Between a Rock and a Hard Place

[Hold Steady]

I'm playing a slight modified (50k extra for AI players starting capital) expert Early HRE. It's now about 1119 AD, and I conquered the Italian mainland, along with the papacy, since the exalted didn't like my feud with the French (we have been hopping over to each other's lands oh say since the beginning of time). We all know how we get punished for every land we want to get back, while the AI can walk all over the place with no harm done. Anyhow, aside from that, I'm at war with the Hungarians too. Oh, and the Italians reappeared in rebel-held Corsica (of all places) with tree stacks men at arms and no ship, so it's declared zombie island. There rather docile, sitting there, probably hasn't got any money to build ship, since the upkeep of his army is a trifle more than great whopping money hoard Corsica can muster.
Yesterday evening, I decided to finish of the French, hope to last the peace with the English (in Vain, probably), so I can dedicate my effords to finish of the Hungarians, finally hop over to Denmark and produce my some huscarls or something. I invaded Isle the France, Flanders and Champagne succesfully, the first two under siege now. Then I invaded Toulouse, where the King resided. I had a fine battle there, although I lost a good deal of Men-at-arms.. The AI fought a very good battle on a rather large downhill slope with a lot of archers.. I thought I killed the King, but perhaps the Heir that still lives in Isle the france now got the power. But when I thought the French were finished, they had a loyalist rebellion in Flanders, half a stack of men at arms!
Now the Next turn, the exhalted one comes back to Rome and Naples (from which I retreated a few years ago, anticipating anysuch, not wanting to get of a wrong start with him, so the rebel Romans and the Sicilians are in heavy troublesome waters) with 6+ stack of Men-at-Arms, County militia and archers and some Royal Knights.

But so am I. The HRE empire is stretched extremely thin. I'm having nothing but peasant or spearmen garrisons, all the better troops are needed to ward of the Hungarians and this new French threat. I could manage to kill the French King next turn by storming Paris Castle, rendering the stack of Men-at-arms a rebel no-thread, but in Tuscany and the papal States, all the way up to Saxony, there is maybe one stack of troops available, which are supposed to defend my Hungarian, Polish and Danish Border, so how in (&^&(^% name am I supposed to stop the Pope from expanding northwards? Even the ^%$%$# HORDE would have a hard one on this..

[Ash]

I'm playing a slight modified (50k extra for AI players starting capital) expert Early HRE.

How about giving yourself 50k now? Or not giving 50k to the AI at all?

[Hold Steady]

How about giving yourself 50k now? Or not giving 50k to the AI at all?

You're right. I chose this myself, I shouldn't be complaining.. I know, but I thought, I'll pour out my predicament, perhaps a bit of compassion among my fellow men eh? Thought I 'needed' the extra challenge, and it perhaps would stop the AI from only sending peasants. Well the answer on 'no' to the first, though the amount of peasants is now better..

[TwinMfg]

Sounds like you expanded a bit too fast. I seem to do that all the time. But, that doesn't help you now. If you have the $$ buy lots of mercs. If you can't do that, you may need to retreat a little to consolidate your forces.

Are you actually at war with the pope? If not, leave a small army there as a deterrent and go have some Froglegs. If you're at war, then see above paragraph. And next time, pull out of the pope-held provinces and let them rebel before the pope returns; IIRC, he won't be at war with you then, when he returns.

Third option: borrow some of that $50K you gave your allies.

[Accounting Troll]

You need a quick victory against the French by storming Paris Castle so that you can free up some of your troops. Don't auto resolve because the French king will probably survive. When you have destroyed the French royal family, divert some of your troops to your Italian and Hungarian borders and use your emissaries to bribe the rebel provinces. Don't divert too many of your troops because sooner or later the English are going to attack you.

This stage of the campaign is always going to be hard for you since an AI faction uses the 50k starting cash to build up a large army which its provinces cannot support, so it has to invade somebody.

Even if you give economic development a high priority, the HRE simply cannot afford to adequately defend all its frontier provinces, especially since there is no way to totally eradicate the Papacy. I would pursue a military strategy of combining relatively inexpensive garrisons with 3-4 field armies, the idea being to swiftly retake land that I lose rather than prevent the loss in the first place.

[Louis VI the Fat]

I know how you feel, HS. The HRE has a near impossible starting position. You don't get any good generals, everybody seems to gang up on you almost right from the start and your armies take forever to get from one place to another with all those landlocked provinces. Which also are impossible to defend all at the same time, provoking endless invasions from all sides.

The one M:TW game I lost was playing as the HRE

It was a total blast though. Have fun with your game, if the HRE survives the first few decades you're in a good position to kick some ass.