HRE is a lot of people's favorite faction, how do you win with them?

[Sparkshot]

It seems that the Holy Roman Empire is a favorite for many, I was just curious as to how you go about completely a long campaign with them. Like it is mention in Grand Campaign faction screen, they lack the late professional armies of England and France. Their Forlon Hope is no match for Dismousted Noble/English Knights. I would say there best infantry unit when taking into consideration the attack to defense ration would be Dismounted Feudal Knights. So is that your main fighting force or am I missing something? Their Armoured Sergeants don't match up well with Denmark's Norse Swordsmen either.

[Tankfriend]

Well, if we're just looking at knights at the moment, you probably have overlooked the imperial knights: What makes them worth their money is their armor piercing stat that effectively 1/2s the enemies armor value (as far as I remember), which in turn means that most other units are not that vastly superior as it may seem at first.

[Robo1992]

You can beat the French and English by using tactics, If you have noticed Medieval is so bugged that a organized attack of peasants can take down a unit of knights.

You could always destroy the French and English early in the game its not that hard. By turn 67 in one of my Holy Roman Empire campaign's I had destroyed all of France and conquered all of Italy. It really comes down to how you use your units.

[SGD2C]

i dont usually do this, but you can blitz denmark off the map. then blitz milan and you are set for the rest of the campaign.

[candle_86]

i use archers and knights mainly, not alot of foot troops anyway. The AI sucks with pikes and spears, and never turn around when cav charges.

[roy34543]

Some mods make it easier for the HRE some make it harder. In clouds over europe ( i think it was called) i received an insane amount of money per turn as the HRE

[clandestino]

Why using Forlon Hope? They have same stats as Zweihander but half as size. You should use dismounted feudal knights,they are good overall troops and combined with heavy cavalry such as Gotic knights, crossbowmen and armoured sergeants they make powerfull army. I use Forlon Hope only as a garrison troops in border cities, where I combine them with pikemen and handgunners-this make a good defencive army which can resist most of the sieges. Generaly the best HRE's troops are dismonted feudal knights and Gotic knights, and Reitars in later period.

[Wheem]

For the early part of the game, use militia/peasant crossbowmen as your main killers. They're fairly cheap to train, and have pretty low upkeep as well. The only problem they really have, is being weak against other ranged units (use your cavalry to guard against other archers). If you keep them well protected, they can mercilessly rake even high-quality infantry and cavalry units.

Once you have access to the Dismounted Feudal Knights though, they'll be your main heavy infantry unit for the rest of the game. Dismounted Imperial Knights have an Armor Piercing attack, which is great, but their defense skill is a good bit lower than that of other knights.

I wouldn't bother training any 2h Sword units at all (unless perhaps you're playing with a mod). With their slow attack speed, and attack rating that doesn't exceed 1h/shield units by all that much, they perform very very poorly. You can test this yourself in custom battles if you'd like; even high end 2h Sword units take terrible losses against much lower quality 1h/shield infantry.

The Holy Roman Empire does have some pretty solid cavalry in the later game, and Teutonic Knights are quite nice if you can get the guild house for them (which can happen fairly early in the game).

[clandestino]

I think that HRE has some of the best cavalry units in game and they should be used extensively.I like combination of Reiters and Gotic or Teutonic knights. You first pepper your enemy with Reiters and than charge them with knights from flank or rear. Pretty effective if you aren't much outnumbered.

[Sparkshot]

Well thanks for the help everyone. I never played HRE that often, and when I did, I would usually be invaded by all fours (Poland, Venice, Milan, France). I just wanted to make one additional comment. The Dismounted Imperial Knights are considerably terrible when pitted against Dismounted Chivalric Knights. I can't image how badly they would be against Noble Knights. Though they do have better armor, their maces don't make up for the fact.

[UhOhIt'sAnArrow]

Canons, need more Canons!

[Johann von Bremen]

Maybe you should use the Dismounted Imperial Knights to flank the enemy rather than hold the line with them.

Works for me...

[candle_86]

catapults, and crowsbowmen, if your good you can kill the general with the first strike and if the army is mainly militia/peasant there is actully a good chance they can route, ive won a battle before by killing the general with a lucky burning rock and making the entire amry route, but there morale has to suck

[Robo1992]

catapults, and crowsbowmen, if your good you can kill the general with the first strike and if the army is mainly militia/peasant there is actully a good chance they can route, ive won a battle before by killing the general with a lucky burning rock and making the entire amry route, but there morale has to suck

Lol that generally happens to me when i face an army with a catapult or Balista.

[candle_86]

Lol that generally happens to me when i face an army with a catapult or Balista.

lol thats why when i see arty, i send my cav to the side and then send my weaker inf to attack and draw the enemy out of there lines and then retreat back to my line with them following and then my cav comes in and knocks out the arty, the AI is so stupid

[Robo1992]

lol thats why when i see arty, i send my cav to the side and then send my weaker inf to attack and draw the enemy out of there lines and then retreat back to my line with them following and then my cav comes in and knocks out the arty, the AI is so stupid

Yeah i try to flank them as fast as possible.

[Clayton Gold]

I find that you need to really focus on diplomacy with HRE. I usually park a diplomat at the French, Polish, Danish, Genoese, & Venician capitals; and engage them every turn.

[Timur_the_Lame]

yeah, can someone one make a how to for the HRE? I have tryed it like 10 times on M/M and always get kille dmy Milan/Venice/Hungary/Poland...help

[Bringer Of Storms]

yeah, can someone one make a how to for the HRE? I have tryed it like 10 times on M/M and always get kille dmy Milan/Venice/Hungary/Poland...help

I was having troubles too. This thread helped me a lot.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=490280

As for why so many people use the HRE, I never understood. I was never any good with them. (As stated above in the link.) My problem is that they don't excel in one particular area, but instead they keep it balanced across the board. Which is probably why people do like them so much.

[Macunaíma]

HRE was my first campaign (I already won but I'm still playing). Since it was the only faction I've played in vanilla so far, I can't really compare. Still, one of their strong points is cavalry. When you got the Teutonic Headquarters, your knights become a major strenght in your army. Just by sending cavalry first and provoking the enemy with charges surrounding them, I'm able to kill a minimum of 1/4 of their army. And when I faced France it was not that late in the game, so they were not a true challenge. England I faced on the late game, but, still, I was so powerful that my numbers supressed any unit superiority they might had. But, at first, my units were always inferior and my money was short (guess that the fact I was learning to play had something to do with this), but I got around it pretty well. Don't worry if at first your expansion is slow, after some time you'll be gettin a settlement (or two) per turn.