Strategy advice, what should I do?

[Neptune7]

I am playing the Holy Roman Empire, early campaign, SS 6.3 of course, medium/medium, Savage AI, LLP. The turn is 117, and the French, Hungarians, Venitians, and Leon-castille are out of the game..Poland is close to being out. The byzantiums (Roman Empire) are the biggest and pose a threat to the HRE..However I wan't them to stop their expansion into europe and fight the eqyptians. I really don't want to fight them and weaken them too much..I am allied with England and they are at war with the Moors, which is good. The Tutonic Order is going to show up and be a pain to the Lithuaniums, which is good, the Mongols will show up and be a pain to the Kshaw, which is also good.

Here is the screenshot of the campaign map...

[Ishan]

If i saw ur map correctly you should go to Ireland(Held by rebels) and try to hold ur base there and make a move in advance coz your are going to war with England sooner or later and they are blocking ur way to further west upto Pyrenees.
Why Ireland coz of sole economic reason as Scotland has a few settlements try to provoke him to attack you and wipe him off then. Once u have British isles in control English economy will be crippled and they will attack u which would i want to expand further west.

Try to hold off byzantium if u don't want to fight them with an alliance.

[guyverlance]

i was surpised that the Byzzies escaped being pawned by Hungary.. did you helped them financially?

[Medkirtys]

Wow, that looks like a great game, could you please upload a save game?

[Neptune7]

Wow, that looks like a great game, could you please upload a save game?

Here it is a an attached zip file with the saved game..Hope it works...

[Ishan]

Plz try to say something on the Topic First

[Neptune7]

Yes, I need all the advice I can get, so any ideas no matter how outrageous are welcome. I want to expand my empire in a safe and efficient way that minimizes my enemies while preventing any one faction getting too large. 100 turns out, who knows what the map will look like.


Problems facing the HRE..

• The Byzantiniums large expansion into Europe.
• A large England that wiped out France and has a foothold in Scandanivia, and potentially threatens me from the west and the north. (I am allied with England right now, and my reputation is trustworthy, although I have been using assasins to eliminate pagan and orthodox priests)
• The Moors are not a threat yet, but past games that I have played have them taking over Iberia eventually and pushing into europe, and they are always a threat.
• The annoying pagan and orthodox priests flooding the Holy Roman Empire's Eastern lands and brainwashing the population.

[Meneth]

I'd take out those damn Danes.
Their settlements are usually pretty good economically.
Ofc, it doesn't seem like money is really a problem to you
After that, maybe do a crusade on Vilnius? Should allow you to take most of western Lithuania, while still having them as a barrier between you, Kiev, and Novgorod.

[Neptune7]

I'd take out those damn Danes.
Their settlements are usually pretty good economically.
Ofc, it doesn't seem like money is really a problem to you
After that, maybe do a crusade on Vilnius? Should allow you to take most of western Lithuania, while still having them as a barrier between you, Kiev, and Novgorod.

I have been tossing around that idea. The problem with the Danes is they have several army stacks hanging next to Arhus. It will be an expensive undertaking, while the byzantiniums and lithuaniums territories next to me, don't have a tremendous military presense, ....yet..But you are right, money is not a problem, so I may do that. But I don't know..

i was surpised that the Byzzies escaped being pawned by Hungary.. did you helped them financially?

No I didn't help anyone financially. I was allied with my eastern neighbors early in the game, Poland and Hungary, however they have been eliminated or greatly weakened, and I didn't do anything to help them out. However, the tuetonic empire is showing up soon, and I may take the opportuinity to take Krackow and Thorn from the Liths, and help relieve the pressure off Poland.

[mcv]

With some luck, the Moors and England might soon end up at war with each other. Better not go to war with England yet. Let them fight it out, maybe help the weaker of the two in order to weaken them both and take some spoils. But mostly it shouldn't be your war yet.

The same thing goes for Byzantium and Egypt. Ideally, you want them to fight each other, while staying out of it yourself. Buy Byzantine affection by showering them with gifts, and hint that maybe they should be looking south.

Denmark and Lithuania are definitely potential targets.

However, you could also go south. Your Mediteranean coast is small, and the Byzantines are a bit too much in your way. Also, if Byzantium is powerful, you don't want tohelp them too much. And you want to stay away from the Moors so they can focus on England.

So yeah, Denmark or Lithuania. Sounds like you're considering Lithuania a ripe target, so go there.

[Ichon]

Byzantines- either make war with them or make sure you are allies. Luckily they aren't Catholic so really it might be handy to make them an enemy except that part of the map is quite annoying to have a large war over.

