Just wait for China to implode; they almost always do. The real issue with Dai Viet is the hostile core creation cost, which is atrocious. I ended up not conqering the last bit till I could make client states and just had them do it.

That explains it: I avoid Continental Europe (Austria & France) & India (all of it) like the plague until I need them, while you love it. And I noticed you have the Malaya reunion achievement, congratulations. I'll try what you did again someday and next time I hope the Chinese don't join in the war against me in conquest of coastal Vietnam.

I consider the core Malaya lands to be the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Sulawesi, the Philippines, Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam), and the Moluccas and Sunda islands. Since Malaya is a cultural union, Malayan, Sumatran, Bornean, Filipino, and Sulawesi are all accepted, and you can easily get Central Thai and Khmer accepted as well with Humanist. If you can just conquer this core area you'll be really well off, since you'll have control of Malacca, Siam, Philippines, and Molucca nodes. Going into southern China can get you Canton as well, which is very lucrative, and if you send a merchant to collect in Bengal and a fleet to protect it, you'll also get a whole lot of money from that. When I finally did that I saw an immediate spike in income. The point is that as long as you use your merchants and navy well and know where to expand you can roll in money for more colonies. I also built manufactories in a lot of provinces, which helped a lot.

I actually love playing in and around India, and even just watching them, precisely for that reason. Aside from the HRE, they're the only place in the world with so many powers that have similar chances of rising to the top, so I find that sense of dynamism a lot of fun.

And I only prioritize the South Africa coastal provinces, not the rest of Africa. And I never just focus on them. I mean, if I've gotten that far where I'm going after it, I'm already definitely fiwelding at least two colonies at once, maybe three, and only one will be in that region at any time. Normally I would prioritize the Philippines and Sulawesi, though this time around I focused on Sumatra and Borneo first to form Malaya. And I continuously conquered in all directions, but you have to prioritize the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, and Java if you want to form Malaya as Malacca.

Cape is alway my goal too = $$$$. Your Spice islands are a distant 2nd goal because I would need a military force to force my way in. You are right in that dominating the Spice Island will lead to you also becoming a dominating global force. Twice I've tried blocking off access to Asia by sweeping ownership all around the Cape and the rest of Africa but it has never really worked. At most it slowed the other powers down but it also slows me down getting into Asian because I need so many low value coastal provinces of Africa. And the Indians... well, it's a crapshoot who is going to end up at the top unless you invest some serious muscle. I don't like wars with & around India but I need them :(

Oh, the Siberian coast was the last thing I bothered with besdes a small-ish Brazilian CN made mostly to pass the time, since trade-wise it was completely useless to me. I do always prioritize South Africa and especially Cape, though, because I think that aside from it being alright land blocking off that area delays the Europeans for awhile.

Vijayanagar was the strongest Indian power in my game for a long time, as you can see somewhat from the northern and southern remains of their lands, but it fell apart after the Ottomans and Portugal started on them. I actively helped Orissa grow strong and fight against Jaunpur when they were powerful, since they were a common enemy and I had a vested interest in a balancing power against Vijayanagar. Until the late game they couldn't win the big wars without me, but they were great help in my own wars.

I understand you don't go some places for cultural reasons, I don't have that self-imposed limit but I don't do it anyway because I couldn't be bothered >.> I would only colonise Siberia when there are no other interesting places to go to (ie, it's late game & my good colonies were voluntarily released & I have a spare colonist and the bankroll). Siberian Colonies are worth very little in value and almost all of Siberia is landlocked.

Yeah, so far every successful end-game for me was built on a dominant navy (although I avoid contintental Europe as much as possible). The Indian powers can usually be counted on to build an impressive navies to block access to asia but they usualy implode regularly. I just wish there was a reliable indian power to protect my empire rather than a European ally to threaten the home nation of the arriving colonies.

I was also really lucky in both of my games because Russia was very weak in both of them. In my Japan game Muscovy actually failed and Russia was formed by Novgorod, who didn't colonize much until the mid-game. And in this game Muscovy formed Russia but was repeatedly beaten by Poland, Sweden, and Gazikumukh (who did REALLY well this campaign; I should actually probably put up a screenshot because they were really impressive), and so barely colonized at all for a lot of the game. I actually could have colonized further into Siberia than I did in this game, but chose not to because I didn't completely like the idea of Malaya being in Siberia at all, and originally just blocked it off so the Iberians wouldn't commit crimes against cartography. But the point is in neither game were the Russians ever a threat to me. I didn't have to fight them at all this time, and I think I only fought them once or twice and won easily in my Japan game.

I had a Hosokawa>Japan game about 18 months ago that was pretty similar in premise. Take exploration first and colonize like mad. It was definitely different, though. For one thing, the Nippon node is much worse than the Malacca node, which is one of the best in the game, so there wasn't as much income. I also focused on conquering different areas; Korea, Manchuria and Siberia instead of southeast Asia and southern China. And I didn't westernize this time around since I was already so big and could never spare the points from conquering and annexing. But this was definitely a stronger empire. I was way more powerful in the end than I was at the end of my Japan game. It had almost all of the same colonial lands plus more, and conquered more and richer lands. But overall you still have to colonize a lot, and you still divide and conquer, and you still get European allies in the mid-game, and no matter what as a predominantly island and colonial empire you need a powerful navy.