HRE campaign focus points

[gaijinalways]

It's interesting, I have trundled along in a HRE campaign through to 1112. I seem to be doing okay. I blitzed Denmark and Venice on my first turn, capturing both. Capturing the latter started an ongoing war with the Italians who have since 'moved' off shore. Am slowly building up my navy (I now have 4 ships south of Venice with another coming out of Denmark soon) and am now starting to experience real cash shortages.

The Italians did bestow me earlier a nice reward for capturing their king and prince when taking Milan, Tuscany, and Genoa, but since then they have turned stuffy and no longer proffer me any handy cash refunds. The French in the mean time decided to attack me when I was weak and bloated, retrieving Burgandy from me. This caused me to hire some gunslingers and I walked them over eventually taking Isle de France, Champagne, Flanders, Toulouse, Provence, and Burgandy back as well in my search for vengence. The French now took to stabbing the English again, and reside in Britany, Normandy, Anjou, and Aquitaine. I am watching them carefully as they tried to have a go at Toulouse twice now, but they didn't fare so well, with my peasants and rabble tossing theirs out in a nearly even battles.

I am slowly attempting to shore up my rear guard, as the Polish and the Hungarians have been busy sparring with the Byz, but currently mostly peasants guard my borders of Austria and Bohemia. I have moved a small force into Franconia to try and forestall any attempts by my neighbors to liberate the local rebels.

I am also concerned with my tech also as I still am using only spearmen and archers, though I see better coming eventually, though buildings are now slow to come by. I did just take Norway a few turns earlier, with Sweden coming some 15 years earlier (they were very unrestful with all those unbribable vikings to the north). Once I can get trade going, I'm sure things will be better.

Any other suggestions or things to keep in mind?

Thanx in advance,

GA

[Roark]

Apologies if they are horribly obvious, but my suggestions are as follows:

- Try really hard to ally with the English. Send a princess.
- Crack out the Swabians as soon as possible. They are staunch, and will steamroll anything on foot in Early. Ditto Huscarles (although you might find that they ruin the game for you as they're just too good).
- Resist the temptation to build barques and go straight for Caravels. You'll need their defensive capabilities to protect your trade.
- Keep an eye on any of the Russian factions that have access to the Northern seas. If they spam Boyars, these guys can turn out to be a real problem, especially if they're royal sons.

[I of the Storm]

It's been a while since I played the HRE but from what you tell here, you seem to be quite settled actually. So build farming in the lucrative provinces (Provence, Sweden etc.), try to create trade and maybe even gain a ceasefire with the Italians (you did expel them to their islands yes?).
Border garrisons of spears and archers are ok but keep an armored contingent nearby just in case. tbh I'm surprised the Hungarians haven't come for you yet.

Sounds like a fun campaign.

[gaijinalways]

I of the Storm posted

So build farming in the lucrative provinces (Provence, Sweden etc.), try to create trade and maybe even gain a ceasefire with the Italians (you did expel them to their islands yes?).

I just tried that(up to 1117 now), but they turned me down. A bit annoying that. Would really like to land on their Island and wipe them out, though not sure where they'd re-emerge. I hold most of their original provinces (Genoa, Milan, Tuscany, Venice).


Roark posted

Crack out the Swabians as soon as possible. They are staunch, and will steamroll anything on foot in Early. Ditto Huscarles (although you might find that they ruin the game for you as they're just too good).

Sorry to spoil the party, it's a Vanilla MTW game. GA, expert.

Roark posted

Resist the temptation to build barques and go straight for Caravels. You'll need their defensive capabilities to protect your trade.

At the moment I'm saving money, but I will follow this advice later, though I need to build the next ship related building for that.

It's a slow process as I am trying to slowly build up my fleets (have 5 ships now, 1 near Denmark) troop up so my backside facing Eastward is not too weak, and lowly tech up (In Isle de France and Tyrolia at the moment as these are more advanced for armor).

I noticed that I'm tied for points in the GA race, with the Alomonds in first (14 points), I'm tied with English for second (12 points each). Wondering if shedding some provinces is a good idea, I did this earlier with Saxony and another when I was struggling to hold everything together in the beginning.
I am also considering knocking the French further along as they like to keep attacking me.

The pope has just remerged, yikes, has quite the feudal knights and what not. Will be a lot more difficult to knock him off the next time. Doing the crusades for him will be a priority at some point as the Spanish have already launched one headed for Antioch, not sure if it will get there or not as the Spanish don't seem to have much of a fleet. I don't feel very religious at the moment, having a hard enough time making ends meet and keeping my population content, never mind happy.

[gaijinalways]

I have played a few more years forward. The Hungarians are slowly getting ready for something, peace may no longer be on the cards soon to the east.

I am slowly building some more soldiers (spearmen, a few men at arms, and archers) and doing smaller farming (the 20%s) and mines (rather than the bigger farm upgrades, one exception was in Flanders) so that I can get the cheaper investments in first and hold onto some cash (not much, some 4-5k at the moment). Trade is slowly getting bigger, Venice has some 1400 (that's the largest province as Denmark and Sweden have only 3 ships nearby and their merchant houses are at the first level, while Venice has 4 ships and the next higher level building). My loyalty rates are still not very high, might want to consider building some churches in turns to raise the happiness levles (religion, opiate of the masses).

I think I will continue holding off expanding and try not to attack unless I am provoked (like before when the French kept hitting me, and the pope excommed me when I retaliated after getting annoyed time and again). Should I try and get spies into the mix soon too, initially perhaps start pumping out alternately spies and ships from some provinces? So many decisions, it's a real juggling act! The spies help with keeping the riff raff out as well as lifting happiness, yes?

[I of the Storm]

Spies help with countering assassins and spies. Not sure about happiness. Build small buildings, like 20% farming everywhere, towers and other 2 turn buildings. Will get you loyalty+ traits for your king and governors.

As for the pope-problem, see this thread and try to pull it off:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=100430

You really should farm almost everywhere. Farming is more or less the major source of income for the HRE. Especially farm in Flanders! And build your trade centering around that province. It's your cashcow #1. Really. I could yield something like 3000+ florins with 80% farming and a proper trade network with Flanders alone!
If you're excommed anyway and loyality still holding, why not knocking out the french, push to the pyrenees and meanwhile fortify the east? Or conquer Naples and Sicily. Score some victories, man. You're the Reich!