Holy Roman Empire Playthrough (1-20)

[Kewlipo]

This is not a guide, but rather me sharing my experience playing as the HRE. I am not a crazy record-breaking kind of player, so this is just for fun!

Spoiler :

1, 2, 3: This is the grand Holy Roman Empire that I have built over the past few centuries! Madrid has recently been captured, and my eyes are now set on the Caliphate of Cordoba.





4: We will be spending some time training Trebuchets and Landsknechts.



5: My eyes are also set on the small viking town of Nidaros, something I skipped over in my conquest of Scandinavia.



6: For some context, Germany is my main money and military powerhouse. Its huge core eliminate some of the expansion stability problems as well. France too is where I pump out military units.



7: The Ottomans might be a problem...



8: On the other hand, stability won’t be!



9: The Mongolians demand gold? Never!



10: I am planning on developing another city in Scandinavia.



11: If we are to defeat the Ottomans later, strong allies might help.



12: We have become the Habsburg Empire! (Unfortunately, we have no Valois to fight. )



13: I forgot to mention earlier that we completed a quest that promoted all of our knights to Flanking I, a powerful improvement.



14: And it's war!



15:



16: Rest in peace, brave defenders of Cordoba.



17: Cordoba is ours!



18: The Moors capitulate.



19: A Great Artist? We will save her for later.



20: Our medic heals up our armies swiftly, preparing for an invasion of Portugal.

I will continue the playthrough when I have time.

This is my first playthrough post, and if you have any ideas for improvements or tweaks, please share. Thanks.

Edit #1: Included everything in spoilers, I will tune down the resolution for smaller pictures next time. Sorry!
Edit #2: Numbered each picture.

 

[Kewlipo]

21-30 are also 1920x1080, so I will include this session in spoilers as well.

Spoiler :

21: Another Great Person?



22: We shall let him establish an academy in the thriving scientific city of Paris.



23: We have declared war on Portugal! I did not see the Portuguese knights hiding in the boot of Italy, however. Reserve garrisons from Venice and Marseille are moved to Rome, in case of a surprise attack.



24: Lisboa has been captured, without a single loss.



25: That’s vassal number four.



26: We have full control over the Apostolic Palace. Perhaps a Catholic Religious Victory is in order?



27: We are training inquisitors to remove the Islam from Cordoba, while training missionaries to convert the Moors to Catholicism.



28: I didn't even need to train missionaries, it spread by itself!



29: Another devout Catholic land!



30: Genghis Khan? Pantheon?



31: Picking up Neapolis for the Dye.



32: Neapolis has been captured with the loss of a single Knight.



33: Acquiring Nidaros.



34: Nidaros has been razed. We will have to build another city here later.



35: Out with the heathens!



36: We are training many Musketmen with Pinch to handle the Ottoman Janissaries.



37: Versailles brings us a Golden Age, massively increasing our commerce!



38: We have switched to Fanticism and Standing Army for a massive boost to our war machine.



39: Another Great Scientist!



40: Our prestigious group of Knights have been upgraded to Cuirassiers. The invasion of the Ottomans will soon begin!

I have moved back to 1600x900, I think that will be better. Any thoughts or opinions so far?

 

[calad]

Are you aiming to UHV?

 

[Publicola]

As a fellow amateur (so take my advice as you will), my main thoughts at the moment are:

1) why would you go so far out of your way to settle Nidaros? What does it do for you?
and
2) you do know that there's a hard cap for number of vassals, and the hard cap is 4? That's why it's important to select your vassals carefully, so they contribute the most to your power. Poland is a questionable case (depending on whether you help it push back the Russians); Spain is generally very good due to its future colonial empire; Portugal is pretty good as well though there's a lot of overlap with Spain's empire; but the Moors don't really do much for you. Sure it secures the Straits of Gibraltar (the opening to the Mediterranean), but that's short term, and not really helpful at the moment. Better to leave a slot open so you can vassalize the Turks or Russians later on, depending on which one you conquer.

 

[Shadow Warlord]

I want to see what happens to your empire when Prussia spawns later.

 

[Drag0wn]

As a fellow amateur (so take my advice as you will), my main thoughts at the moment are:

1) why would you go so far out of your way to settle Nidaros? What does it do for you?
and
2) you do know that there's a hard cap for number of vassals, and the hard cap is 4? That's why it's important to select your vassals carefully, so they contribute the most to your power. Poland is a questionable case (depending on whether you help it push back the Russians); Spain is generally very good due to its future colonial empire; Portugal is pretty good as well though there's a lot of overlap with Spain's empire; but the Moors don't really do much for you. Sure it secures the Straits of Gibraltar (the opening to the Mediterranean), but that's short term, and not really helpful at the moment. Better to leave a slot open so you can vassalize the Turks or Russians later on, depending on which one you conquer.

In the current version of the svn, I have a Greece game where I have 6 vassals. I'm not sure if it's a bug or not, but you can go over 4 vassals (4 capitulations and 2 offered in my case).

 

[mateyson]

I want to see what happens to your empire when Prussia spawns later.

Author (of branch), to the answer!)