This is the Papal States on 14th October, 1399. Papacy is a Theocracy: this means no marriages, diplo-vassalization, inheritances, but also gives us an infinite supply of rulers, chosen immediately at death of the last one. No legitimacy issues, either! And did I mention we get 100% Papal Influence from being Pope ourselves? Cardinal galore, woohoo!
Up north, we have the intricate, and potentially deadly, Holy Roman Empire network (with Milan being the largest threat at the moment), and the meddlesome Emperor ready to stomp in if we try to expand north.
Down south, we have Naples, with its ambitions for Provence, Epirus, and Sicily. They boast an army bigger than we can handle at the moment.
"Pope Bonifacius, how do we achieve greatness then?"
Pope Bonifacius tapped his forehead.
"The Emperor can't rush to defend against our invasion if we're part of the Empire."
Now, everytime we get a legitimate casus belli against northern Italian states, we can wage war with much less stress on our shoulders.
On other side, attackers wanting our lands will have to think twice before angering the Emperor.
First thing to do, is to connect Rome and Romagna together. Fortunately, there's exactly one non-HRE state that stands in our way.
Urbino must DIE.
It starts without any pre-existing treaties and doesn't even have friends.
We get some extra cash! This event is tied to your annual income; later on the gift will be up in hundreds or thousands of ducats.
Meanwhile, Italy is set on fire as Venice and Naples and France go to war over Epirus, Ferrara and Provence.
And there we go! More manpower and more army limits for our next conquest.
What would that be, you ask?
Besieged by Venice and Mantua already, the Naples coalition stands no chance against us!
Venice finishes up its fight against Napels, relinquishing its occupation of Ferrara and Mantua.
Just as we get a mission to reclaim the ducal territory.
We might actually end up not with just south of the Italy, but two bits of Lombardia too!
Florence meddles in by joining the war - our combined army is larger than theirs.
Still, delays at this time might be very dangerous.
We expand our bureaucracy whilst our armies are besieging all of Naples coalition members at once.
Venice and Sicily are grabbing bits of Naples though. We won't be achieving total dominance of the South this time.
Also pictured are the
massive independence rebellions in Pisa and Siena. 80% of the time, Milan can't handle these
However, grabbing northlands like mad will incur the wrath of the Emperor; that's why we want Florence as a vassal.
We might do the same with Modena; Ferrara, which will become our core upon completion of our mission, won't be so lucky.
Ruler of Ferrara dies just as we finish conquering up the two states, leading to separation of the two lands.
This means we can annex both separately.
Our infamy explodes however, and that requires slight changes to our policies.
Florentine philosophers will help, just like our newly hired diplomat, Signor Soterius Magno.
Venetian and Sicillian parts of Naples are suffering revolts, and these, when beaten, flee to the parts we occupy ourselves.
We must deal with them, for Calabrian (or rather, Apulian-Calabrian) state can re-emerge with several provinces at once, and that would be bad.
Various nations rise up in hopes of independence but Pisa got the short stick.
I mean, wow, having to fight both Austria AND Bohemia at once? That's unlucky.
As we wait for our infamy to drop, our nation is still developing.
Our first idea will be Military Drill; mostly because once we gobble the little lands, we will be facing Milan, Austria and others in our close vicinity.
Numbers alone won't let us win against them!
Dang, that IS fast.
Hopefully they won't be getting as much support as before for subsequent reforms.
In his bid to gain more political and administrative powers, Bonifacius IX angers quite a lot of people.
We revolt in Modena will be easily dealt with - the angry crowds in Rome might be a bit trickier.
Some emergency infantry making later, we dislodge the rebels from Roma, chasing them to Ancona and then Romagna.
They're thus annihilated and we're safe!
We immediately disband some troops and lower the maintenance so that we won't go bankrupt in next six months.
And so, our initial conquests are truly complete! We will grab Apulia and Calabria later.
Now is time to rest, recuperate, and-
And prepare for Bonifacius IX's upcoming death, perhaps.
It's one of events I've modded to reflect the fact that Popes are elected when old and usually don't last long.
We will see how it goes, for now - the peoples of Papal States are sad! Very sad, I tell you!
He will be leaving quite a legacy, though.
Can't complain about that!
