Habsburg Megacampaign: Part 38: 1350-1360: The End of The Middle Ages

I increased Orthodox heretic spawn rate, as there was just far too few and still a lot of game to go. It's really hard to mod this, as CK2 heretics aren't linear - they either don't exist, or there's a death spiral of religion into clusterfuck of heresies.

Lollards finally won majority over Catholics, but it's a 5-way race. Soon Catholics came ahead as primary, then Lollard again. It will probably keep flipping for very long time. Being primary is the worst, as counties flip from primary to random heresy (except when neighbouring existing heresy, they prefer that one). AI can't really stop the heretic death spiral.

After victory over Song China, it was time to demobilize, and to release Bengal and Bulgaria as sovereign kingdoms. I don't want any king tier vassals.

I still have a lot of heretic vassals.

King of Germany and Franconia, who lost Germany a while back, just recreated it. I need another plan for that guy.

My sister empress of China declared war to make Pope a tributary state of China - who was already my tributary. I guess Pope has some cities in India, but it's still weird.
Chinese armies took forever, but they ended up winning, making Pope a tributary, and messing up my font placement. Oh well, I can live with it.

Then she magically flipped Pisa from my tributary to Chinese tributary. OK, this is annoying, but still totally my fault.

At this point I've been thinking what I want to do with this campaign. There's 84 more years to go in CK2, but really not much to do. And then in EU4 it's not going to be a terribly interesting game.

Maybe surviving as Orthodox German China with 0% religious unity could be entertaining, but I'd probably stabilize in 20 years tops, and then there would be nothing left to do.

I thought about making myself HRE, and making Protestant Reformation spawn against Orthodox, but that would probably be really easy as well.

Interestingly there's now new fanmade CK2 to EU4 converter, with some extra fancy features. Unfortunately it hard crashes when I start converted game in EU4.

I was fun while it lasted. Here are some maps.

The New Rome would cover the whole map if I didn't release parts as independent countries every now and then

There's a bit of Surprise Buddhism challenging Orthodoxy, but I could wipe it all out in a few wars if I really wanted

Mongol culture spread like crazy due to special nomad mechanics (pasture provinces convert to owner culture automatically, so brief Mongol Empire had lasting cultural impact)

German culture definitely spread to Provence, Italy, Finland, and a few other places, but it doesn't really look that special. In CK2 characters far too easily flip to local culture, so there are Habsburgs of every local kind. I don't hate the concept, but it's not tuned properly.

Even non-Imperial lands are mostly Habsburgs

Habsburg Megacampaign: Part 37: 1342-1350: Kaiserin Berta and Celestial Empress Beatrix

There's still a century to go, and my todo list is short:

• destabilize any remaining strong countries like especially Rus and Germany
• either integrate or release any king-tier vassals
• put Habsburg on the Chinese throne
• take revenge on king of Armenia for murdering my niece
• border cleanup

China plan was fairly long term, so I started raising new retinue, something that I stopped bothering with after defeating Aztecs and Mongols.

And that was Kaiser Waltheof's last act, as he soon after died, succeeded by his daughter Berta, married to his nephew Teodosije of Bulgaria.

I couldn't find any way to cleanly revoke my mother's 4 kingdom tier titles, so I just took -120 opinion penalty for 5 years with all vassals, and up to -160 for 10 years for destroying those titles on top of that, but that only with affected vassals.

With vassals plotting my demise, I finally managed to get a CB to abolish Empire of Rus, and I attacked them. It didn't change a huge deal, as 3-kingdom of Vladimir/Chernigov/Novgorod was majority of its territory, but it's progress.

After that I had a grand tournament where my vassals could bash each other's skulls, and hopefully remove some malcontents from the world of the living.

Then it was Germany's turn. This was a quick victory, and also completely useless, as king of Germany had second title as king of Franconia, so all I did was renamed that place.

I needed some safe area to launch invasion of China from, so I conquered Bengal for one of my kinsman. So much for integrating all vassal kings. I moved my 84k strong retinue there. It's cheap and effective units - 38k pikemen, 38k archers, 8k heavies. Cavalry, elepants, and such nonsense are really overcosted in current patch.

I still wanted to wait for vassal relations to get a bit better.

But then, in February 1349, I started the greatest war yet - Invasion of China. I had a total of 380k of troops vs theirs 190k - with 75% levy reinforcement penalty, as all those extras were sent to invade China proper.

The decision where the war will be was totally up to them - I sent my spymaster to get some visibility. They spawned in Jiuquan at Northern top of the Silk Road and instead of ramming their way through to Bengal as I expected, they followed along the Silk Road and then through the Steppes heading towards Europe. I wasn't sure if they aren't bluffing, so I had to split my armies.

