# HOI4 Kaiserin Victoria: How to Get Her, and the Holy Roman Empire
> The non-aligned monarchist Germany, not the fascist one: honest civil war, Kaiserin Victoria on the throne, the European Union and the Holy Roman Empire formed by mid-1939, and the USA annexed by December 1940 on 1,338 factories. Every gate, deadline and political-power threshold in order.
- **Game:** Hearts of Iron IV
- **Category:** Nations
- **Author:** LongBeam (https://guides-factory.com/about)
- **Difficulty:** Advanced
- **Reading time:** 29 min
- **Published:** 2026-08-07
- **Updated:** 2026-08-31
- **Tags:** Achievements, Focus tree, Germany, Single player
- **Adapted from:** [MachiavellianStrategist — BROKEN KAISERIN GERMANY Guide: Woman In A High Castle!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht4e89B02Wo)
- **Canonical URL:** https://guides-factory.com/guides/hoi4-kaiserin-germany-guide
---
## Is Kaiserin Victoria a mod? No — and that is the most common mistake here
**Kaiserin Victoria is not a mod.** She is not from Kaiserreich, she is not from Thunder at Our Gates, and she is not from anything on the Workshop. She is a country leader Paradox ships inside Germany's own national focus tree — the reason so many people assume otherwise is that almost nobody opens the branch that leads to her.
What she actually is: **Victoria Louise of Prussia**, Wilhelm II's only daughter and a real historical person, who reaches the throne through a succession accident the game scripts for you. You overthrow Hitler in a 1936 civil war, restore the monarchy, and a chain of succession decisions ends with the rest of the Hohenzollerns dying aboard the Hindenburg. Victoria is the survivor, and she is crowned **Kaiserin**.
Two things follow from having her specifically, rather than any other German leader. She unlocks the **Restore the Holy Roman Empire** focus branch without you having to conquer Italy outright, and she is one of the two ways to earn the achievement **Woman in a High Castle**.
A correction to the correction
"Not a mod" does not mean "free in the base game". On the current tree the monarchist branch that leads to Victoria is gated behind the Götterdämmerung DLC — the wiki marks the whole Rally the Wehrmacht branch that way, and the Restore the Holy Roman Empire focus states the requirement outright. Without Götterdämmerung you do not get nothing: you get the older Oppose Hitler branch in its place, which is the pre-rework version of the same idea.
## Where the German monarchist path lives: the opposition focus tree
Germany's focus tree has an **opposition** half that most players never touch, because opening it means fighting a civil war in 1936 instead of building tanks. That is where this entire run lives, and it is why the path has a reputation for being modded content — it looks nothing like the German tree people know.
With Götterdämmerung enabled, the spine runs:
**Rally the Wehrmacht → Rally the Nation → Denazification Campaigns → Rebuild the Nation → Tend to the Future of Germany → Monarchist Sentiment → Revive the Kaiserreich → The Return of the Kaiser**
Three details on that chain decide whether you get a Kaiserin at all:
- **The Return of the Kaiser is mutually exclusive with Military Dictatorship.** Take the wrong one of the pair and the monarchy is gone for the run — there is no way back to it.
- **It requires your ruling party to be Non-Aligned**, which the civil war is what delivers.
- **It requires whoever controls the Dutch state Wilhelm II is exiled in to be at peace with you.** The focus then asks them to lift that exile, through the event **Germany Lifts Exile of Wilhelm II**. If they accept, Wilhelm II takes the throne and your run ends as a Wilhelm run. **You want them to refuse** — that refusal is what puts a Wilhelm III regency in place, and the succession decisions below only exist because there is a succession still to argue about.
From there the run needs two more sub-branches: **Weltpolitik**, which holds *Accept British Naval Dominance*, *Carve up the Congo* and the **Anglo-German Defense Pact**; and **Realpolitik**, which holds *Mitteleuropa*, *The Austrian Question* and, at the end of it, **Restore the Holy Roman Empire**.
