The "Red King" is a challenge that I've been thinking about trying for a while now. The general premise is to start as Bohemia and convert 50 countries to the Hussite faith to become a Level 5 Defender of the Faith within 50 years.

Luckily, you start next to a bunch of tiny princedoms, that are quite easy to convert. But, as you convert more and more princes, you'll have to start getting creative with your wars to drag new Catholics in. This is where it gets a bit tricky!

Here are some screenshots of the end of my Red King run. I was actually able to finish by 1492.

Beautiful, religious border-gore, featuring 51 Hussite countries.

Proof of the Level 5 Defender of the Faith and the 51 Hussite countries.

My Hussite vassals, making for actually pretty borders.

The start of the game is pretty easy, as you start as one of the strongest powers in the region. In the early game, I was able to form an alliance with Austria, but that was rather short-lived! Once a Habsburg rose to the throne following my interregnum, the Austrians immediately claimed my throne and broke the alliance. Thankfully, nothing ever came of this.

Following the close run-in with the Austrians, I broke up Brandenburg a bit as they were over 100% warscore to convert. I was actually able to release and then offer vassalage to Ruppin and returned the Pomeranian province to Stettin. Soon after the war with Brandenburg, I received the event to become Hussite and immediately took it.

I also began gunning for the "Hussite Resurgence" mission to get a Hussite center of reformation in my capital. I was able to finish this mission around 1460. However, it was rather disappointing, as it seemed to only convert provinces in countries that were already Hussite. So I was never able to actually get any new Hussite princes through this.

Next I focused down Saxony and was able to convert them and their allies. Thankfully, while they had about the same number of troops, they never formed a single army. After the war with Saxony, I continued to declare wars on all of my neighbors, making sure to drag in their Catholic allies and co-belligerent them when needed to get more Catholics in the war.

By 1461, the Red King run was going pretty well, with about 15 Hussite countries!

It was around 1460 that I realized I would need to start getting more creative with my converting. At a certain point, your neighbors start allying the same people over and over again, which meant that I was unable to get to much of western Germany for most of the game.

Dragging in a lot of countries through co-belligerents worked pretty well, but you really had to keep your eyes peeled for a messy alliance web that was going to convert a few more countries for you. A lot of the wars lead to me being outnumbered, but luckily I was able to catch out stragglers and base-race capitals.

The Burgundian Inheritance also fired around this time. France got the entire inheritance, but Austria demanded the lowlands, which France obliged to. I supported this demand, even though France was my ally, because I thought I might be able to convert a few of their lowland princes to the Hussite faith. I was actually able to get one of them later, but not much came of this.

By 1470, I was able to get my next major break and convert Hamburg, Lübeck, and Oldenburg. I was initially rather scared of this war, since I thought Austria would be dragged in by their Free City status, but the Austrians never came to their aid.

By 1478, I was able to snag a few more countries and converted my vassals.

Within the next 10 years, I was able to convert much of Bavaria and was also able to convert Württemberg, Magdeburg, and Mantua. We are now on a pretty good pace to get 50 Hussite countries by 1494, but we are quickly running out of Catholic nations to attack without a major war.

By this point, I was considering attacking Poland and releasing a few vassals for them. Then I could force convert these vassals through my subject interactions. I figured that I'd be able to get Krakow, Galicia-Volhynia, and Mazovia. But, I decided that this would be too costly to attempt.

A few more countries added and a big war with Austria!

Within a few more years, I was able to co-belligerent my way to Cologne, Luxembourg, Trent, Baden, Augsburg, and Nuremburg during a war with Austria. For the war with Austria, I allied France and the Ottoman Empire and called them in. I gave the Ottomans a couple of provinces in Wallachia and snagged the state of Slovakia for myself.

1490! Only a few years to go!

By 1490, I was really struggling to convert more Catholics in Germany! I was able to get a few more here, but my real gains came from a No-CB war with Bosnia. In this war, I was able to convert Bosnia, Cilli, Serbia, and Athens to Hussite.

However, three challenges appeared. First, Athens was soon attacked by the Ottoman Empire and was annexed. Then Bavaria formed, inheriting their two Bavarian subjects, removing two more Hussite princes from my count. And finally, Lübeck expanded, removing a Hussite Mecklenburg. All just before the deadline! By this point, I still needed to add about six more Hussites in the next four years, so I was starting to stress!

It was at this point that I realized I'd need to split up my countries into a bunch of vassals to meet my deadline. But, before severely hampering myself, I'd need to convert a few more countries to meet my 50 Hussite countries goal in the final years of the campaign!

The Red King rises!

I quickly attacked Bavaria and made them release the Hussite countries they had just inherited. Then, in my last war, I attacked Lübeck again and was able to release a Hussite Mecklenburg and convert their ally, Riga. Right after the war, I released five vassals from my territory. These vassals were: Transylvania, Nitra, Moravia, Lusatia, and Stettin. It was at this point that I hit 51 Hussite countries and became a Level 5 Defender of the Faith. Finally, the Red King has risen!

My beautiful kingdom! I made a lot of new friends!

My biggest fear during this run was that there would be an early reformation and I'd have to compete with the Protestant and Reformed centers of reformation. Thankfully, it seems that since I was able to convert so many Catholics to Hussite, reform desire was incredibly low throughout the game. I assume this is because Hussite nations don't get events to affect this. So, by 1492, the reform desire was only in the 60s and wasn't close to happening.

Hopefully this was a fun read or skim! I thought this was a pretty neat challenge and that you all might enjoy seeing it. If anyone has any questions for this run, please feel free to ask! Also, I'd love to see what other people are able to do with a run like this; I'm sure there are people out there that could even get like 60-70 Hussite countries before 1494! So, I will welcome anyone else to try this challenge!