How Do You Play HRE?

[Exarch]

The Empire...
situation seems hopeless
u start off thinly stretched, but compacted, surrounded by enemies
i've debated with my own inner council of advisors, whether to just pack up shop and invade italy and displace the pope for a better STArting pos. but i dunno. it just seems wrong to abandon the reich's homeland....

[Monsieur Alphonse]

You can find a lot of goof advice here:http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72052

[snuggans]

if you think your situation is chaotic, then the last thing you're going to want to do is make the pope your enemy, unless you fancy crusades on your lands.


the way im playing right now is to be the pope's favorite brown noser, and i expand towards the direction that im attacked from. its a very passive way but it helps in increasing the difficulty of the campaign because all the factions are given ample breathing room from me.

otherwise, possible areas to expand to:

-Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica islands (while leaving the pope alone)
-Towards the Atlantic and Iberian peninsula
-Denmark and Scandinavia

why? because these places tend to END at some point. if you were to expand to the east you're going to gather the attention of several more enemies including possibly the timurids or mongols. set a defensive army or two in your eastern borders and expand towards one of the three areas i recommended.

[Exarch]

aye
i'm thinking of heading north and taking out the danes early so i can secure the rich baltic sea trade routes.
then securing the western front while i take out poland afterwards.
hmmm, looks like i'll be fighting a 3 front war with milan

[Exarch]

$$$ sitch is always a prob. like france
is it a good idea to recruit a lot of merchants fopr the $$$?

[Exarch]

i've decided to do a migration
sold all my settlements to the papacy, then headed north and bought passageway with merc galleys to scotland. destroyed the scots and am now settled in scotland.
meanwhile, my faction leader and a son in law have gifted bologna to the papacy and moved onto ajaccio. i'll turtle for the next 200 years, teching up
after taking over england and scandinavia of course

[Exarch]

ok, started a new game as the HRE
this time, i migrated down south and gifted all my land to poland in return for an alliance and a tribute.
i still kept inverness, and bologna but i attacked venice and captured the city and am hanging onto it by a thread under a relentless venetian onslaught.
i faILed in taking florence so the damned pope has taken it.. he will pay for it.
i invaded naples, lost it, then retook it again and sacked it again for the $$$.
am also facing a sicilian onslaught, but with the $$ generated from these rich cities, i can afford to recruit merc spearmen who are much better than the HRE's piss poor early units.
town militia! crap as hell. am getting pwned by the italian militiamen who are insane

[Xamt]

HRE isnt as hard a faction to play as ppl might think... this is what seem to work best (played em a couple of times trying different strategies)

1) disband unecessary archer militia (100 upkeep is a lotthis early!!)
2) build roads and first level farms everywhere exept Bologna, i build a town hall there
3) get alliances with everyone exept the Danes (get a diplomat in bologna)
4) depending with missions i might attack and take a rebel settlement
5) get all the troops i can spare with a general and wait till the danes leave their capital defended by 1-3 units (they always do that .... dunno why), and once they do i will march my "northern" army and siege their capital (dont get a siege engine they are WAY slow and building a ballista range is a waste of money and time at such an early point).... make rams/ladders and assault next turn (hire mercs if u think ur army cant hadle it alone)
6) expand to scandinavia, but be mindful of the milanese/genoese since they will break their alliance with u and attack you 100% of the time and no matter what you do....