Then some rebellion happened in France, forcing me to leave even more troops behind. Suddenly my 2:1 advantage all evaporated - and my troops were sitting there eating winter attrition.

The first battle only happened June 1350 when my troops tried to stop Chinese invasion crossing Volga.

After losing a few crossing attempts, Chinese backup plan was to cross Volga further North, then run head first into my troops on hills while crossing Don.

By December 1350 after 5 failed crossing attempts, and with only a third of Chinese forces dead they just gave up.

With loss of Western Protectorate, my troops in China managed to overrun it, and my sister Beatrix became Shizu von Habsburg of the newly proclaimed Tang Empire.

Meanwhile, one of my vassals got Petra for me. Too bad this isn't Civ5, so it's not that kind of amazing. Catholics and Lollards are almost evenly matched, and considering how it's been going, Lollard will likely become the main branch of Western Christianity.

War for China took place on Volga and Don crossings

Habsburg China!

After their overflowing rebels destroyed Habsburg Britannia, it's much deserved payback

I plan to getrid of Bengal and clean up the borders a bit

Habsburg Megacampaign: Part 36: 1328-1342: Catholicism in Crisis

Orthodox Habsburg ruling line in Georgia was about to end, with it falling to some Turkish Jains. I wasn't going to allow that, so I organized invasion of Georgia, and distributed its lands among my kinsmen.

My son and heir Leopold died of severe stress, leaving my wife as my powerful vassal. I had 4 vassal kings:

• distant kinsman Dietmar of Anatolia
• nephew Teodosije of Bulgaria (including lands of Hungary)
• wife Gulisa of Epirus, Croatia, Serbia, and Sardinia-Corsica
• granddaughter Safiya of titular Carinthia, ruling OPM in our ancestral seat of Basel, and somehow big chunk of Southern Georgia

Vassals took some convincing, but I managed to take over and abolish Carinthia and Anatolia, properly integrating them into the Empire of New Rome.

I got challenged to a duel by my marshal, and I foolishly accepted, ending up seriously wounded, but I got better.

Catholics were being completely wrecked by heretics from all sides, falling down to 0% moral authority. I increased heresy rate, and left them on high for a while as nothing seemed to be happening, but I didn't expect that.

Basically as soon as Catholic moral authority started falling from its near permanent 100%, that resulted in more heretics, resulting in more moral authority loss, until it got completely crushed. Oh well, I toned down heresy rate, maybe they'll recover, maybe they won't.

And it wasn't just that - I did my best to undermine every Catholic country, then Zhao and Song troops invaded Britannia.

The world showing all my vassals as own countries. Catholic Northern Europe, formerly stable Britannia and a few big kingdoms, is in total chaos.

Kanem-Bornu, formerly most of Sub-Saharan Africa, went into Catholic-Monophysite-Fraticelli 3-way civil war.

Catholicism got so wrecked it has good chance of losing its primary status within its branch to the Lollards. Currently of 699 Catholic-branch provinces, there's 315 Catholics, 196 Lollards, 92 Waldensians, 52 Fraticelli, and 44 Cathar

Orthodox also has higher heresy spawn rate, but they get suppressed as they happen. Of 654 Orthodox-branch proinces, only 4 are heretics.

Maybe I should give Buddhists some heresies so they join in the fun? It's 263 really stable provinces

Habsburg Megacampaign: Part 35: 1322-1328: Zhou Invasion of Habsburg Britannia

The Pope decided to declare Crusade for Khazaria. That sort of makes sense as that's the last Sunni state and quite big, it's also basically one big pasture very difficult to hold for any feudal lord.

Song China won another civil war, but remnants fled West and atttacked Britannia and specifically its Indian holdings. Britannia was suffering under so many heretic rebellions, it couldn't properly defend its Indian holdings.

Zhou Empire was declared over Britain, Scandinavia, and half of India, overthrowing my Habsburg kinsman. I couldn't tolerate that, and fortunately I had some favors with the Song, so it wasn't too much effort to convince them to finish the job and crush their rebels.

I had a lot of troops doing nothing, so I decided to help. And since it was really long way for Chinese troops to get there, I ended up doing all the fighting while China only provided the best CB in game.

Zhou Empire has really pretty color

For all I know it would fall apart in no time due to religious and cultural issues with its vassals

The aftermath in Europe

Zhou Emperor now demoted to a duke controls a good chunk of Scandinavia

The only remnants of Habsburg rule outside New Rome are Georgia and OPM Kavlevan is Estonia - both with non-dynastic heirs

Plenty of non-dynastic relatives though, like my nephew rules Germany, my cousin Castille

The aftermath in India

Maharastra is still Habsburg, as are Orissa, Bengal, and a few of the newly independent duchies

Habsburg Megacampaign: Part 34: 1307-1322: Roman Balkans

My wife got a hand cancer at age of 17, and prompt amputation saved her life. She refused to ally me, and she got a huge revolt against her rule going.

