Playing as HRE

[Farnan]

Now whats the secret to these guys, I love their units, but I always get destroyed by everyone trying to kill me.

My current strategy is to capture Hamburg and give it to the Pope to neutralise the Danes, but the Venecians and Milanese still keep bugging me...

[Shaun]

The Milanese and Venetian's bother everyone appart from each other, until they then go to war with each other. In amm my campaigns the Northern Italians have been *****y towards me diplomatically, and if they border me they are always the first to declare war. Whats worse is that they have the best early units, Italian spear milita 7 attack and 13 defence, almost as good as the armoured sergeants!

[Hurricane]

I made alliances with every faction that bordered me, took Florence, Venice attacked first so I attacked them back taking over a poorly defended Venice and their other region in mainland Europe, expelling them to their last region in Crete.

Then Milan attacked me so I took over Milan and Genoa (Milan still holds Dijon and Angers sp?), Hungary keeps besieging my poorly garrisoned cites in the east (I can't really afford large garrisons) so I keep on having to send a relief army to lift the sieges, Sicily keeps sending quite small but elite armies (dismounted Norman knights etc) at my fortresses in Northern Italy but keep getting repelled by my garrisons or a relief army.

Denmark is at war with me, I got them excommunicated but then the Pope died the next year! (what are the chances of that? lol), I took Hamburg from them and now France has declared war on me but hasn't sent a single army at me yet. The Byzantines are also at war with me, they managed to take that castle off me in the Balkans but I managed to take back from them, their horse archer armies are the toughest armies I've fought so far in my HRE campaign.

[Farnan]

I think if you form a marriage alliance with a nation they won't betray you. I've entered into one with Sicily, and its been about 50-60 turns and not a single attack on Balogne...

[Hurricane]

I think if you form a marriage alliance with a nation they won't betray you. I've entered into one with Sicily, and its been about 50-60 turns and not a single attack on Balogne...

Yeah, I forget to use my princesses, I'll have to try and get a good alliance going when my next princess comes of age.

[Farnan]

Yeah, I forget to use my princesses, I'll have to try and get a good alliance going when my next princess comes of age.

Wow, one of the greastes things in the game just happened. I forced the pope to go to war with Milan. I allied with the papacy early on, and gave them military access. Well a papal army was adjacent to a Milanese army, and I attacked the Milanese and the pope was forced to join in. Now the Papacy is at war with Milan...

[Hurricane]

Wow, one of the greastes things in the game just happened. I forced the pope to go to war with Milan. I allied with the papacy early on, and gave them military access. Well a papal army was adjacent to a Milanese army, and I attacked the Milanese and the pope was forced to join in. Now the Papacy is at war with Milan...

LOL That was really lucky and should help you out quite a bit.


What battle tactics are people usually using for the HRE? most of the time I just put my spear units in a line with peasant archers/crossbowmen behind them, some dismounted feudal knights on the flanks, mailed knights on the far flanks. I fire a few volleys at the enemy, sent the mailed knights around the back of enemy, move my spear units and dismounted feudal knights near to the enemy to provoke an attack, my spear units take the impact while my dismounted feudal knights charge into their flanks and then slam my mailed knights into the back of their army, a really simple tactic I know but I don't really have much to work with at the moment with the early HRE unit roster, I can't wait to get zwei handers and ruiters.

[SIlver General65]

I found its cool how bolgana upgrades in like the frist 10 turns and so convert it to a castle and it will turn to a fortress this will give you a head start as the your city is now at the same level as the italians bnow you get fuedal knights now you have an upper hand above all europeans till the spanish turns into one shortly so youse that and garrison your cities with dismounts so also rush north and then east a slittle slowly cause diverting most forces might be problematic even though bolgana is puming out it cant make your own army as they come slowly though useful in a war as the italians will at most this time have catles not fortress also win they get forteress by then you should have inss burg and stafuen as fortress and bolgana a citadel so its key for me

[Farnan]

Well mine depends on the enemy. My tactic against Milan is to bumrush them as they have a huge amount of Genose Crossbowmen and I need to close the distance quickly were my heavy armor helps the most. Against others, well my strategy changes, but the hammer and anvil is still old reliable.

[Meretrix]

I love the HRE but I don’t like where they start, so on the 1st turn I deserted every one of my cities and moved every one of my family members and military units to the coast where I hired some merc ships and sailed to England. Within a few turns I had the whole of the British Isles and surprisingly all my cities I had abandoned were still doing fine so I built them up. I had half of Europe very quickly. The Pope excommunicated me but they reconciled so it’s all good.

