...I REALLY wish it had occurred to me to scrap the useless militia vehicles in my 2SHQ before Hornstein started blowing them up rather than after. I suppose that brief window where they were seeming effective against the aggressive minor pushing on our border (before Hornstein blitzed that nation's rear) made me think they might be worth more alive, however briefly. And there was only one turn between the minor falling and Hornstein starting the industrial slaughter. Still, that's a lesson I should have learned last game.
...and now I have to decide whether letting my troop morale suffer by getting the militia of the disconnected vassal that just joined killed instead of their resources captured with the zone's stockpiles is worth it. Ugh, Grognards, I hope you appreciate how my nation's morale is gonna suffer to slightly slow down Hornstein's advance...
(Yes, I shouldn't have vassalized Richilieu. I didn't appreciate how fast Hornstein was going to hit their (and the two unconnected northern zones making up my 2SHQ's) borders, and thought they might have a chance to connect with the 2SHQ. Nope, not even close.)
[As an aside, if White Castle is lacking new franchise opportunities, they shouldn't be afraid to do what I've been doing and opening branch offices on every corner. While you won't get massive influxes of new population from them, shuffling your population around does let you squeeze more one-per-city assets out of the same amount of population, and prevent all your potential bureaucrats from taking unproductive jobs in the private sector where they'll do nothing but make the populace's lives happier.]
[Oh. And while it's definitely not optimal, you could still get your disconnected vassals connected to you via air bridges. That, or set up a second SHQ for them, which admittedly would mean you'd still need to make air bridges to exchange resources with your first SHQ if you couldn't make them self-sufficient.]