The only good thing she managed to do is give birth to little Beatrix. Who somehow managed to get baptised by Satan? I think it's a bug, as far as I can tell, she got baptised by the Pope, and neither me nor my wife nor the Pope has any connection with Satanists.

She later had a second child Leopold, and then Wulfhilde. I gave Leopold an OPM titutar kingdom so if she gets overthrown he'd be my vassal, but that was taking forever. In the end it worked - Leopold is a vassal 5-king.

My nephew duke of Moesia conquered himself pretty much the whole Hungary. Some other vassals conquered chunks of Egypt, Arabia, and Germany. I've been expanding like crazy by doing totally nothing.

Empire of Kanem-Bornu went from Catholic to having a Monophysite heir related to Monophysite Nubian royal family. I tried to help them a bit to speed things up but it didn't work.

Empire of Britannia has an Orthodox heir now, so if they go Orthodox that would be the end of biggest Catholic empire.

Unfortunately Georgia had a non-Habsburg heir. I got husband of the queen killed hoping she's remarry matrilineally, but the went for a regular marriage with a Jain king of Punjab and Rajputana. At least the heir is still a Georgian Orthodox baby from her first marriage.

I started building Great Library in Palermo - that's 9th great wonder in the empire.

There's nowhere near as many heretics as I expected, so maybe I should change the settings again? Occasionally heretic rebellion wins, but then it gets overran by holy wars from every direction.

This is really baffling. Is the Pope Satan? Is that war Catholic baptism looks like?

Blood of Alexander gives my extended family kingdom level CBs

If it continues at this rate until 1444, I'll conquer the world without declaring a single war

I already released huge swaths of land as temporary tributaries

Habsburg Megacampaign: Part 33: 1298-1307: Kaiser Waltheof and fall of the Holy Land

Emperor Asclettin didn't have long to live.

He sent emperor of China second Emerald Tablet for another 5000 Chinese mana. That's enough to request a third invasion at some point.

In his last days, his great-granddaugher's Georgia just fell apart - presumably due to an ultimatum from independence faction. Her Indian kingdoms of Bihar and Gondwara, as well ans possessions in Persia and Mesopotamia all seceded, leaving her with just parts of Georgia proper, and nothing in her other 6 kingdoms.

He died at age of 68. Or was it 74. It's hard to tell due to Fountain of Youth. He was soon declared a saint, for a total of 5 bloodlines.

The empire was then taken over by his 5th son Waltheof, emperor of New Rome and king of Jerusalem. At 11/24/17/10/10 Waltheof is sure to focus on military victory.

Waltheof was publicly Orthodox but secretly Catholic - as apparently half the realm, who converted when asked by emperor Asclettin, but kept their Catholic ways in private.

True to his key strengths, Waltheof declared ten wars before his father was even properly buried - including war to abolish Empire of Holy Land, and to make Pope pay him tribute.

That really infurated all Catholics, who rushed to defend Pope's money. It was a surprisingly difficult war, but Pope gave up at half the required warscore.
War to abolish Empire of Holy Land was a lot easier - emperor got reduced to just king of Arabia, and his non-de-jure vassals got freed.

I divorced by lowborn wife, and betrothed Gulisa, second daughter of queen of Epirus, Serbia, Croatia, and Sardinia-Corsica. A few strange coincidences later she found herself a queen of all that.

If her lands are added to my realm it will really clean up the borders. And of course even after we got married, Gulisa would not agree to an alliange because political concerns. Oh well.

I hoped all this would get Catholic moral authority below 100%, but that plan failed, it's still over 125%

At least this gets everyone except Britannia below crazy dev level for EU4 converter

I'm going to be the HRE, so it doesn't matter terribly much how much land I have

There are three religions - Catholic, Orthodox, and Buddhist

Rumors that any other religions exist are obviously false

I modded a lot higher heretic spawn rate, and there's some, but with Catholic and Orthodox at over 100% authority, and Buddhist not having any possible heretics they're not getting far. I guess they'll wait for 1500s.

Habsburg Megacampaign: Part 32: 1290-1298: Invasion of Jerusalem

Due to some weird dynastic coincidence, one of my counts inherited Aztec Empire, which respawned as a Greek Orthodox OPM on Anatolian coast.

