HRE in high

[Gilrandir]

I think he tends to be more generous early in a campaign (before he has run out of money?)

Once late in the game (14something) Papacy was the only faction left (except me,of course). The Pope sent me money EVERY YEAR for five or six years. It didn't do him any good, though.

As you see, my empire has expanded but I'm not satisfied somehow. In my wars with Italians and the English I lost my best four-star general, survived an exhausting ten-year long excom and now I'm at peace with everybody. Now I have to trim my armies into shape and get rid of the new Emperor. He isn't likely to get any male heirs (as I have noticed, 2 daughters born one after another in 2 consecutive years is a sign of future sonlessness) so I have to send him on a suicidal mission - yet I have no enemy to rely upon in that. I wish for no hostilities with the English and the Italians - they have large navies and I finally want to start some trade. So it's got to be either the Huns or Aragonese. But the former are too far for my monarch to reach in the nearest future (his trip there would last for ten years at least) and the latter are my ally. Besides if my king is not killed or captured in the first attack I might face another excom in case I repeat it. Well, perhaps the excom wouldn't last as my king would be dead, so my choice is probably the almost-ex-ally.
At present I wish for no war, but a decade or two of steady development, as I had neither money no desire to attend to it while the war was raging.

[LordK9]

Who owns Sardinia/Corsica? With the Italians beat up, could they be rebel held? Ireland? Not sure how many ships you have and where they are but, if rebel held, they might be options.

[Gilrandir]

Who owns Sardinia/Corsica? With the Italians beat up, could they be rebel held? Ireland? Not sure how many ships you have and where they are but, if rebel held, they might be options.

Corsica was rebel and Sardinia was held by the Italians. But there was no question of capturing Corsica - it would need quite a large army to keep it loyal. I bribed the Corsican rebels (got a three-star general) and transferred him to the continent. And that was done not a moment too soon for the Italians started a war against me. I captured Toulouse and was warned by His Holiness to stop harassing the Italians (although Papacy (as well as the Aragonese and Sicilians) was at war with it). So I took the chance and attacked the Huns in Hungary - and they withdrew. Next year their king brought a huge army from all over the country - I repelled them and the king was killed. Their armies are shattered (I had more than a 1000 prisoners) and I guess if I capture Croatia (which I will do next turn) they will have a civil war.

Italians keep attacking my ships but always get sunk. Yet I would like to make peace with them - my ships are still too few and my trade is at a standstill.
I successfully got rid of my emperor (sent him to rebel Scotland) but he produced a son the year he died. So I have a new emperor - but he doesn't have any sons yet. If he keeps disappointing me heirwise I'm gonna do the trick again - I still have one more heir of age. Generally, I'm trying to pay more attention to developing economy and trade and in 10 years or so I will be able to produce chivalric knights in Wessex.

[drone]

Any ideas on what the Horde has been up to?

[Gilrandir]

Any ideas on what the Horde has been up to?

The nomads own the eastern steppes from Smolensk and Kiev to Georgia, as far as I know. But they rarely come into my view and the Polish look pretty solid with a sizeable army in Lithuania.
Meanwhile my Drang nach Osten somehow transformed into Drang nach Sudosten.

The Huns turned out to be civilwar-resistant and only when they lost three more provinces after Hungary did they have a civil war, so they are now constrained to Wallachia and Moldova. My heir situation has improved and now I'm thinking big C but look at the garrison it has! I'm also in mind to evict the Italians out of Greece so that I could free an army to commit it elsewhere.

[Gilrandir]

[LordK9]

Certainly doing much better then I did with the HRE; took me a bunch of tries to win in "high" with them. Also, glad to see that you're OK and still have an I-net connection.