u/CaptGenie

OG post for background history, some context leading to this.

He did it, he really did it! Okay, it was not easy, very far from it, it straight up became a challenge run, and I was balancing a few things

-I did not want to lose my Conqueror status, which means I only could only lose to him a few times, I would not be able to fight him without it.

-I did not want to take away his conqueror/Scourge status, Rome would never happen without it, so I could only win a few times against him.

-and lastly, I wanted to keep my main territory, which is the North Sea, and that also includes Ireland, Scotland, Frisia, and Sweden in its De jure, and I was largely successful.

I'll be honest, it took a lot of save scumming, starting from about 50 years before its formed, when I made my OG post about what was happening, didn't even notice they had scourge of the gods after several attempts. I tried several different strategies, I was no longer the main character of this playthrough, I was the Vercingetorix to his Caesar. He had the fame level needed right out the gate, he just needed the territory, and he got close, Genoa, which was independent since he took the HRE, he would not take until later in his campaigns, sometimes dying before he did.

One attempt, I did a switcheroo and converted to orthodoxy to make a marriage alliance with him, then converted back to Asatru, hoping he wouldn't break the alliance, but his son died young, and it caused a few religious rebellions in my land, which let me get rid of annoying vassals, but it was a one time trick. Tried befriending him, became best friends at one point, he still went for Ruthenia, was like "Hey bestie, sorry but I gotta do this"

I did several attempts with my eldest son, he had better genetic traits, but it wasn't until I chose my second son that this whole thing changed.

If you havent already seen, the traits High King Olaf had was the only reason I was able to survive, the best battlefield commander I have ever seen in this game, berserker, varangian, reckless, forest fighter etc. Symmachos made 5 total attacks for the Kingdom of Pomerania, which I fought until a white peace, I let myself win the 5th, just before Rome was formed, that payout was too nice to ignore, but I called everyone to these fights. The little Count Kid with 200 troops? Time to fight histories most insane warlord, under the command of an even more insane pagan warlord.

Lost Great Moravia early on under High King Rolf, Symmachos was moving through mountains at lightning speed, which looking back shoulda clued me in he has the Scourge trait, I thought I was just so far behind in tech. Defended Frisia and won, High King Rolf kicked it shortly after, and it was lost under King Olaf when he was a fledgling commander. As soon as Rolf died, they went for it again. The victory money from the defensive win went to uni, resulting in Olaf getting 5 star martial, and into buildings boosting troops.

I realized I needed to create a buffer in the east, he kept attacking it in other attempts, so I gave the Empire of Russia to the lord who held most of it's territory, and was in my dynasty. Border protection and a decent ally in one swing, and that I think was what ultimately bought me the time to survive and not be bombarded with wars, and for the Byzantines to expand to the right places.

What surprised me was that it was formed during the 5th war for Pomerania, which I had won by using the forests to counter their cavalry, I had believed they needed to be at peace, but I guess when the Head of the Orthodox calls for it, that doesn't apply.

Anyways, there was a truce, so I went for the rest of Iberia and later, not in screenshots, Sardinia, which will be the launching point of my future invasions. During that time, Symmachos finally dies after conquering to a scale men can only dream, to the envy of Alexander himself, mending religions while fighting and winning against a Asatru Great holy War, reforming empires, fighting pagans and heretics of all kinds from the grassy plains of France, to the deserts of Arabia and the untamed northern steppes, and settling the chaos of Slavia (refer to comments of the OG post for some cool history from the playthrough).

The first incursion the North Sea faced against Rome, again defended valiantly by Olaf One-Eye, and his many shieldmaiden sisters, was when the new "Augustus" Borgoris, so called conqueror, calls war for the rest of Lothringia, a small strip still held by the Northerners, and promptly loses, putting his empire 9k in debt, ripe for incursions and conquering, which Olaf does swiftly, taking all of Lothringia in one fell swoop. To be fair, Borgoris has some big shoes to fill.

TLDR Rome was formed by strategically losing against them, letting the Byzantines get what they needed, until ultimately putting what was their once 70k+ treasury of gold, comfortably in mine.

After 6 generations or so of being a conqueror Dynasty, the byzantines might undo everything. Spent most of my time conquering empires/kingdoms for each of the next generations sons through confederate partition, and kinda playing a wide/tall playthrough, intentionally fracturing territory off the main empire.

I don't like disinheriting, and was working on getting Russia for my second son, after another dynasty member lost it a nearly a century ago, and Scandinavia (just Sapmi and Finland De jure now) to my third son, Albian Empire has been integrated into the North Sea De jure, as well as Sweden, my home territory. This is when I noticed the Bizzy Boyz getting busy, and now I am terrified.

For context, my dynasty controls Iberia, France, Germany, the map gore that is the Slavic's are all my dynasty for the most part, and is reformed Asatru with only blot being replaced with pursuit of power.

Anyways, I went into observer mode to see what might play out, and holy, did I come back to a surprise. Now obviously this is without my influence, and my empire clearly falls apart but there is a very real chance of getting an AI Rome. My dude is a conqueror like many of his fore-fathers before him, and if all goes to plan, so will my heir, and should be able to hold my main territories. I kinda just wanna let him do his thing, man came out of the gate as a 17 year old conqueror, let this dude enjoy his Julius RP.

Too add to the bad-assery, this is a huge Byzantine comeback, as a Russo-Maghyar conqueror, the same one who took Russia from my dynasty member (the oskyldr), captured Byzantium, Bulgaria, Thrace, and Thessaloniki, and I truly thought they were going to fall before I executed him in a war and his empire fractured, his Dynasty only exists in Carpathia now. The Byzantines spent a century recovering, and now are coming back for revenge.

TLDR Bizzy boyz nearly fell a century ago to other "barbarians", which I fought against and crushed, ultimately but indirectly saving them, and they are now coming back for revenge, most likely undoing the work of my dynasty, and possibly reforming the Roman Empire in the process.