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