Quote Originally Posted by Cowhead418
Any tips on how to play the HRE on the XL mod?
Maybe a few...

I wont claim to be an HRE Expert I have played them twice in XL and never finished the campaign. You pretty much outlined the situation well with your first post so no need to rewrite it. You are an empire already, and from what I see on the boards guys get into trouble by trying to expand to early. Thats what makes the HRE game a bit frustrating, to play it well you really just have to build up what you have to start with and field off incursions.

If you must go to war early, Bohemia is a good choice, weak starting army but exceptional province values. Eventually one of the Italian factions will declare on you. So that is when you conquest, when someone declares on you !

HRE is prone to collapse, but often its due to multiple front wars, well early on dont start any, let the AI get excommed and you play defensive. There are a few givens in the game that I noticed with HRE this might help.

1. England and France will eventually goto war

2. One of the Itallians will declare on you

3. Denmark has to be watched in the North

So my tips are play defensive wars and build up elite forces. Dont waste your time with crap troops, you got the cash build the best and within the defensive strategy you can take a province or two.