About the only way to play HRE on hard in Early is to turtle up for quite awhile, using the so-called porcupine defense. After getting your forces and
infrastructure built up some, I usually knock on France's door and punch the
Danes in the mouth. Consolidate somemore, maybe even take on the Poles or rebel sections around them. I personally love to take all of the Northern
provinces and slowly expand to the west and southwest. Mainly you have to
have solid/strong border defenses and a solid/strong economy. Hope this
helps, and other questions we will try our best to answer. HRE can be a real
.