Laying plans for a HRE game

[Maloncanth]

I've never played a serious HRE game before but my opinion would definitely also lean towards the blitz Denmark lobby. The key provinces seem to be Saxony (after Denmark is gone), Burgundy, and Venice (by getting rid of Italy). Getting all three of those, even if it results in bad borders and loss of provinces, would let you turtle and power for a while.

Or, less ambitiously, skip Italy and just get Denmark and hold onto Scandinavia (yay Sweden!) and the northern provinces. If you have a choice as to which of your neighbors will take your sacrifices, in that case, Italy would be a good choice for that too as for Papal reasons, you can often afford a strong mid-game Italy.

This is of course, unless you're playing GA in which case I suppose there's some obligation to hold onto homelands. :p

[General Dazza]

I'm just finishing a HRE campaign (XL, expert, early) and I say 'enjoy'! It's tough but it is a lotta fun.

Here's my 2c worth.

The golden rule is to not get excommed. Early excomm = bye bye HRE.

My early strategy was to turtle and build up my forces. I If you lose too many troops early you may have to cede too many provinces to regroup. l waited for an attack so I could possibly whittle down the enemy's troops without getitng the excomm threat.

I think the best option for first attack though is France. They don't have the early quality of troops as others, and Flanders is a very important provence to take. Also, in my game England was easier to ally with (and thereby secure a border).

I didn't attack Denmark early as they had too many royal knights & vikings. In an earlier HRE game I abandoned I was smeared all over the grass by them. And if they break through in the north you can lose Franconia and possible Swabia. Best to try and ally with them (although good luck - I rarely got anyone to even smile at me as the HRE).

My second attack was against Italy. This was for 2 reasons:
1. Access to more profitable trade
2. Access to the pope. Eventually excomm will become an issue, but if you're able to take the pope out you can eventually negate the problem.

Once I'd taken france and italy (which took a long time to achieve) I turtled again til I had enough troop quality to take on the others. But at one point I was at war with about 5 factions. Hungary was particularly aggressive.

Enjoy the campaign - it's great fun.

Also, in my game, the Spanish controlled all of spain and right up to Normandy.

[guelphling]

I like to turtle with the HRE. I mass produce UM's to garrison Burgundy and Lorraine. I keep spearmen and archers to defend the bridge in Saxony. I like to Ally with England and develop my technology for the next few years.
As far as infrastructure watch towers are 1st on the agenda. Switzerland,Swabia,Bavaria, and Franconia form the hi-tech nucleus of my HRE. I develop farmland in the outlying provinces.

[General Dazza]

I like to turtle with the HRE. I mass produce UM's to garrison Burgundy and Lorraine. I keep spearmen and archers to defend the bridge in Saxony. I like to Ally with England and develop my technology for the next few years.
As far as infrastructure watch towers are 1st on the agenda. Switzerland,Swabia,Bavaria, and Franconia form the hi-tech nucleus of my HRE. I develop farmland in the outlying provinces.

Same with me mostly. I used:
- Franconia for cav and swordsman (due to iron)
- Swabia for Swabian swordsmen and as a second Franconia
- Switzerland for spearmen and eventually Swiss pikemen/halberdiers
- Burgundy for ranged units
- some other province for diplomacy

[The Unknown Guy]

I´m having trouble now. Whereas I was able to pull both my border fortification campaigns, and bring down Denmark (doing it very early, before their king started breeding, and using many UM and the three Vikings/Drangar(pocket mod) you get at the beggining. I´ve even managed to conçuer all up to Norway, where I´m planning to build my capital (geopolitical reasons: if the shit hits the fan, and the south falls, I´m still left with Norway, Sweeden, Denmark, Finland, and Saxony to trade & build troops, plus it gives me a lot of breathing space to absorb enemy attacks)

NOW I *do* have problems. The French and the Italians attacked at the same time. Whereas I managed to shake off the assaults on Burgundy done by both at the same time, having to defend BOTH Provence and Lorraine left me with a weak spot, and thus I was not able to lift the siege in the latter.

WORSE: I failed to retake it, and the pope warned me not to go to war with France in ten years (I hate the pope). However, he didn´t say a word about the Italians, which I´m harassing heavily, while I build my West armies to shake off continued French assaults on Burgundy (proving surprisingly easy: they are attacking accross the river instead of Lorraine. I think I might just win my war against them by the number of heirs they´re losing in those assaults), and build up a force in the east to finish the Italian continental presence once and for all.

For the record: I´m striving to keep burgundy because I have it at a Feudal Sergeants upgrade level, and it would be a shame to lose it. I want peace with the French so that I can annihilate the Doge (and compensate the -temporal- loss of Lorraine by fulfilling the HRE glory goal)

[Deus ret.]

Sounds like a cool campaign, Unknown Guy!

I want peace with the French so that I can annihilate the Doge

Peace? Peace! That was a good one. No, seriously: The only way I was able to end a state of war between me as HRE and another faction was by adding the -ian command switch, which among other things allows you to change the faction under your control. So it's possible send emissaries to my emperor for them.... ok it's cheesy and I only used it for the Pope but the described behavior of the AI is especially perceptible once you've already begun to expand.

If you want peace, you probably will have to aim for eternal peace: No more problems with France. Ever. Oh, and don't be too afraid of excommunication. You may have some capable assassins (5+ stars) by now, so you can have a go at the Pope with them if he proves too much of a nuisance.

[The Unknown Guy]

Well, I dont have assasins, but I have plenty of heirs, and I could simply send the Emperor to a bloody and glorious death. Maybe I´ll even be able to end their dinasty if I kill their king.

Then again, by the time I´ve moved and/or produced enough forces to assault the now-french Lorraine, the ten years will have passed, so I wont get excom-threat. I really need to deal with the Italians, through. They don´t have many "hi-tech" buildings. The best they have are Militia Guards (I think in regular VI it´s "Militia Sergeants" not sure), which should be kill-able with sheer numbers of slavic infantry.

[ULC]

I've had bad experiences with the HRE. They can be a good faction, but they are weak infrastructurally, which casues them to be easily over run. The ONLY time I have seen the HRE do good is when I am the Danish or Hungarians. I think this is because the danes are the "aggressors" (along with the french) that spark the multifaction war you end up facing. Poland and Italy generally join in once your bogged down. As the hungarians, it's probally because I share borders with the Italians and Polish and ally my self with HRE that makes them scared to attack, or if they do, the HRE doesn't have to worry about them for very long. About allainces, I have found that by blitzing an enemy and killing them off in the 2 year time limit cows them pretty well, although I never have to do this with the english, they gleefully join in on the land grap spree that becomes france when I eventually attack them. Also, if your strapped for cash or wish to get the french off your back, blitz Ile de france and flanders early, forcing him into champagne. You can see were that is going. This worked really well for some one else, but try taking out the hungarains. When he did it, every faction immediatly sent an emissary to him, and it he did execellent throughout the game, until he came to spains rescue via crusade and met 4 almo stacks .