## HOI4 Germany monarchy restoration guide: what you need before you start
| Requirement | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| **Götterdämmerung** | Gates *Rally the Wehrmacht*, *Monarchist Sentiment* and *Restore the Holy Roman Empire*. Without it you are on the older *Oppose Hitler* tree instead. |
| **No Compromise, No Surrender** | Not for the Kaiserin, but for the war that follows — non-aligned countries can no longer justify claims at low world tension, which is what the faction timing in section 4 works around. |
| **Czechoslovakia** | Decides whether Czechoslovakia counts as a major power, which changes how the Allies collapse. |
| **Ironman, Regular difficulty or above** | Required by the achievement, as by every HOI4 achievement. |
The DLC line is the one worth checking before you spend an evening on this. Everything else on this page is recoverable; a missing Götterdämmerung means the focus you are looking for is not in your tree at all.
## 🎯 The core idea
> The strongest Germany in the game is not the fascist one. It is the **non-aligned monarchist path** — honest civil war, Kaiserin Victoria on the throne, and then a run that forms the European Union in March 1939, restores the Holy Roman Empire in June 1939, capitulates the Soviet Union by June 1940 and annexes the United States by **December 1940 on 1,338 factories**.
>
> It is also a path built out of **hard gates**: a 400 PP decision chain, a 50 PP focus almost nobody takes, a diplomatic roll against the United Kingdom that can simply fail, and a 20 September deadline you cannot slip. Miss one and the run is over — not harder, over. This page is mostly a list of those gates in the order you hit them.
## Short version: five phases
1. **Setup and civil war (1936)** — prep the fallback line, fight an honest civil war, take Berlin, repair civilian factories first.
2. **The Kaiserin (1936–38)** — a specific chain of advisers, focuses, a 50 PP air-safety focus, the Anglo-German pact, and 400 PP of decisions that end with Wilhelm dead and the Kaiserin crowned.
3. **The Allies (Sept 1938 – 1939)** — create a faction at exactly the right moment, take France without capitulating it, invade the UK across the Channel, mop up Czechoslovakia and Portugal.
4. **Europe (1939)** — Italy, Austria, the Balkans, then the **European Union** and the **Holy Roman Empire** back to back, which cores most of a continent.
5. **The two giants (1940)** — trick the USSR into a defensive war so you only need 51%, then take the USA at a collaboration-reduced 35%.
Careful
**No Compromise, No Surrender is effectively mandatory.** Paradox removed the ability for non-aligned countries to justify claims at low world tension, which is why the faction timing below exists at all. Without that DLC the author says plainly he has no solution for you. The **Czechoslovakia** DLC separately changes whether Czechoslovakia counts as a major power, which changes how the Allies collapse.
The full focus order and research order are in the video description, not spoken on camera. The focus spine runs Rally The Wehrmacht → Rally The Nation → Denazification Campaign → Rebuild The Nation → Tend To The Future Of Germany → Monarchist Sentiment → Revive The Kaiserreich → The Return Of The Kaiser → Weltpolitik → Accept British Naval Dominance → Carve Up The Congo → Anglo-German Defense Pact → Realpolitik, then the Four Year Plan / autarky line, the Austrian Question, Mitteleuropa, and finally European Confederation and Restore The Holy Roman Empire.
## 2. The civil war
Fires off the monarchist focus line. Take one more focus after it before the focus that requires the war to be finished.
## 3. Getting the Kaiserin
This is the load-bearing section. Everything here is a gate.
### How to get Kaiserin Victoria in HOI4: the whole chain in one place
The checklists below are the run as played. This is the same thing stated as mechanics, because the order is unforgiving and one 50 PP decision taken late ends it.
1. **Win the civil war and go Non-Aligned**, then take *Revive the Kaiserreich* and **The Return of the Kaiser** — not *Military Dictatorship*.
2. **Let the Netherlands refuse to release Wilhelm II.** Their refusal is what leaves the succession open. If they accept, Wilhelm II is your leader and Victoria is off the table.
3. **Sharpen Air Safety Regulations — 50 PP, and take it early.** Around May 1937 the Hindenburg gets its historical disaster event. This decision is what makes the airship survive it, and you need it flying for step 5. This is the single cheapest way to lose the run.
4. **Run the succession decisions**, in order:
| Decision | Cost | Also needs |
|---|---|---|
| Reinstate Prince Wilhelm's Right of Succession | 100 PP | — |
| Modernize the Succession Laws | 150 PP | Opens the throne to a female heir |
| Request Restoration of British Titles | 150 PP | **+100 opinion with the United Kingdom** |
5. **Send Victoria ahead as liaison.** The UK accepts the restoration of titles and offers you the choice of sending someone in advance to prepare the ceremony. Send her. The rest of the royal family follows by air, and the **Hindenburg event fires over London** — the wiki files it as *Hindenburg aflame in London*. Everyone aboard dies. Victoria, already in Britain, is the only survivor in the line of succession.
