Might makes Reich!

[0))crayola))>]

From my experience, the best way to play as the HRE is to play agressively right from turn one. I send all my generals and their garrisons out immediately to grab all the rebel lands to the east: Stettin, Breslau, Prague, Magdeburg, and Hamburg (to the north) I will also send a garrison to Metz to act as a buffer from the French. It is also essential to turn Bologna to a castle ASAP, as it soon turns into a fortress upgrade and will serve as a bastion from which to train dismounted knights, and a ready defence against Milan and Venice. Once my castle in Bologna is complete, I send a small force south to occupy Florence. I usually starve all rebel garrisons into submission and butcher them when they try and sally out to face me. By making an alliance with both the papacy and sicily, you should have the begining of a great empire that would make Hitler blush....

[Cronis]

What I do is just blindside Poland immediately all the way to Kiev, take Hamburg and garrison it. Convert Frankfurt to a castle, ally with France and Venice, destroy Milan, deal with France and MAYBE Hungary and Spain/Portugal/Moors. Rest is cake.

[eventhorizen]

I do the opposite, knocking down every building and cranking up the tax on all my southern lands, tuning nuremburg into a castle and aggresivlly expanding north and east, allied to France.

Its almost impossible for anyone to storm your territory after you exterminate the Danes if you have 3-4 armies. After that, well just pillage East, and as long as you are prepared for the Mongolgs, you can storm Europe at leisure.