HRE or Spain?

[ivan55599]

so I started hotseat early era campaing. I'm Leon and friend is byzantion. but should I have chosen HRE instead of Spain? I know army-side differences of them, and starting positions (oh well, if Leon=in worst case versus moors, portugal, aragonia, france. HRE=france, danmark, venice, genoa, poland, hungary). I couldnt decide, and he said I should start with spain. but after that I began to wonder, if I shoud have chosen HRE?
right now I'm uniting spain, and he is... war with egypt, turks, venice, sicily, hungary while trying unite catholics and orthodoxes

[ShadowKiller2000]

Well HRE is more a favorite of mine than Leon. Better overall roster, similar position being surronded on all sides. As you are allied with the Romans, it may have been easier as the HRE as you could expand to their border and each have one safe side to not worry about attacks.

That being said, as HRE you would have to fight all catholic nations in order to expand. Leon can knock the moors out and make the pope happy.

It is a mixed bag, but I would say both choices will be fun.

[Tears of Destiny]

As Spain you have a good defensible position to hold Iberia once you take it, so after Absorbing Aragon and Portugal, you can expand down into the moors while plotting that English Invasion that Spain always wanted to do.

[Ichon]

HRE can be much more frustrating if you never played it before so up to you if you want that in a hotseat. Leon is the easiest Catholic Spanish faction and decent roster plus access to lots of income- more than HRE in early game even so should let you compete with Byz if you are racing or want a ultimate 1 vs 1 showdown.

[Asterix]

i am partial to leon-castile. while their military isn't anything special, they have a fairly secure starting position. the other Catholics there and the Moors won't be too much of a problem if taken care of in good time, and the pyrenees effectively block you from most dangers. Also, owning all of Iberia is very lucrative, and owning north africa even more so. And of course, you can finish up that whole Armada business that Philip II failed to complete. If you plan well, you shouldn't have trouble fighting on many fronts, unlike the HRE, which is surrounded on all sides by people who want the emperor's head on a silver platter. their unit roster is undoubtely better and in a one on one war the HRE will probably win, but the nations of Europe have a special thing against the empire and will gang up and swallow it. (btw, how are you at war with Hungary????)

[ivan55599]

(btw, how are you at war with Hungary????)

after edit: "right now I'm uniting spain agaist moors, and he (as byz) is... war with egypt, turks, venice, sicily and hungary, while trying @ same time unite catholics and orthodoxes without contemptuous pope"