That is the whole trick, and it is why the answer to "how to get Kaiserin Victoria in HOI4" is never a single focus: it is a 400 PP decision chain, a diplomatic threshold with Britain, and an airship you had to remember to keep in the sky eighteen months earlier.
The three decisions add up to exactly the 400 PP the section below tells you to bank. The 100 opinion requirement on the third is why the Anglo-German Defense Pact and the relations work are not optional flavour.
The OFF template as it looks once grown to its final form: 30 width, and an estimated production cost of 1,321–1,420.
═══ The pact roll ═══
Save first
The **Anglo-German Defense Pact** focus is mandatory for the Kaiserin — and the UK can refuse it.
**Make a backup save before taking it.** If the UK refuses: reload, take **Realpolitik** first — it is only 14 days — then re-take the pact. Taking Realpolitik first *without* reloading will most likely not change the outcome, so the reload is the point.
The tooltip itself, at 10:27: 70 days, 25% world tension, +50 opinion — and no acceptance percentage at all. An earlier version of this page put that chance at 89%; that figure came from the auto-captions and appears nowhere in the tooltip. The only 89% on screen at that moment is the stability readout in the top bar. Treat the roll as one that can fail rather than as a known probability — and save either way.
═══ The decision chain ═══
At **400 PP**, run the chain: **Reinstate the Prince → Modernize the Succession Laws → Request Restoration**, then the event, then **"We shall send a liaison"**. That last step kills Wilhelm and puts **Kaiserin Victoria** on the throne. [11:24 ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht4e89B02Wo&t=684s)
11:24 — the decisions panel, open on the Political Actions block where the chain lives.
Where the chain actually lives: the Political Actions block of the decisions panel. Easy to scroll straight past.
Timing gate
**Creating a faction cancels the UK's guarantee on France — so create it at the exact moment you attack France, not before.** You need the faction at all because non-aligned countries can no longer justify claims at low world tension. Faction perks used: justify war goal tension reduction, plus the easy goals *strategic resources* and *declare war on democracy*.
Declare on France; Belgium joins. Spend the faction point on **joint command structure**, and immediately justify on **Italy and Luxembourg**.
**Do not capitulate France.** Do not take too many victory points, and specifically **do not take Paris — encircle it.** You are waiting on a focus that must be bypassed *while at war with France* to unlock the claim on **Switzerland**, and justifying Switzerland normally takes forever. Capitulate France too early and that focus cancels. [15:57 ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht4e89B02Wo&t=957s)
When you do take the peace: annex French cores, **balkanise the rest**, take the navy, annex Belgium.
### The Channel crossing
Set the whole naval picture up **before** you declare — you hold naval dominance while not at war, and that is free. Casus belli come from claims on **Portugal** (UK-guaranteed) and **Siam**; wait long enough that **Czechoslovakia** also guarantees one and gets dragged in.
| Element | Setup | |
|---|---|---|
| Invasion force | OFFs, two groups of six, staged at Le Havre | [watch ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht4e89B02Wo&t=1101s) |
| Submarines | detached, convoy raiding around the UK in groups of one | [watch ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht4e89B02Wo&t=1077s) |
| Destroyers | on patrol in the Channel | [watch ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht4e89B02Wo&t=1077s) |
| Everything else | strike force in the Channel | [watch ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht4e89B02Wo&t=1077s) |
| Planes | naval strike + naval patrol over the Channel | [watch ↗](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht4e89B02Wo&t=1077s) |
Declare and **trigger the invasion immediately** — the author calls it one of the easiest UK invasions he has done.
18:24 — the Channel. This frame is the air assignment, not the fleet: the table above comes from the narration, while what is on screen here is naval strike and patrol being drawn over the strait.
Two political notes for this window: **wait for 150 PP before declaring**, because this is your only chance to take **War Economy**; and spend **25 PP to seize the French gold**, which later focuses gated on consumer goods will need.
**Czechoslovakia counts as a major** (with the DLC), so the UK falling does not end the Allies. Their forts are strong — push from the north and focus the single tile without one. Declare on **Switzerland** in time for them to join the Allies so they get pulled into the same [peace conference](/guides/hoi4-peace-conference-guide). Peace out annexing Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, UK cores and Portugal; puppet the rest.