As heirs of Alexander the Great, me and my descendants have once in a lifetime Invasion CB for a whole kingdom. My grandson king of Georgia already burned that to challenge 4 counties in Trebizond from Hungary.

I spent so much prestige and money on this bloodline, it would be a shame if all my descendants always burned it like that. So invasion of Jerusalem it is! And since I'm going to take all occupied counties I might just as well take Antioch and Alexandria in this war.

The war had some battles, but it was mostly an enormous carpet siege which might be a portend of things to come. I took all of Jerusalem, all of Syria, and 2/3 of Egypt. That got me two more great works - Great Lighthouse of Alexandria, and Pyramids of Giza, but Pyramids are inactive due to culture mismatch.

I setup patriarch of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria with a duchy each. Damietta as a merchant republic. The rest went to various relatives, about a duchy each.

My son's kingdom of Bihar and Gondwana wouldn't last, he got overthrown, and his heir - king Gotthard of Georgia took over as a king, getting him to 7 kingdom titles. He died of an infected would while fighting and his 1 year old daughter, Serhilda von Habsburg, took over as ruler of 4th largest realm in the known world.

In grand Habsburg tradition I divorced my aging wife Baia, former queen of Georgia, and married emira Lanhjin, widow of my grandson Gotthard, and mother of queen Serhilda. This way I could ally my great-granddaughter Serhilda and prevent her vassals from overthrowing her.

My other son king of Orissa got himself into a vassal war, so I had to help him.

Should I even be giving them kingdoms? A duchy or two is about the most they seem capable of handling.

Empire of Tibet conquered its way all the way past Delhi, and seemed like it would pose a serious danger to my children's kingdoms in India, so I asked Chinese Emperor to do something about it. I didn't assist in Chinese Invasion of Tibet. China had no trouble achieving their goal, and Tibet got shattered into a hundred pieces.

1293 Invention of a Carpet Siege

New Rome really looks like Roman borders. Plus Iceland.

Tibet looked really scary, fortunately China is always happy to invade Tibet

Tibetan landscape just after Chinese invasion.

It will gradually coalesce back into a few big countries, hopefully nothing that big.

Habsburg Megacampaign: Part 31: 1288-1290: New Habsburg World Order

I inherited 5-kingdom of Bengal from my brother, and the question was what to do with it. I really didn't want to hold to it, so I could either give it to one son, or divide it between many.
There was no neat way to go full division, so I divided it in 3.

I also had title of kingdom of Bulgaria by accident.

Both my trueborn sons are dead, and my trueborn daughter Elysande is a concibine of the Chinese Emperor.
My trueborn grandson miracle son Gotthard is my primary heir.

I legitimized all my bastards that I know of, and they all got their share.

For my bastard sons:

• Armand - count of Angouleme (and he's really not happy about getting the least)
• Radolf - duke of Opsikion
• Waltheof - duke of Abydos
• Otto - duke of Samos
• Oswyn - vassal king of Bulgaria, married to his strongest vassal duchess of Moesia
• Cuthberht - tributary king of Orissa
• Ferdinand - tributary king of Bihar and Gondwana
• Song - tributary king of Begal and Kamarupa

And for my bastards daughters:

• Ying - wife of king of Germany and Franconia
• Wilhtburh - wife of king of Maharastra
• Mabel - vassal countess of Pitten, wife of heir to vassal duchy of Blois

My wife Baia the Nice somehow managed to piss off all her vassals and faced revolt against 54k troops with just 3k loyal to her.
I think I helped her enough. She got overthrown and our grandon Gotthard is now king of Georgia, Daylam, Armenia, Iraq, and Al-Jazira - half of these territories he even actually holds.

This means currently Habsburgs hold 2 empires, 14 kigdoms, 24 duchies, and however many counties. Our close relatives are basically the whole ruling class of the Christian world.
Will this last until 1444? It's still very long time to go.

My research into my bloodline confirms that I'm descended from Alexander the Great, and so are my sons. And now I'm looking into the secret of immortality.

Meanwhile the 7th Crusade conquered Sindh, setting up a Croatian king there.

The Scholars agree that I'm descendant of Alexander the Great

Meanwhile my wife shows that non-Habsburgs shouldn't be put in charge of anything

New World order in India

I thought that crusade for Maharastra is a longshot and it would probably fall apart. Instead we have Catholic Sindh, and half of India under 3 of my sons (Bihar/Gondwana, Orissa, Kamarupa/Bengal) and my cousin's son (Britannia/Maharastra/Telingana).

Dynastic map is halfway towards World Conquest

A shame half of Georgia was lost to a succession accident

Buddhist U-Tsang is ruled by descendants of past Venician doge, who went native long ago