Personally I'd leave them alone and focus on England/Scandinavia first. As HRE in the center of Europe it makes things much easier to gain a map edge. Either N or NW... then you can shift your armies to guard 3 directions rather than 4. With a large empire it also cuts down on battles each turn.

Byzantines are a bit of a paper tiger the longer the game lasts the better HRE troops roster will make fighting them relatively easy. K-Shah or Egypt is probably your main long term concern... maybe Moors but they have a long way to go before a problem for you.

A large K-Shah like that will be able to deal with Mongols usually though it will distract them for a few years. If Egypt goes to war with them or Byzantines, Egypt will probably slowly expand as they are fighting on only 1 front while their enemies are fighting on 2 or 3 fronts.

If you don't want to betray England or squash Scandinavia then Byzantines or Lithuania are the easiest targets. The distances and forests/mountains/rivers terrain will be a bit annoying but with that large of an HRE behind you no opponent should be difficult if you fight them one at a time.

[Lord Lancelot]

The first i suggest you expand into scandinavia and italy, Scandinavia becouse , them will be later more strong and you will be harder to conquer them, italy becouse, you will be able to invade Byzantines from North and South, and becouse, if Byzantines will conquer italy faster then you, you will be much harder to deal with them, they will attack you from two sides.

[Neptune7]

K-Shah or Egypt is probably your main long term concern... maybe Moors but they have a long way to go before a problem for you.

........ Sorry, but I couldn't resist pointing that out..The devil took me over.... Thanks for your posts, (you have hepled me out several times), and I like it when people speak their minds. ..
________________________________________________________________
Here is the map at turn 191, the byzantines are completely out of control, and I need some advice. They have almost taken all of southern Italy, and continue their relentess campaign against the Eqyptians. The mongols and bytaniums are at war, and I am hoping a FULL scale war starts between them, and not just wimpy skirmishes that have been going on. I don't think I should war with the Byzantiniums until a full scale mongol-byzantinium war breaks out. But the byzantiums are getting kind of large, and they have the Holy Roman Empire nervous..any suggestions would be helpful thanks..

[napoleonic]

asking advise for that kind of empire and money is a bit insulting, no?

you can actually sustain a 4 fronts wars by now

[Neptune7]

asking advise for that kind of empire and money is a bit insulting, no?

you can actually sustain a 4 fronts wars by now

I don't think so. It's not a money problem. It's a recruitment problem. I decided to take on the Danes and grab their territories in Scandinavia. I had to use 5 of my 7 citadels to do it, along with some cities contributing some Ritterberger units, and spear militias. I had to fight like 10 or 11 full stack dane armies. I don't think I would have the units to confront that on all 4 sides. I would have to use a bunch of mercenaries but I don't think I could recruit enough of them.

an odd thing happened in the game. I saw two greenish-blue Kwarezmian Empire naval unit stacks in the mediteranean sailing to the east of Italy. I don't know how they got there. The K-Shaws don't have a naval port on the mediteranean or the Black sea.

[For England Men]

what victory conditions are playing ? long I hope. Looks like a good superpower game, you will have the mongols turn up soon as well which will eventually change the dynamic of the game especially when they reach the byzzies. I would ally with the factions on all your borders and fortify them except one border that you expand on. Keep and eye on the other factions finishing conditions though.

[barcamartin]

an odd thing happened in the game. I saw two greenish-blue Kwarezmian Empire naval unit stacks in the mediteranean sailing to the east of Italy. I don't know how they got there. The K-Shaws don't have a naval port on the mediteranean or the Black sea.

Mercenary ships.

[Neptune7]

Well here is the map at turn 148. The Norwegians have kicked England out of Scandinavia. The Kwarezmian Empire is getting their but kicked by the Mongols. The Teutonic Order has shown up, (My trusty allies) and took a couple of Lithuanium territtories. England has finished off Scotland, even though Wallace showed up, it didn't do the Scots anygood. Eqypt landed a force on Italy, Sicily, however they lost to the Sicilians and got kicked back into the mediteranean. My next move is I guess to finish taking Scandinavia, and finish the Norwegians off. They are irritating me by having a couple of army stacks deep in Holy Roman Empire territory...

[Lord Lancelot]

I say you again, take control over Italy, or you will be pwnd by Byzantines, or if Egypt will conquer Italy you will be pwnd too

[Neptune7]

I say you again, take control over Italy, or you will be pwnd by Byzantines, or if Egypt will conquer Italy you will be pwnd too

I may do that. The Genoese attacked me at Bologna. Although they immediately lifted the seige that same turn by sending a princess to my HRE Milan settlement and offering a ceasefire, they frightened all of the HRE citizens in nothern italy. They won't do that again, and several southern Holy Roman Empire citadels are in recruitment, and training mode.