is it worth creating more HRE princes?

[hottwiz]

So in my Spain game i took the HRE late, with zero reforms. i have only passed once since i took the emperor-ship.
I need more Imperial Authority (IA), is it wise to return provinces to create OPMS to add more princes to the empire?
Any tips would be great. i'm trying to do a world conquest as Spain, i figured diplomatically taking over Europe would be wise well i military take over the rest of the world.

[Justintrouble8]

Yes create as many countries as possible in the HRE, and as many free city's which require them to only have one province. Heretic princes are more than likely doing far more damage though. You should focus on converting Protestants to catholic for a much bigger IA boost.

Another small tip for the Empire is to build churches in all capitals of the hre bishopric. Every bishopric has a mission tree that upgrades a church in their capital to a cathedral making the hre more powerful as there is a lot of bishoprics.

[hottwiz]

Originally posted by Justintrouble8:

Yes create as many countries as possible in the HRE, and as many free city's which require them to only have one province. Heretic princes are more than likely doing far more damage though. You should focus on converting Protestants to catholic for a much bigger IA boost.

Another small tip for the Empire is to build churches in all capitals of the hre bishopric. Every bishopric has a mission tree that upgrades a church in their capital to a cathedral making the hre more powerful as there is a lot of bishoprics.

I maxed out free city right away, i started working on converting everyone right away, only 8 left to convert by force once the peace treaties are expired. The empire is a Catholic Empire for that 25% bonus to IA.

Cool, i'll look up the mission but i don't think i can build for them. also its 1640s so they can build the cathedrals themselves now.

My only worry now is release nations that have cores on me such as old vassals and provinces i need for missions.

[Justintrouble8]

Yeah too late for that tip sorry, I just send them a gift and they usually build it. It takes them forever to do it by themselves so I find it worth it to do as theirs like 15 of them and they get +1 stability too.

[Justintrouble8]

Surprised you aren't doing glitches to get IA if your doing a world conquest. I remember some guy adding hre provinces to a trade company, thus getting them out of the hre, taking them out of the company and re-adding to the hre, and doing it over and over again when it came off cooldown.

Also, if you take the capital of a big country, add it to the hre, give it back to them. Take their new capital in another war, their capital will switch to the hre capital again and then join the hre.

[Marquoz]

Adding individual provinces to the HRE no longer gives imperial authority (probably because of exploits like the one you just listed). Adding nations does, however, and is worthwhile.

And yes, creating OPMs and other small princes out of large HRE nations is standard practice. The number of nations is the biggest single component of IA gain, so maximize it. I also recommend grabbing Prague from Bohemia (or whoever owns it in your campaign) and upgrading the monument there.

[edd]

Fastest way to pass reforms is conquering land in France Poland Ottomans etc. and releasing vassals. Vassals automatically joins HRE and you get instant IA. The key point is their capital have to be in Europe and capital should be adjacent to empire provinces. You can easily pass 3-4 reforms by this strategy. Here is a video about Austria gameplay and fast revoke strategy if you are interested in passing reforms. At 24.30 demonstration of strategy is showed by "ThePlaymaker" that I have explained previously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NSyu1Jl6Nw

[hottwiz]

Originally posted by edd:

Fastest way to pass reforms is conquering land in France Poland Ottomans etc. and releasing vassals. Vassals automatically joins HRE and you get instant IA. The key point is their capital have to be in Europe and capital should be adjacent to empire provinces. You can easily pass 3-4 reforms by this strategy. Here is a video about Austria gameplay and fast revoke strategy if you are interested in passing reforms. At 24.30 demonstration of strategy is showed by "ThePlaymaker" that I have explained previously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NSyu1Jl6Nw

thank you i will check it out :)

[joiss90]

Originally posted by edd:

Fastest way to pass reforms is conquering land in France Poland Ottomans etc. and releasing vassals. Vassals automatically joins HRE and you get instant IA. The key point is their capital have to be in Europe and capital should be adjacent to empire provinces. You can easily pass 3-4 reforms by this strategy. Here is a video about Austria gameplay and fast revoke strategy if you are interested in passing reforms. At 24.30 demonstration of strategy is showed by "ThePlaymaker" that I have explained previously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NSyu1Jl6Nw

You can also go with Mercenary + Influence Ideas policy which allowes you to create client states. So after you have conquered enough and have enough Reforms you release as many OPM client states as possible to increase your monthly Imperial Authority yes you will get to -999 diplo points but it will be solved when you get the reform that makes HRE hereditary (and makes HRE vassals no longer cost diplo slots)

You can also use the return province button which costs 10 prestige to return a province which can create new OPM if the tag the province is returned to do not exist (like if you inherit Hungary you can choose one of the low development provinces that has been added to the HRE and return it to hungary creating a OPM)

Spamming out HRE OPMs is very powerful though also very bad for performance so if you don't have a good PC it is not recommended