[vavaboom]

I've already completed a grand campaign on hard/med as the HRE. Everybody who plays this game seems want to please the pope an incredible amount, i didn't bother with him. Right until the end i was excommunicated continually, excommunication had very little effect on me, apart from all the other catholic factions that bordered me were now at war with me.

To succeed as the HRE you really have to be good at fighting a lot of battles and expanding in every direction. On reflection i suppose i should have taken over Italy a lot sooner, the countless battles with the Milanese, Venetians and Sicilians Were tiresome. Hungary and franced betrayed me. Hungary was forever mounting assaults on vienna, which were always repelled becuase for some reason i had about 5 generals holed up there, none of which were very good so i used their bodygaurds kamikaze warriors, hell, it was quite effective. Eventually i took Budapest and then they were forever mounting assaults on that. I made florence into a fortress to help produce the armys needed in Northen Italy. After countless battles the french were eventually weakened, and only had meagre garrisons in rheins and Paris, My trio of fortresses Bern, Staufen and Metz produced a French invasion force in just 1 turn, soon Paris and Rheins were under my control which signalled the End for France. It soon was completely under my control, and now i had such a good economy, Poland, England, Denmark... pretty much all the catholic factions. All of Europe bar Spain is now under my control. The armys of the Reich are sitting comfortably in northern Spain and have the pope's blessing to exterminate them. Armys full to the brim with gothic knights and reiters were ready to take over spain.

In the holy land i only took 3 provinces, Anioch, Aleppo and Adana. Antioch has fallen to the Mogols and now i'm facing a series of incredibly long battles against the mongols.

And i completely control the Pope. It's only my cardinals in the college of cardinals and he hates the remaining few catholic factions for daring to even insult me. Life is good...

And i did it all by turn 100.

[Farnan]

You're quite fast...

I'm slower...

I found the secret is to neutralise your enemies one by one. First I neutralised the Danes early by capturing Hamburg and giving it to the Pope. Soon after the Venitians attacked me, and I neutralised them by quickly taking Venice and Zagrab. Then Milan betrayed me, and i neutralised them by taking (and sacking) Milan and Genoa. At that point I had enough money that I don't need to worry about money much more. Then Sicily betrayed me and I destroyed them. Now I control all of Italy minus Rome. Now I have to neutralise both Hungary and Portugal, but I now have the money to do that.

[Hurricane]

In my campaign I pushed north and south at the same time, Sicily is very weak now and stuck on the island of Sicily and Denmark only has Oslo left and I've got an army on the way from Stockholm to capture it. With Sicily and Denmark destroyed I will have 2 spare armies to reinforce my borders and then go on the offensive, the Byzantines are the only faction giving me a hard time at the moment, they have about 3 stacks of horse archers, ballistas, catapults and spearmen in the Balkans and have captured one of my castles there by overwhelming the garrison with 2 stacks.

Portugal and Milan are attacking me from the west but they aren't really a problem, plus I've used some surplus money to get friendly with the Pope and called a crusade on Pamplona which is in Portuguese control at the moment.

[Spartan Merc]

Change your starting position.

Least that is what I did.

From the start I took all my troops from the Northern lands and moved down and conquered Venice. I only kept troops in Innsbruck and Bologna. After I took Venice and Florence, I then went on to crush the annoying Milan. As Milan always bugs the crap out of me, I decided finishing them early would be a big help.

After I had Milan, Genoa, Venice, Bologna, Innsbruck, and Florence I let all my Northern Cities riot ( I kept on low tax rate while taking southern lands.) Except for Staufen castle, which I gave to the Pope. Then I took Rome.

So now the pope lives up in Staufen, I have no irratating Milanese to attack me, and I now control the Italian lands all the down to Palermo even. I'm free to build up, with only the Venetians rarely bothering me, and the Florins are rolling in.

I'm loving it.

HRE ftw!

Oh, and I have to add, Reiters are the best!

[arnel98]

i didnt find HRE difficult on my campaign VH/VH.
I just took Milan, Genoa, Florence, Sicily and Antwerp the first 7 turns and its been smooth sailing afterwards...
You just have to win battles where you are outnumbered to take those cities....

[eventhorizen]

Expand North and crush the Danes instantly, taking all their territories, while you turn your original northern most provinces into a border ring of castles and cities.

Screw the Pope, give him nothing.

[fiveswords]

I'm playing HRE at medium/medium, second try, currently in turn 44. Below are a few things which I think are useful/important in the game if you're starting as HRE.

As you're surrounded by possible enemies (France, Poland, Hungary, Venice etc.) it is important that you get yourself into a strong position very early in the game by playing very aggressive, ensuring you have a good income and strong borders at the same time.

