[IN] Playing as a tiny HRE nation. How to win?

[GenAnnoyance]

I started a game as Mecklenburg and unsurprisingly I have a good economy (I have 5 merchants in most of the European Cot's). But, trying to expand my borders is nigh on impossible mainly due to 1 big problem.

The emperor is always someone big and powerful like Austria or Hungary and I have already had 1 war where I tried to annex Luneburg and Hungary dance across Germany with 30,000 troops and, obviously I got defeated terribly. Fortunately they weren't feeling too expansionist and I managed to negeotiate to give me back my 2 starting provinces and give Thuringia back two of their provinces.

I just don't know how I'm going to be able to expand if the emperor is someone exponentially more powerful than I am and always defends the smaller or equally sized country I invade.

Anyone got any tips?

[ccllnply]

Yeah, its a real problem in IN, at least for those who aren't good at wars with big nations(like me). Before IN, I could take control of any German minor, vassalise and diplo-annex my neighbours and then use that momenteum to conquer the rest of the German provinces. I've tried that once with IN and found myself with full Decentalization(spl? Word?) and rebels all over the place.

Also, does anyone else find that no matter what date you start, Cleves has the majority of the electors votes?

[phowa]

Go to war in africe and get colonys until youre economy is healthy enough to have a huge army able to keep the emperor ar bay or take him out you could also try allying with countrys surrounding austria so if he attacks you they will back you up and he will be at war on more than 1 front.

[zznɟ ǝɥʇ]

Get an alliance with someone powerful and when they go to war try to grab some land, sneaky-like. I managed that with Wallachia to Bohemia, once. Make sure the enemy is sorta far away though..

[GenAnnoyance]

Also, does anyone else find that no matter what date you start, Cleves has the majority of the electors votes?

Unfortunately no- It's always Austria or Hungary and when it is a small nations like Cleves I take full advantage of it. However, when playing as a big nation Cleves does tend to get elected alot.

Go to war in africe and get colonys until youre economy is healthy enough to have a huge army able to keep the emperor ar bay or take him out you could also try allying with countrys surrounding austria so if he attacks you they will back you up and he will be at war on more than 1 front.

I thought about doing that but Africa is a bit outside my colonail range and when I do get there the natives are very strong since I probably won't be able to land a big army there.

Get an alliance with someone powerful and when they go to war try to grab some land, sneaky-like. I managed that with Wallachia to Bohemia, once. Make sure the enemy is sorta far away though..

Yeah, I try that alot. My first diplomats are usually used to ask for alliances and/or royal marriages with France, Austria, Hungary and a Scandinavian country but the best I end up with is usually Brunswick.

[vizi]

No you take lands from the African nations already there. Shake and bake colony! And once you get cores you can begin expanding from there.

[Zymran]

You could always try to be very aggressive and fight lightning-fast wars against your miny neighbours before Austria or Hungary can reach you If you go for the 1-province states the war can be over quickly if you attack with a big army.

That worked for me as Mecklenburg, but I don't have the expansions so I don't know how different they'd be

[Kanaric]

Only thing I could do was to wait for a weak HRE to be elected and annex my neighbors.

After someone like France cliches the title I just look at the target nations list of allies, find one not in the HRE, and DOW them bypassing the issue all together.