## 5. Italy, Austria, and the road to the EU
The claim on Italy lands days after the Allies fall. Push through the Alpine sector — bad supply, mountains, slow.
The armour line in production by March 1938 — the SPG sits alongside the light tank rather than replacing it.
26:05 — faction intelligence with Canaris in as spymaster. Worth flagging: the collaboration governments that the later surrender thresholds depend on are never shown on camera. This screen and the spymaster appointment are the only espionage the video displays.
RNG warning
Because you changed ideology as a major power, **Italy may flip ideology or fall into its own civil war**. In the author's run it did, and the rump held the north — which can force a march down to Sicily and may cost you an extra justification or the Conquer Italy focus. Budget time for this going wrong.
**Autarky Achieved** makes consumer-goods factories "just disappear" — this is the focus the seized French gold was for.
## 6. European Union and Holy Roman Empire
Take European Confederation. **Two decisions are needed to form the EU and one of them is mandatory — hold PP back for them.** Improve relations with Greece, Bulgaria and Albania if it is still alive. War on Yugoslavia drags in Romania. Annex Italy, puppet Hungary, and **realise European unity in March 1939** — which cores an enormous amount of territory and makes much more corable.
28:35 — Realize European Unity fires and the Union of European States appears.
Annex Ireland and the British Isles become corable; UK cores complete in 70 days. Invite Greece and Bulgaria to the faction, annex Hungary, annex Romania.
Army XP now goes into land doctrine: **assault infantry → self-propelled support → streamlined deployment → maneuver warfare**.
**Restore The Holy Roman Empire fires the moment Hungary is annexed** — more cores again. By **June 1939 you have both the EU and the HRE**.
31:15 — the Holy Roman Empire restored.
Construction is now effectively free: skip military factories, upgrade railways and supply hubs instead. Recruit another 12 armoured and 72 infantry divisions, and annex Poland.
## How to form the Holy Roman Empire in HOI4: restore it as Kaiserin Victoria
The run above forms it on schedule, but the requirements are worth stating separately, because the most repeated claim about the Holy Roman Empire on the internet is now out of date.
**Restore the Holy Roman Empire is a national focus**, sitting at the end of the *Realpolitik* sub-branch. Completing it does not itself create the country — it **unlocks a decision called Revive the Holy Roman Empire**, and grants the national spirit *Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation* (+5% stability, +5% war support, and bonus division attack on core territory).
The branch opens if **Götterdämmerung is enabled** and **either**:
- **Victoria is your current country leader**, or
- you have completed the focus **Conquer Italy**.
The focus itself then wants one of **Conquer Italy** or **Prepare Italian Coup**, full independence, and full control of one specific Italian state (id 64 in the game files).
Out of date almost everywhere"Only Kaiserin Victoria can form the Holy Roman Empire" is no longer true. It was true of the older tree, and it is still repeated in most guides and half the forum threads. On the current tree, conquering Italy by focus opens the same branch without her.
What Victoria still buys you is the cheaper route: with her on the throne you can satisfy the focus through Prepare Italian Coup rather than having to conquer Italy outright. That is the real advantage, and it is a smaller one than the internet claims.
## 7. The USSR — make them attack you
In the video
**Guarantee Finland.** When the Soviet Union attacks them, you are pulled in — and because it is now a **defensive** war, you only need to push the USSR below **51%** rather than the usual threshold. Combined with three collaboration governments, the author's words are: "three collabs plus the defensive war really do the trick."
Forces: **5 full infantry armies on a marshal line** across the whole front, with the OFFs and **2 full armoured armies** as the spearheads. Latvia comes via focus — but **skip Latvia if it is guaranteed by an awkward country** (Norway, or worse, Chile).
34:51 — the tooltip spelling out the defensive-war threshold: the USSR capitulates at 51% or less, and is sitting at 61%.
Result in the author's run: **USSR capitulated June 1940 for about 47,000 casualties.** He prefers a white peace with Finland so they do not share the score, and annexes the USSR outright rather than puppeting, since the collaboration governments make annexation cheap. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq join the faction via focuses. Start mass-producing mechanized for fully-mechanised armies.