1. Use the starting army north of Frankfurt to sack Hamburg (just siege it from turn 1-6, then you can easily defeat your opponents in the field when they charge at you from their gates).

2. Get a hold on Prague, Magdeburg, Stettin and possibly Metz (all rebel provinces if you get there early enough) asap. You can siege Prague very early in the game (first few turns) with the starting units from Nuremberg, Innsbruck and Vienna. You need to train a few additional ones, but you can bring them in once Prague is under siege. Then just wait a few turns until the rebels in Prague attack you, defeat them and claim the province.

3. Transform Prague, Stettin and Hamburg (if not already done) into castles, Metz and Magdeburg into normal towns. Leave Vienna as a town but with a strong garrison.

4. Make sure you give away trade rights to all neighbours early on to lay foundations of later diplomatic relationships.

5. Cross the Alps early in the game to get Florence and Bologna, which both are rebel provinces in the first 15 or so turns of the game (if you're to slow they will go to Venice or Milan - and that will lose you a lot of mid-game cash when these towns give ~2200 per turn on normal tax level).

6. Secure your borders by building watchtowers and making allies with Venice (they are useful early on but will most likely betray you after a few years, so be prepared to defend Bologna and Vienna), Poland (so far they didn't betray me), France (they asked me to become their ally) Hungary (asked me), Denmark and Milan other factions further away (trade rights initially, then dare to ask for more).

7. Exploit taxes. Early on you can set almost every town, even without a general staying in it, to high tax level. Bling bling!

8. Sometimes it's useful to let the enemy come to you rather than looking for him. If you fight off invaders this will have a weaker/no impact on your international reputation as if you would constantly invade provinces at your borders. Nobody wants to be allied with an unreliable imperialist.

This is what I did so far. By sacking Stettin, Magdeburg and Prague you create a relatively safe and straight border to Poland, and by transforming Stettin and Prague into castles (which you continuously improve ofc) they provide you with all that is necessary to respond to any invasions that might come from the east.
Prague as a strong castle is an important cornerstone of the eastern border - it often sends reinforcements to Vienna (or it did, when Venice first betrayed my, but I sent them to hell and reduced troop numbers afterwards).

Florence and Bologna are two nice towns that will provide you with large sums of money. They also give you access to Italy and the Mediterranean Sea (which might be useful later in the game).

After I took the town Venice and won several battles against their armies, countries like Hungary, France and the Byzantine Empire offered me trade rights and alliances.

I always had a weak reputation with the Pope (as I seldomly build chapels or anything like that early in the game, I focused on barracks, markets etc.).
After demanding that my heir would join a crusade, which he did because I feared excommunication, I placed the crusader's army next to one of Venice and lost the battle that followed the next turn (because I thought catholics are unable to attack catholic crusades, but obviously I was wrong). This led to excommunication of Venice, which I took as an opportunity to ask the Pope to become my ally in exchange for me attacking the heretic Venice.
Problem solved, Venice is going down and I have the perfect legitimation to increase my empire and wipe a competitor off the map. This improved my reputation with the Pope from weak (2-3 crosses) to the maximum (10 I think). A few turns ago I also managed to become Pope, having two cardinals and the votes of my dear neighbours and long-time partners France, Hungary, Poland, Milan, the Pope and Denmark on my side.

Currently I'm sieging Zagreb and Denmark.

In towns I focused on improving trade by building markets, roads, strong defenses, buildings related to diplomacy, trading and espionage and a nice garrison. Nuremberg and Hamburg provide my empire with siege units.
In castles the focus lies on spearmen and any improved version of them, armored knights, improved armour.

After losing my victorious emperor Henry the Fighter early to the Holy Inquisition I also started to build a lot of chapels and priests.

You can send merchants to the amber deposits in eastern Poland and further into the northeast. Seldomly occupied, they enable your merchants to improve their skill without being bothered by other merchants and make around ~150 per turn.

Hope that helps.
FS

[parvus]

um how do u get forlorn hope?

[El Hamburglo]

From the highest city hall building. They're cool but you only get half as many in a unit as Zweihander. They excell at taking walls with ladders.

1st thing you should do is disband most of your excess armies until you've built the free upkeep militia buildings. It'll keep your cash flowing a bit longer at the start.

If you really want to, you can whomp the Danes in the 1st handful of turns if you attack Arhus with the northern army, the northern most general and some mercs. If you leave them too long they can turn into a real handful (to be honest, this is exactly why I leave them to it - epic battles guarenteed!)

[Sniper]

My biggest problem with HRE is that i'm almost going negative on Florines
Because i need/have big armys... :hmmm:

Anyone know how to solve it? (The money problem)