HRE and religion

[Azedeco]

So I recently came back to EU4 and started a game with Austria. When the reform launched I stayed catholic but as every prince became protestants there was a huge malus in Imperial authority. As the empire's dominant religion was catholic I converted to protestant as I told myself it would change the dominant religion. It didn't change it and I still have a huge loss of Imperial Authority. Do you guys know how to change the dominant religion of the HRE? Also they keep wanting to vote for me as emporor even though I am now of a different faith than the dominant one isn't it a bug?

[Inardesco]

You have to wait for the Religious/30 years war to fire in the HRE.

[Azedeco]

Originally posted by Inardesco:

You have to wait for the Religious/30 years war to fire in the HRE.

Thanks for your answer, but isn't this an exclusive feature of Art of War?

[Inardesco]

Should not be. Its a historical event.

[black pencil green pencil]

just wait religious war, win war and no problems

[grotaclas]

The religious leagues and the league war are a feature of the Art of War DLC[eu4.paradoxwikis.com]. I think without the DLC, heretic princes are all the princes which have a different religion than the emperor(the imperial authority calculation takes a month to update). But the dominant faith tooltip seems to be broken. It is not clearly defined in the game what the dominant faith actually means and IIRC even with the DLC the tooltip sometimes displays a religion which is neither the official faith nor the official unchangeable faith nor the faith of the emperor, nor the faith of the majority of princes nor the faith of the majority of the HRE development.

Edit: added a link to show that the leagues are a DLC feature

[Marquoz]

If you really want to do well as Austria in an HRE game, stay Catholic and crush the Reformation. Every time a center of reformation spawns, attack. If a one-province minor owns it, force religion in the peace treaty. That will destroy the center. If a larger nation owns it, take that province, core it, and convert it yourself as soon as you can.

I've played Austria more than any other nation--it's been my favorite in every patch. I can Revoke the Priviligia in the 1550 to 1600 range consistently using this approach (while also maximizing authority gain by keeping the number of princes high, not letting Italy leave, having 12 Free Cities at all times, bringing all provinces ruled by nations outside the Empire back into its control, and being re-elected every time, of course).

[mcv]

Careful with that last advice. Apparently if you Proclaim the Erbkaisertum before the League Wars, you can apparently never get an official, unchangeable faith, and therefore not finish the Holy Empire mission.

Because I did all of this and revoked before 1600, and now I'm apparently unable to complete that mission and get the AEIOU achievement.

Also, uniting the Empire too early will destroy your governing capacity. Maybe it's better to take it slow.

[grotaclas]

Originally posted by mcv:

Careful with that last advice. Apparently if you Proclaim the Erbkaisertum before the League Wars, you can apparently never get an official, unchangeable faith, and therefore not finish the Holy Empire mission.

The mission A Holy Empire[eu4.paradoxwikis.com] can also be finished by converting every HRE member to Austria's state religion.

[Marquoz]

Exactly. And converting every HRE member to Catholic is something I always do anyway, so it's guaranteed.

As for "uniting the Empire too early destroying my governing capacity," who says I unite it? I pass all the other reforms and use the vassal swarm, which is much stronger.

[mcv]

I've come across different claims about this. Most people say that if you proclaim the Erbkaisertum too early, you're out of luck and can't finish it, but this is the second time I've come across people claiming you can still get it by converting all HRE members, which gives me hope.

So is this just about converting the state religions of all HRE princes, or do I actually need to convert all their provinces? The former is trivial, because I can simply force them through the subject screen. The latter would take a lot of work, especially since two Iberian centers of reformation keep converting HRE provinces all over the western Empire. I need to figure out a way to get a CB on them.

[Inardesco]

When they have good relations with you, they tend to accept your request for religious unity quicker than if they hate you

[grotaclas]

Originally posted by mcv:

So is this just about converting the state religions of all HRE princes, or do I actually need to convert all their provinces?

Converting their state religion is enough. Converting the provinces is not needed. But the council of trent must be finished and the reformation must have started at least 50 years ago. The council of trent sometimes is a problem if the player fights the reformation too successfully. Then it might never happen

[mcv]

Originally posted by Inardesco:

When they have good relations with you, they tend to accept your request for religious unity quicker than if they hate you

Since I revoked the privilegia, they don't have the option to deny it. I can force their religion and their liberty desire goes up. Most HRE members have a very low liberty desire, though.

(Only my non-HRE vassals suddenly have an extremely high liberty desire, probably because they count on the support from my HRE-vassal swam.)

Originally posted by grotaclas:

But the council of trent must be finished and the reformation must have started at least 50 years ago. The council of trent sometimes is a problem if the player fights the reformation too successfully. Then it might never happen

Wasn't the council of Trent about the counter reformation? I did get an event some time ago that opened up the option of embracing the counter reformation. Or is that something else?

[Inardesco]

Originally posted by mcv:

Originally posted by Inardesco:

When they have good relations with you, they tend to accept your request for religious unity quicker than if they hate you

Since I revoked the privilegia, they don't have the option to deny it. I can force their religion and their liberty desire goes up. Most HRE members have a very low liberty desire, though.

I know its an overlord option to force religion, but being the emperor you also have a diplomatic option to impose religious unity on the HRE members.

[grotaclas]

Originally posted by mcv:

Wasn't the council of Trent about the counter reformation? I did get an event some time ago that opened up the option of embracing the counter reformation. Or is that something else?

Yes, it is about the counter reformation, but there should be at least two events/notifications about the council. You can look at the bottom of the papacy window. If the council is ungoing it should look like in this screenshot[eu4.paradoxwikis.com]. If it was finished, it should just show the images for the four chosen concessions. And if it didn't happen, there is no council of trent section in the papacy window. You can also see if it finished by looking at the tooltip for the Holy Empire mission. The last condition should have a green checkmark in that case