## 8. The USA, and the achievement
Armour and OFFs push in; every other infantry division goes on defend. **Call Canada in but do not defend it.** Split the navy evenly between protecting convoys and patrolling the US coast — **getting convoys across is the whole problem**, not winning battles.
This is an **offensive** war, so the surrender threshold is higher — but **collaboration governments drop the requirement to 35%.** That is what the three spies on cooldown since Italy were for. Push **Seattle → San Francisco → Los Angeles** if needed; LA fell faster in the author's run. Mexico helps but is not needed.
**Annex the USA and the achievement fires.** Final board: **December 1940, 1,338 factories, effectively infinite manpower, and the United States renamed the Holy Roman Empire.**
22 December 1940: Victoria on the throne, non-aligned, no elections, and 1,338 factories in the resource bar.
## The HOI4 Woman in a High Castle achievement, exactly as the game states it
The wiki's wording for the unlock is worth reading literally, because it is looser than most people expect:
> Playing as Germany with a female leader either annex the USA, including Alaska and Hawaii or have an American puppet that owns all the American starting states, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Three things fall out of that sentence:
- **It asks for a female leader, not for Victoria.** She is the monarchist answer. The other is **Eva Braun**, reached down the historical fascist path via the Oster Conspiracy — a completely different run that earns the same achievement.
- **A puppet counts.** You do not have to annex the United States if a subject of yours holds every American starting state. This guide annexes because three collaboration governments make annexation the cheaper option, not because the achievement demands it.
- **Alaska and Hawaii are named on purpose.** They are the two everyone forgets, and the achievement does not fire without them.
As with every HOI4 achievement it wants **ironman on Regular difficulty or above** — which is the awkward part of this particular run, since the method above relies on reloading a diplomatic roll that ironman will not let you take back.
## The numbers, in one place
| Gate | Value |
|---|---|
| Kaiserin decision chain | 400 PP |
| Influential pastor / monarchist jurist / War Economy / Food Minister | 150 PP each |
| Sharpen air safety regulations / sway Austria | 50 PP each |
| Seize the French gold | 25 PP |
| Torpedo destroyer design | 16 navy XP |
| Political loyalty spirit | 20 army XP |
| Final OFF template | 70 army XP |
| Netherlands deadline | 20 September |
| European Union formed | March 1939 |
| Holy Roman Empire restored | June 1939 |
| USSR capitulated | June 1940 |
| USSR surrender threshold (defensive war) | 51% |
| USA surrender threshold (with 3 collabs) | 35% |
| Final state | Dec 1940, 1,338 factories |
## From the comments
From the comments (not in the video)
- **The recruit cap will bite you.** Your maximum simultaneous recruitment is **75% of deployed manpower** — so disbanding your army *before* recruiting the OFF divisions leaves you unable to raise them. Same commenter reports an OFF deploy cap of 10 at a time, and never receiving the "Netherlands prevents return of the Kaiser" event or seeing "Reinstate Prince Wilhelm's right of succession" at all. — Swindeller13
- **Alternative civil-war army:** recruit max **cavalry** instead (around 44 units), hold them undeployed until after the Kaiser, then convert to infantry. — yakubisyourdad
- **A faster USA:** justify on another country in the Americas (Mexico) and declare. The USA demands a white peace — reject it, and **they declare on you**, converting the whole thing into a defensive war with the lower threshold. — KRIGSMAN_UTAN_NAMN
- **EU before HRE also works** — one player formed the EU first and puppeted the USSR by mid-1939, then watched a communist-vs-communist Soviet civil war end with Stalin asking to join the European faction. — hansnightingale
- **Confirmed DLC gate:** a player without No Compromise, No Surrender found the run simply unplayable. — keineahnung4193
Unresolved
- **The UK sometimes will not guarantee Portugal**, which removes the casus belli the Channel plan is built on. Reported with no answer.
- **A bug where no popup fires on focus completion**, silently wasting up to a month of focus time. Watch the focus bar manually.
- **The British naval dominance focus timing** is reported as the step that repeatedly broke other players' Kaiserin attempts — the video does not dwell on it.
## Where to go next
Kaiserin is one of two ways to open as Germany. For the historical alternative — the Anschluss rush, the Panzer designs and the focus order that goes with them — see the [Germany focus order guide](/guides/hoi4-germany-guide). If the plan is to fight east rather than west, the [Soviet order sheet](/guides/hoi4-soviet-union-guide-2026) is what you will be fighting against.
