HRE Strategies, I need a Councillor of War!

[Tokugawa]

So playing a H/H late era campaign with the Holy Roman Empire. So far I'm off to a great start, Poland, France, England, Norway, Denmark, Venice and Genoa have all declared war on me at one time or another. I really don't know how I managed to do it, but France, Denmark, Poland and the Pope are my allies now. I took Venice and Milan and the castle in the middle of the Italian penisula (forgot its name). Just got done fighting off 4 full stacks of an English invasion force that wanted Bruges and wouldn't settle for anything less (fookers and their tea). So here is my question, do I eradicate the rest of Genoa and conquer the Med with a further eye towards Spain and the Moors? Or do I finish off Genoa than concentrate all my power and not just stop repelling the attack from England, but invading it ? Below is a nice screenshot of the empire so far!

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Turn 47 huuh..??..Well I'm a turtler so I'd say, take Genoa and hunker down til you're really cool units manifest. However, if your a warlord, Screw it!!! Take Genoa and the British Isles...

[JorisofHolland]

British Isles will give you a more secure position, if you wipe out the Stots too. But the Pope will certainly prefer you to attack the Moors.

[Concrete]

Take Genoa (Because you can) because it'll give good money.
Perhaps you should take Danemark next, it will help when taking the British isles.
The British Isles are always a good conquest.
I advise you get siege(trebuchets(spelling?), cannons and the like) weapons which allow you to take a settlement in the same turn you enter the siege (You probably already knew that though).
Take Nottingham. It is their major recruitment centre, which will rob their potential armies, while strengthening yours. And while taking it may be difficult. (It's a high end castle.) Remember that that applies double to your enemies once you have it.

[Gogolometro]

I migrate to England from start, but my campaign was early RR. Ideea is, if you want keep these lands, secure all castles to make a good border. Expand to Antwerp and Bruges, take Prague, try get croatian town. Force march to Milan, Genova, Venice, Florence/Pisa and Ancona. Use numbers versus quality, keep emperor at march, he will kill many enemies. At early I use manu sargents mounted, are effective at charge, and even the worst archers will help you. Bad spears? Use tons of them and mercenarys can afford. I south germany will find great twohanded swordsmans, they are your shock troopers. If you are at late, you got man-at-arms light, DFK, the mailed khnights and good standard archers. Atack, atack, atack. Use your money skillz with papacy, bribe their amies, pay pope for reputation. A high stand with papacy, even a warning about excomm will be just reputation drop. Ally with France, is necesary. Stay out at war with Poland at start, Atack at end Venice but you never stay put, and dont be afraid, HRE is powerfull enough to cut their way in Italy.

[Tyrenia]

Well, now that you have Genoa against the wall, crushing them is really the logical next step, unless of course you want them as a vassal. But assuming you destroy them, your next step should be securing all of the Italian peninsula. But how to do this without making the Pope VERY ANGRY when you kick him out of Rome? Well, I would suggest calling a crusade somewhere in the holy lands, taking a few cities around there, then gifting them to to the Pope. Then, he will move the Papal States capital, and you will be able to purchase Rome from him.

After dealing with the Pope and Sicily, you have two options. Expand North, or expand West. Going North would involve destroying Denmark and Norway. Not only will this bring Arhus (a cash cow city) under your control, but it also gives you a dominance of Baltic trade, a nearly impregnable set of lands that, given your position in central Europe, are highly unlikely to be invaded, making them even richer, because you won't have to maintain particularly large garissons. Also, taking the Norwegian coastline gives you a prime position from which to invade Scotland, secure a place on the British Isles, and from there crush England. The Westward option would mean taking on France. While this will prove significantly more challenging, success will mean that no faction anywhere remotely near you will be able to match your strength, and it won't open up any new fronts (the Iberian factions being too concerned with eliminating each other than expansion beyond the Peninsula).

I would recommend Northward option personally, because of the improved economic situation it will give you, though it will spread your empire much more.

