Holy Roman Generals, Batman!!

Long time lisenter, first time user: anyways my situation is I started on Late as the HRE. Noticing that the three Emperors I have had so far had terrible acumen, usually I can keep this in check by putting the right heirs on the throne. With the HRE this just isn't the case so I eliminated my whole line in a suicide mission in order to elect a general to the throne. I had my two best generals, high acumen, command, all stats just maxed out, married into the previous royal family through princesses figuring that one of them would get elected once I knocked off the previous Emp. and his heirs. Sadly a real shi*ty emperor with low stats was elected to the throne. My question: shouldn't one of my stronger generals be elected to Emperor, was it because they were holding other titles such as Archbishop of Worms at the time, or because the unit the general commanded were not Royal Knights. Get back to your boy on this one.:san_cool:

Welcome to the Org Seamus the Drunkard ~:wave:

Other players here will be better able than I to fill you in on the details of how HRE bosses are selected - I always thought it was a random, uncontrollable process, unlike with the other factions.

Glad to have you aboard! :bow:

To be honest, I always thought the general with the highest command became Emperor. It certainly works that way with the Papacy. Perhaps the lousy Emperor was the uncle of the former one? Or did you overlook a prince (happened to me once :embarassed: )?

Thanks, I might have some insight now as to what went wrong. Expect more posts in the future as sadly I am really the soul of a gothic knight from 1387 trapped in the body of a college student in the year 2005.:san_huh: Since society frowns upon people barding themselves in armor and weilding maces I can only express my true self through MTW and to fellow wack jobs such as the members of this forum.:san_grin:

I once played the HRE very often, but I forgot the most of it. The noble house of the HRE is a bit more tricky if I remember right. What is the main problem with your heirs? Isn't there any chance to improve their stats? Using them to kill rebellous provinces is always working. If your stats are poorly with money and stuff you should first improve your economy until you make a new Emperor. As long as you make less money, any other leader will get ugly traits too. Build up economy, prepare anything to get more money in the future. During that negative time any traits you will get are negative too. After the base is made you can kill your old leaders and new arisen nobles will earn the benefit of your prevous actions and get positive traits.
However, it is a long time since I last played the HRE, but the suggestions always work.

As far as I remember my old strategy, I always killed the Danish early on to take place in Skandinavia and expand at the Baltic see. Improving your coastline will allow you to improve sea trade, which is the best way to earn enough money.

when im the danes on campaign i never wanna hav an alliance with the germans cause thats the first place i wanna conquer :P but then again if im having trouble conquering the swedes or norwegians i would normally hav a truce with the germans and hopefully after the swedes and norwegians are gone i go after the germans. a happy ending :)

Actually the one game I played as the Holy Roman empire I got violated: I started off building farms or money making bits and pieces then 3 turns (count them) I was simultaneously invaded by France, Hungary, Poland and the Danish. Then a civil war broke out. The one alliance I had with Italy, they cancelled because they were sticking by their bestest buddies the Hungarians.

I quit and started to cry.

I would be intersted to know about the election of a new successor though, does that mean you can be careless with your heirs as no matter how many you loose their is always someone else to take their place?

The only favor of german imperial line is that they nearly ALWAYS find a new Emperor, even when all members of the royal line is death! But it also means that a civil war is often possible when this happens. Might be a funny feature for those cracks that already have conquered until bored to find new challanges.

Usually nobody declares war at an empire with numerous armies at the borders. It helps to scare potential enemies away for a while. If you pump some peasants in Toulose you will at least earn the poor +1 bonus for experience there.