## Sources
- ["BROKEN KAISERIN GERMANY Guide: Woman In A High Castle!"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht4e89B02Wo) — MachiavellianStrategist, YouTube, 25 July 2026 (39:57).
- The **full focus order and research order live in the video description**, not in the narration. Reproduce them from there; the spine above is what is confirmed on camera.
- Detail is transcribed from the video's auto-generated captions, so **German proper nouns in particular may be misspelled** — including the Kaiserin's own name, which may render as Viktoria or Victoria Luise in your client.
- The "from the comments" box collects points raised by viewers Swindeller13, yakubisyourdad, KRIGSMAN_UTAN_NAMN, hansnightingale and keineahnung4193 that are not in the video itself.
Recorded on the live patch, not the open beta. The author expects regimental companies and SPGs to change and gives a medium-tank fallback for the SPG. The USSR and USA sections both jump to pre-built saves, so the months of buildup between them are not shown. The achievement requires ironman, but the guide's own method involves reloading the UK diplomatic roll — plan for restarts instead.
---
## FAQ
### What does the Woman In A High Castle achievement require?
Put the Kaiserin on the German throne, then **annex or puppet the USA**. The guide recommends annexing, made practical by running three collaboration governments in America beforehand.
### Which DLC do I need for Kaiserin Germany?
**No Compromise, No Surrender is effectively mandatory** — without it a non-aligned country cannot justify claims at low world tension, and the author states outright he has no workaround. The Czechoslovakia DLC also changes whether Czechoslovakia counts as a major, which affects how the Allies collapse.
### What happens if the UK refuses the Anglo-German Defense Pact?
The tooltip gives 70 days, 25% world tension and +50 opinion — it does **not** show an acceptance chance, so treat the roll as one that can simply fail. Save before taking the focus. On a refusal, reload, take **Realpolitik** first (only 14 days), then re-take the pact. Taking Realpolitik first *without* reloading will probably not change the roll.
### Why should I not capitulate France quickly?
You are waiting on a focus that has to be **bypassed while at war with France** to unlock the claim on Switzerland — justifying Switzerland normally takes forever. Encircle Paris instead of taking it, so you can end the war on your own schedule.
### Is this achievable in ironman?
The achievement requires ironman, but the guide's own method does not survive it: it tells you to save-scum the UK diplomatic roll. In ironman you accept that roll or restart, so budget for restarts.
### Is Kaiserin Victoria a mod?
No. Kaiserin Victoria is official Paradox content in Germany's own national focus tree — not Kaiserreich, not Thunder at Our Gates, and nothing from the Workshop. She is **Victoria Louise of Prussia**, Wilhelm II's only daughter, and she reaches the throne through the monarchist side of Germany's opposition tree. The one caveat worth knowing: she is **DLC content, not base-game content** — on the current tree the branch leading to her requires **Götterdämmerung**. Without it you get the older **Oppose Hitler** branch instead.
### How to get Kaiserin Victoria in HOI4?
Win the 1936 civil war as a non-aligned Germany, then take **Revive the Kaiserreich** and **The Return of the Kaiser** — not Military Dictatorship, which is mutually exclusive with it. Let the Netherlands **refuse** to release Wilhelm II; that refusal is what leaves the succession open. Spend 50 PP on **Sharpen Air Safety Regulations** early so the Hindenburg survives its May 1937 disaster, then run the 400 PP chain: **Reinstate Prince Wilhelm's Right of Succession** (100 PP), **Modernize the Succession Laws** (150 PP) and **Request Restoration of British Titles** (150 PP, which needs +100 opinion with the United Kingdom). Finally, send Victoria ahead as liaison — the rest of the royal family follows by air, the Hindenburg burns over London, and she is the only survivor in the line of succession.
### Can you form the Holy Roman Empire without Kaiserin Victoria?
Yes — and most guides still say otherwise, because it used to be false. On the current tree the **Restore the Holy Roman Empire** branch opens if Götterdämmerung is enabled and **either** Victoria is your current country leader **or** you have completed the **Conquer Italy** focus. What Victoria actually buys you is the cheaper route: with her on the throne the focus can be satisfied through **Prepare Italian Coup** rather than conquering Italy outright. The focus then unlocks a decision called **Revive the Holy Roman Empire**, which is what creates the country.