The first war of succession ends in a white peace - all it gives is Tuscany, Piedmont, Verona and Emilia and the King time to lick their wounds before going again
There are a few months of peace to gain allies and improve provinces before the 4 come again - this time we have already started a murder plot against Prince Guiseppe in Pisa and manage to take him out of the equation and remove a quarter of the forces against us - the plot is successful, however the cover up is not - im marked as a kinslayer and murderer, shunned by the HRE but the dread scores are brilliant - apart from the 3 arsehole brothers - everyones terrified of me, the plot collapses again in white peace but theyll come again - i realise my youngest brother who raised nary a boo to a goose during the war was mysteriously drowned and i gain his counties
The Kingdom of Italy brings in quite the coin, i started off with .4 gold a day, im now at 22.8, it gives us room to expand the armys proper soldiery and we hire more archers, spearmen and men at arms. We have a side tussle with the Doge of Venice and take the City of Venice but not the grand capital. The HRE grants us a duchy in Germany and four vassals that fall into our Kingdom that were under his
The three brothers come again, but this time they split their forces, i can raise 3500, they can raise 2000 each, as long as they stay apart i can do this - first the dick at Tuscany goes down, hes beaten into submission after 7 hard battles, and put into prison, Verona is next, hes killed in battle - i realise that if the actual Duke is leading the enemy force then go for that one, if i win theres a very good chance of killing or capturing them. And Piedmonte is also taken prisoner - this time im the victor and things are different. I banish Piedmonte and Verona from the realm, i would actually kill them but Guiseppe is kind, trusting, shy and compassionate, this is doing his mental health no good - and Tuscany i make an ally - keep your enemies closer blah blah
Peace descends across the kingdom enough to make some real improvements and decide where to go next, before the son of verona decides hes ready for it again - his proposal is to place tuscany on the throne who cant join him because hes my ally, hes raised piedmonte and pisa again but there armies a half mine now - i will fight them, i will take them and i will kill them - damn the mental health consequences