Southerly expansion after you take the Italian Peninsula and Sicily is really irrelevant, as the lands of Northern Africa are not very rich, and are quite large, making defending them somewhat difficult. It may be worth taking Tunis, just so the Moors don't use it to build stacks to fling at Palermo, but nothing else. It's just not worth the effort. Eastern expansion is also something which I would not recommend. Poland are relatively easy to eliminate, but their territories are not particularly valuable, and destroying them would mean coming into contact with Novgorod, a late game powerhouse who will cause you no end of trouble if you share a border. Hungary is also not advisable to destroy, for several reasons. One is that they often trounce the Byzantine Empire quite early on, giving them access to quite wealty cities and a powerful fortress. Conquering them would quite difficult, and would spread your empire perilously thin, leaving it quite vulnerable to attack from the French.

So, the steps I would take are:
1. Defeat Genoa.
2. Get a ceasefire with England
3. Get an Alliance with Hungary
4. Defeat Sicily and relocate the Papal States
5. Control Scandinavia
6. Attack the Isles
7. Defeat France

P.S. Sorry for the epic post, but I just love strategy

[Loose Cannon]

What does it matter what any of us suggest to do? You have either modified the game files or you're a CHEATER.

It's obviously 6.2 because of the Mongol expansion, maybe with RR/RC because Ireland is gone(although England may have eliminated them). But there is no way you can have a treasury of over 129,000 florins on turn 47 with this campaign. You have to have used the add_money cheat to build up the treasury this much. And if you've used that one, you've probably used the automatic victory cheat in battles.

If, instead, you modified the files so the game is now so easy a caveman can play it, who cares?

Late HRE is supposed to be the 2nd hardest campaign but what you've done is make is just a pathetic joke that we experienced players can see thru.

[Ichon]

What does it matter what any of us suggest to do? You have either modified the game files or you're a CHEATER.

It's obviously 6.2 because of the Mongol expansion, maybe with RR/RC because Ireland is gone(although England may have eliminated them). But there is no way you can have a treasury of over 129,000 florins on turn 47 with this campaign. You have to have used the add_money cheat to build up the treasury this much. And if you've used that one, you've probably used the automatic victory cheat in battles.

If, instead, you modified the files so the game is now so easy a caveman can play it, who cares?

Late HRE is supposed to be the 2nd hardest campaign but what you've done is make is just a pathetic joke that we experienced players can see thru.

I don't think it is obvious he cheated. In late campaign cities already partially developed and if he gets trade treaties fast and then doesn't develop much and only buy some armies his cash would accumulate fast. I know a guy never develops his cities... just buys armies and with constant conquests and growth of population you can expand quite fast and still hoard cash. HRE can get income of 5,000 profit per turn pretty easily in late campaign without doing much building and just some simple army management and 120,000 is only 24 turns worth of income in a 47 turn campaign. Not everyone plays the same way- personally I never leave a turn with more than 5,000 unless I am saving for a large building but you don't need advanced cities and armies to win the game.

[Astor]

Jeez, calm down, would you? So what if he cheated? He's free to do so and if he felt the need to do so I don't see why he shouldn't have. I really don't see how it is any of your concern.
Your opinion, not to mention your tone, is neither needed nor wanted.

[Medifh]

Jeez, calm down, would you? So what if he cheated? He's free to do so and if he felt the need to do so I don't see why he shouldn't have. I really don't see how it is any of your concern.
Your elitist and infantile opinion, not to mention your tone, is neither needed nor wanted.

But...it's a computer game! You're not supposed to have fun!

[RootsKW]

I'm going to have to agree with Loose Cannon. It doesn't matter if he's cheating, as it's his game, but what's the point of asking for strategy advice, when you are just going to use cheats to make strategy useless anyway?

[Tokugawa]

I already said that I'm only playing on hard. I'm still getting used to the new mod. I haven't installed the new Byg that came with RR/RC and that may explain my economical situation. I wouldn't cheat, it takes away the fun and intensity of great campaigns. Thank you to everyone that responded positively, I had no idea someone could look at my screenshot and have a heart attack over absolutely nothing and how unacceptable it is blah blah blah.Mr LooseCannon, why am I the focus of all your hate? You need to relax. I was just asking for help, which I received, thanks everyone!

[Mechswordsman]

Ironically every time I play the HRE, I around 8-10 crosses within the first thirty turns, but then one of the factions I am allied to with that many crosses attacks me (Ironically it is always one allied to the pope too), and the pope breaks the alliance instantly, and I am reduced down to literally two crosses instantly... does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?