How did they do it?

[Cowhead418]

In my Portuguese campaign on the XL mod, the HRE have become a superpower. I have been wondering for a while how they managed to achieve this. About ten turns into the campaign I noticed that the Germans were excommunicated and at war with the Danes, Polish, Venetians, Genoese, Bohemians, French, and English. I thought that this was the usual destruction of the HRE but somehow they managed to pull through.

They beat off the Venetians (who are now very weak), nearly killed off all of the English (who now only hold Wessex), annihilated the French (I finished them off) and took the rich provinces of Flanders and Ile de France, made peace with the Genoese, and let the Danes and Polish take a province of their own before making peace with them too.

They are currently in a dogfight with the Bohemians (who have taken some German provinces) but after checking out some of the HRE armies I see that they would be a very formidable opponent and now have quite a large empire. I'm in awe that they managed to hold so many fronts against so many factions without a single civil war (I don't think I ever saw one). They are very unlike the usual HRE. The English and French weren't weak either. The English were hit from two sides by the Germans and French so their collapse isn't too much of a surprise. But the French were powerful and had decent quality armies at one point. I remember in the early game I saw that the HRE had lost over half their empire and was on the verge of being overrun on all sides. But they managed to reconquer nearly everything they lost and have made some very nice gains as well.

Incase you're wondering how I managed to see nearly all this happening as the Portuguese I use the code matteosartori every few turns to see what is going on (I keep it off most of the time though) because I like seeing what factions are becoming powerful. I also had many of my agents in the middle of Europe.

[Weebeast]

That's what's so cool about MTW. Well, I don't often see it but once a while Germans can survive long enough and 'die' after anyone else. Probably one of the factions backstabbed someone else so Germans were relieved a little bit.

[ajaxfetish]

I love it when this game surprises me, like when I saw the Aragonese rising to power in Spain and France. Keep it up little fellas, it's your day to shine.

Ajax

[Cowhead418]

I love it when this game surprises me, like when I saw the Aragonese rising to power in Spain and France. Keep it up little fellas, it's your day to shine.

Ajax

Yeah I love that too. In one of my campaigns the Danes are the second most powerful faction (after the Egyptians) with a huge empire, enormous fleet, and lots of full stacks of troops.

I'm going to let the HRE develop and get really strong, and since I'm playing GA mode I don't need to kill everybody. I do plan on having the clash of the ages between me and the Germans though.

I really like it when the factions that rarely rise to power become strong. When this happens I'm usually so excited for that faction that I try to help them develop and grow even stronger.

[elbasto]

Yup, I too try to help them to develop, specially by the use of agent against their main enemies and some siege lifting operations when able.

After helping them grow to a huge empire I invade them making the LOTR look like a bar fight

[Banquo's Ghost]

In my current XL Cuman campaign, the HRE have survived a similar multi-front war. France has grown big, but after an initial long war with HRE, their borders are settled. The Emperor was one of the first to ally with me and has respected that alliance for two hundred years, though we barely share a border. He has just gone through a civil war, so the empire is not so big as it was, but he controls the northern german coast and the north sea trade.

My long term enemies have been the Poles (for once, in previous campaigns we have got along famously) and since they still don't want a ceasefire, I have just gone on a traditional steppe raid and smash. Hopefully my imperial friends will find some juicy, if empty provinces waiting to be taken on their borders.

(Well, I don't want them, there's not a blade of grass left and the howling of the wolves at night disturbs the khan's wife - French, you understand, too sensitive )