I will ask again: what's the best strategy to survive as Vandad Karen in the Old Gods start without falsely claiming to be muslim and staying crypto-zoroastrian?
I have tried serveral methods like staying on the offensive and conquering any character that has a weaker army, staying defensive and saving up money to hire mercenaries and defend against muslim blobs and just not giving a shit about the ME and only conquering north (which is no longer possible because you have to build castles to prevent provinces from going nomad when you die and that costs too much).
I'm generally not very patient with the game and often ragequit around 900 but that's often because I just get fucked over so much by factions and muslim realms that I cannot recover fast enough to do stop the next invasion and the next one and the next one etc. Should I just swear fealty to the Abbasids? Because that seems really fucking boring.