against the ottomans in the 1700’s , i took greece an constantinople then pushed into Turkey , i never took Jerusalem the Mamluks took full advantage of the Ottoman collapse an pushed upwards towards Turkey.
I’d gone into the game expecting to be wiped out, but i stuck around an ended up with a nice little empire.
The Knights of Rhodes also survived the entire game without ever gaining or losing any territory.
I really wanted to convert the save over to Victoria 2 but never got around to it.