It has been 31yrs for our "Hero" Upir as he works on expanding his dynasty and nearly collapsing his kingdom repeatedly. In the years of relative peace following 782 King Karl of W/E/M Francias, Burgandy, Saxony was excommunicated and later died suspiciously in 784 causing W-Francia to split from the realm as Francia. The following 7 years I had nonstop wars to Tributary every Slavic state surrounding Pomerania. In 794 Upir is outed as a Vampire, immediately adopts Vampiric culture, and queue vampire troop buildings in every holding. I had a bunch of inconsequential wars until 805.
In November of 805 King Ortbert of the Francia/Burgandy/Saxony/Germany collective dies mysteriously fracturing the realm into 3. I gain also finally get a claim to Rome, convert to Luciferian, and declare multiple wars to divide future armies. A holy war against E-Francia, against M-Francia for Koln, and against the Papacy for Rome. I focus on W-Francia first to prevent the people aiding the Pope from saving them and also send a detachment for M-Francia's Koln. I get my Tributaries to join the war for Rome but keep my vassals in reserve (which turned out to be very wise).
The war against E-Francia went well but most of those troops had to be detached to deal with the 10k stack Rome dropped on my capital. That 10k stack took the capital in a week. This repeated in nearby counties 5-6 times before the detachment arrived and beat it due to superior composition/commanders. 2k+ tribal Trapper retinues (33% are Archers with attack bonus) with archer heavy personal levies and assorted allied troops dropped their morale in half during the Skirmish phase
. I spend 1.5 years mopping up the remains of that 10k stack. At around 50% warscore M-Francia succession crisis'd out of our war
.
I get a strange message in 807 telling me we seiged Rome
. I see an allied 4.5k that decided to go for the war goal while I was preoccupied. Trusting in them to get the 20% warscore left to win I focus back on E-Francia. In the time it takes me to finish the Holy War the Papacy crushes the siege of Rome with 6k and I am running out of troops. I call in my vassals and begin to trek toward Rome... only to turn around halfway to stop the troops the Papacy dropped on my capital
again. I leave my retinue and 2k of allies behind the next time.
In 810 I finally usurp Rome. I become Patriarch, see I'm over demense severely, save my game, and quit. The next day I continue where I left off... except I'm now Blood Court government instead of tribal dropping my personal levies from 6k to 500 while I'm scheduled for a viking invasion with 10k(5k are event) troops this year! I redistribute all my tribal lands so their levies stop being under 30(from the 1.5k+++ they were when I was tribal) and Rome's temples. I end up with 2 demense out of 5 total, 0 personal levy, and my Retinue limit cut from 4.5k to 600 from my Military Organization going from 2 to 1.
The month for the Invasion passes and I wait expectantly for my doom. An Independence Faction Revolt fires! I call my tributaries and confirm I can't call tribal vassals. I manage to reach equal numbers and 400 of them are my leftover Vampire retinues
. A year in a Monster Revolt fires!... and disappears before the war? The "Recently Conquered" modifier on Rome goes away so I have actual levies again! I don't takes use them in the war and win next year (812).
In 813 I ally with the 6yr old King of Germany (bordering Italy-that-is-still-ruled-by-Lombards-but-totally-isn't-Lombardy) who is somehow Luciferian and Vampiric culture despite his deceased family and current guardian being non-vampire Catholics
. My goal: join his 4 defensive wars to solidify his reign. I go to Offer to Join and... am given 1 option
. My full levy newly "Inspire Warrior"'d from my holdings march to Navarra... to defeat a 1 county count. A year in a Monster Revolt fires... and disappears before the war.
After it concludes in early 815 and much of my levy has been attrition-ed he calls on our Alliance for his 4(?!?
) wars.
I begin to regret ever trying for that boy.
In other news Luciferian is at 72MA vs Catholic 58MA and I should have 85 years before Crusades can unlock so I'm relatively safe.
