What’s the best *second* country for a new player?

I’m quite a new player (>100 hours) and I think I’ve pretty much gotten where I want to and learned the basics with the Ottomans. Tried first as Portugal but it was too hard lol.

What’s a good second country to play after learning the basics with the OP Ottos? I’m looking for something interesting and moderately more challenging but still good for a new player. I’m not really good at fighting other powerful countries yet.