How do you compose your HRE armies?

[Sloty]

I would like to hear composition for the early,middle and late game.

[AJenny58]

Horses, horses, and more horses. But then again that's how I compose most of my armies no matter who I'm playing as. But for my balanced armies I would bring a General and nine heavy cavalry units, maybe two units of archers/gunpowder, four units of spearmen and four units of heavy infantry. The spears go on the flanks, the heavy infantry in the middle, the cavalry on the wings, and the missile troops up front.

[cpt krunch13]

Horses, horses, and more horses. But then again that's how I compose most of my armies no matter who I'm playing as. But for my balanced armies I would bring a General and nine heavy cavalry units, maybe two units of archers/gunpowder, four units of spearmen and four units of heavy infantry. The spears go on the flanks, the heavy infantry in the middle, the cavalry on the wings, and the missile troops up front.

Same here man, with the horses I mean. They're just so darned effective, whoever was the first man that thought "I'm going to kill people while sitting on the back of that animal" was a genious.

As for how I build my HRE armies, or an army for that matter, I dont do anything special. I tend to completely forget about ranged units while doing open battles and just focus on all types of infantry and lots of cavalry. I also keep my armies small and mobile, I'm personally too easily distracted to have too many units to worry about, plus I find small armies more effective for their flexibility just make sure you got some good units to even out the numbers difference

[PrestigeX]

Early Period -

Fam. member, Mounted Sergeants 4 (armor upgrade easy to get), Mailed knights - 2-4 ,
6 peasant crossbows, 6 sergeant spearmen/spear militia.

Middle Game -

F.M. , 2 mounted sergeants, 6 armored sergeants, 3 dfk's, 4-6 Heavy Cav - 4 Pavise Crossbowmen, - then top off with extras of wte you like.

Late Game -

F.M. , 2 Gothic Knights, 4 Imperial Knights, 6 pavise crossbowmen, 2 Forlorn Hope, 4 Crossbow Cavalry, & fill up the rest with assorted infantry - pikes/halberds/spear militia full upgrade.

Or Gun Powder -

F.M. , 2 Gothics , 6 Arqueibusiers, 2 cannons/culverns wte (a cannon type thing), Zwei Handers/Pikes/Halberds, 6 Crossbow Cavalry -- fill out with extra arqueibusier or infantry.

[... where did it run?]

You can get teotonic knights very early from cities. Use them. One of the best cav units from start to the end (IMO better than gothic knights, who have no shields)

[FightInTheShade]

Early

Tons of mounted sergeants and mailed knights. With a couple Sergeant Spearmen & Peasant Crossbowmen sprinkled in.

Middle

Feudal Knights, Teutonic Knights, Dismounted Feudal Knights, Pavise Crossbowmen, 2 or 3 units of standard Spearmen for cleanup duty.

Late

Imperial Knights, Gothic Knights, Reiters, Dismounted Imperial Knights, Folorn Hope, Arquebusiers

[FightInTheShade]

You can get teotonic knights very early from cities. Use them. One of the best cav units from start to the end (IMO better than gothic knights, who have no shields)

I believe you need a Teutonic Guild House to get the Teutonic Knights early.

[cpt krunch13]

I believe you need a Teutonic Guild House to get the Teutonic Knights early.

This is true, whenever I play as HRE I am allowed to build a guild house in Hamburg just a turn or two after I capture it.

Edit: Wait, is it Hamburg? Sounds like something the HRE would start out with...I think I need to get back into Medieval, I've been in a RTW phase for months. Well whatever, its a city up north that I usually capture right off the bat, you get the picture.

[... where did it run?]

I believe you need a Teutonic Guild House to get the Teutonic Knights early.

yus, but you get an offer of a chapter house quite soon in first turns.

[crzyrndm]

Hamburg is the castle just south of the danes IIRC, and you do tend to get the teutonic guid very quickly there(Whats even better is how fast its population grows, always my first citadel)

HRE-6 armoured seargents, 6 DFK, 7 heaviest cav I can get, family member
I like to keep things simple

[Sloty]

How do you deploy your hre army on the battlefield?
What are the tasks for the different units?
Which special abbilities do you use?

[PrestigeX]

How do you deploy your hre army on the battlefield?
What are the tasks for the different units?
Which special abbilities do you use?

Infantry important for siege assaults -- 2-handers swords, halberds, imperial foot knights (maces) - but for field fighting just go with inexpensive infantry, their job is to protect your crossbowmen.

Pavise Crossbowman -- it's easy with HRE, they only get the one variety so use it and in strength - until you get guns. 4 - 6 units.

CAVALRY -- HRE has access to a lot of different types of Cavalry, this is their key strenght -- Knights with Maces (imperial/teutonic/gothic) -- and missile cavalry - Crossbow Horsemen, Reiters - Gun Horses.

You want to drive the enemy cavalry off the field, or slaughter them with your own cavalry. Use your Crossbowmen to shoot everyone else to death. Infantry's role is merely to protect the crossbows, and die in their place -- ie. Spear Militia dying is far cheaper to retrain than Pavise Xbowmen.

[Sloty]

Can someone draw me a little graph how you deploy your army on the battlefield?(using capitalized letters for the different unit types like in the formations threads)?

[crzyrndm]

Use spears as main line and if using DFK flank once enemy is engaged with the spears, if using crossbows just hold the line with the spears.
Cav hit anything not holding a pointy stick, preferably from behind(even better if target is stationary)

I don't think that one needs a diagram

[Sloty]

How can I see which units are upkeep free?

[Sloty]

How can I increase the number of free upkeep units in my settlements?

[Gavani]

How can I see which units are upkeep free?

The units that appear in a blue box are free whilst they are in the towns. You can increase this by building up your barracks which will be an option as the city size increases.

[Sloty]

Is there a list of which countries got excommunicated?

[Gavani]

Is there a list of which countries got excommunicated?

If you look at the Papal Favour screen which can be brought up on the faction overview button. I think that if the faction is on zero then they are excommunicated.

[Re_Minder]

Is there a list of which countries got excommunicated?

Check the Pope-o-meter, nations with exceptionally low standings tend to be excommunicated. Just hold the cursor over their bar and you'll see. It's usually nations with 2 or less marks.

How can I see which units are upkeep free?

Checking export_descr_units is the easiest way IMO.

How can I increase the number of free upkeep units in my settlements?

Upgrading walls is pretty much the only way in vanilla if I remember well. Some mods also make fairgrounds, chapter houses, or leader traits that increase free upkeep slots, but that really depends on what you play.