HRE strategy

[Rnold]

in this forum i read strategies for some factions.
the english should bribe wales, the spanish should bribe el cid and the byz should take khazaria.

i am playing hre, hard, early and i am wondering if there are any strategies that prove valuable.
the main problem is the amount of provinces you have to defend against a lot of (potential) enemies: france, italians, hungary, poles and danes.
question is: what to do?

hre has 2 iron producing provinces, of course those are the main troop producing countries.

in the east/north there are some rebel held territories: prussia, lithuania, sweden and norway. looks very nice but problem with the eastern territories is that you will stretch your borders and you will have to defend them, thus having to leave there a considerable army.

the danes, obvious threat, seem to be the easiest to take out. they always hang on their only province, which makes them weak: a battles and a siege and it's over.

hungarians and poles look for the rebel held territories first and have to deal with byz later. of course, they remain a threat.

the french seem stronger if you let them conquer english lands. maybe i should participate in the anglo-franco war in order to keep both down?

then there is the pope: excomm remains a problem when attacking catholic neighbours...

in any case i seem to spend all my earned many on building and garrissoning armies on all my borders. income about 5k but a profit of less than 1k! sucks. argh, maybe i should start all over again.

any experience with HRE?

[Kroney]

no matter who you are i would always suggest bribing norway and sweden in particular, sweden a valuable province with iron ore and stuff to trade and to mine and there's only the one way in. easy to defend and valuable.

[Rnold]

okay i got that part. besides the vikings are very valuable, of course.

[Pellinor]

I'm playing early HRE now.

I left the eastern border completely alone to start with, just trying to make alliances with the Poles and Hungarians.

Scandinavia I also ignored - the army in Saxony was effectively defending against both the Danes and the Poles (once they had Pomerania).

I basically built up in the West for a few years, then pounced on the whole of France (except Brittany, of course) in one go (Ile de France may have been the next year). After pausing to let loyalty build up I repeated this on the Englsh possessions in France, then bribed Brittany to join me (French King was dead). England fell fairly soon after.

Next move was to assault Denmark and bribe Norway and Sweden. This I left until I had the spare cash and some odd garrison troops around. The Danes have so many knights that all you really need is a mass of spears, which then become garrison troops until the populace likes you.

That gave me a secure rear, backing on to the sea.

Basically, my policy is to build up a whole border, then move the garrison one province into the enemy. Each army serves three purposes: firstly it defends my province; then it captures the enemy's; then it defends my new one - my old province is now no longer a border.

With rebels, I like to bribe them only when I have a border with them (or sea access) to bring more troops in if necessary. I learnt by experience that getting yourself an isolated army in a disloyal province is just a waste of money.

I suppose the same tactics would work with expanding east or south, rather than west. You have three borders: fortify two reasonably and one strongly, then push the strong garrisons into enemy territory. I advise leaving the east alone to begin with, as there is so much of it. West or south gets you down to a 2-province (Pyrennees), 1-province (Africa) or 0-province (Sicily) border eventually, freeing up troops for the east.

Above all, though, take your time and ensure you have enough troops to defend "your" provinces. Don't regard a province as "yours" until it is no longer a border, you have pacified the population, and there is a decent army between it and the enemy. Until then, leave it undeveloped and be ready to give it up if necessary.

If you preserve your army, you can take back lost provinces. If your army is crushed defending land, you lose that province the next turn anyway - and the ones next to it.

[Wildthing]

Keep France and England busy with each other by not letting one of them dominate the other. Use agents to start rebellions in poor defended provinces and assasins to wipe out good generals. All to keep the balance of power (until you are ready to wipe out both of them of course).

Kill the Danes then I'll go for the Russians. If you attack the Russians via the Baltic Sea you should be able to have most of you provinces secure from counterattack. After that I would wipe out the Poles and thereafter you prob have Almo on your doorstep.

[insolent1]

Take Venice on the first move with 2 spearmen & your king. You will get it without a fight & let trade begin http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif
btw be prepared for a long war with the italians till you exterminate them, when you do get excommunicated for destroying italians take denmark before your king dies.