What to expect when playing as the HRE.

**Silver Legionary** · September 09, 2012, 08:27 PM

Using Savage AI, BTW.

First things first, I got a ceasefire with His Holiness, so that shouldn't be an issue right away.
My finances are good right now, and they can only get better once I start building mines and/or
proper infrastructure; I know that since I've heard how good the HRE has it if the player
consolidates and turtles correctly.
Their roster isn't a problem at any point in the game
considering I'm using a recent(and heavily self-modded)
version of the HURB submod; I should be fine on that end.

One question I do have:
I should be constantly wary of multiple attacks from any and every direction,
sometimes in places I can't reach immediately with help, right?

**Lord Blackfyre** · September 09, 2012, 08:46 PM

my favourite faction,
although im new to the forum im a seasoned stainless steel player, i always try and get a marriage alliance early on with france as they are fantastic at keeping your west flank secure, just dont forget to grease their palm with regular cash to keep the alliance solid.
Also staying on the right side of the pope helps immeasurably so i try to keep a diplomat around rome for when papal favour drops too low due to your only enemies being catholic.
Poland will generally ally with hungary so if you plan on expanding east then that front will be a tough and long war.
To the south i like to take milan to help support bologna at the very beginning. In ssmap bologna starts as a large town and can thus be changed to a castle, not sure about vanilla 6.4, doing so allows you to militarily dominate northern italy.
Expansion north is also possible but the scandinavian lands are relatively poor when compared with italy.

Whatever direction you choose to expand you dont want to leave the job half finished as fighting on all fronts or even just 3 can be very tough without a very strong economy. Take the entire italian peninsular or all of scandinavia and your golden for a great conquest of the east.

**Silver Legionary** · September 09, 2012, 09:07 PM

I forgot to mention that the Reich starts with Milan in HURB, lol.
@keeping on France's good side: I'll keep that in mind, didn't think of an alliance.
I just assumed I'd be Charlemagne 2.0, lol

@diplomat near Rome: On my to-do list.
If there's one gripe I have with the HRE, it's that they don't have a reliable(read:Superior or better)
missile unit outside of mercenaries or AoR units(another HURB specialty).

Who were good archers outside of Armenians, Englishmen(longbowmen LOL), Turks,
and Steppe peoples during the Middle ages?

**Lord Blackfyre** · September 10, 2012, 04:30 AM

sorry didn't realise you were playing hurb, if you already hold Milan and Bologna then id recommend taking Italy, you then have a relatively secure and very lucrative base from which you can attack pretty much anywhere on the . also the king of Rome should really control Rome don't you think?
nah it seems wrong to assault your frankish brothers, at least early in the campaign.
as for archers, mourtatoi is an aor in Greece in ssmap, not sure about hurb, they are one of my favourites as excellent range, stakes plus not being terrible in helps too. closer to home the Norse archers aren't great with their now but have nice ap axes as a secondary.
watch out for polish cavalry as the later the came gets the better they become

**Lord Blackfyre** · September 10, 2012, 04:32 AM

stupid phone autocorrect.
you can attack anywhere on the Mediterranean.
mourtatoi not being terrible in melee.
and Norse archers aren't great with their bow.

**Gogolometro** · September 10, 2012, 06:23 AM

I play myself HRE this week. On Fair Prince submod what change a lot the map. My plan was simple, a migration to more sunny places.
I was in a half a century invasion in Iberia, but Castile eject me from there.
I control the old carataginese places, Tunis and the castle bellow, plus I kicked Sicily for their lands.
I recovered Bologna and I get it Verona and Venice.
My new invasion is on Ragusa, taken from Serbia.

I done that because I was tired of constant wars with Poland and Hungary. I hope Danemark will have constant war with France for my former borders. By the way my plan is a comeback in Germania.

The good think is in this migration abandon of pretty basic settlements for cities like Palermo and Tunis. Great asset. Easy to play on other strategy.

Bad choices? Papacy have 5 provinces like in the bad games 2 years ago, and I am not in pope grace. No teutons in my army. But is a great campaign. Better than my migration with HRE in Greece or Britannia.

**Roachbugg** · September 10, 2012, 09:04 AM

Ah the first Reich i have plenty of advice to offer on this front. If you already have a strong hold in Italy take Italy straight away and exile the dirty annoying pope to Corsica. After that you could go north for Scandinavia but be weary that if you attack the papal states you will likely be at war with all of christendom. I'd recommend taking down Poland and Hungary ASAP if you let them get late professional troops they can be quite a pain after you have knocked them out you should have a roaring economy and several stacks of troops You can go further east from here but be warned the you may wind up in a drawn out war with the Khan when the mongols invade. I usually turn south and attack Byzantium Constantinople is a very rich city and almost irresistible. Also be sure to move your capital to the center of your empire after you expand. Now that all of eastern Europe is in your grasp you can either steam roll the french or head to Iberia fighting late period fights in Iberia can be difficult for the HRE however because of things like pikes and quality crossbow troops. If neither France nor Iberia strike your France then go for the holy land fighting with the Fatimid Caliphate and the Turks always provides a nice fight and if you took the Byzantines out you can hit the Turks on two fronts.

I realize this is a very general strategy but in term of long term goals it what I'd recommend.

**Lord Blackfyre** · September 10, 2012, 10:55 AM

Good strategy, I tend to avoid going east until I know my economy can take it and I have secured north and south borders, hre late era troops aren't too shabby themselves and with Scandinavia and Italy as launch points you can to a 3 prong attack, the whole strategy rests on France guarding your back though. When attacking Greece I like to do it from the south using ships, same since rtw. Helps you to avoid being swarmed, Bari really helps with that. Watch out for byzies though as the average Roman troop will destroy your militia and even your early pros like light swordsmen.