Best/Quickest way to form the Holy Roman Empire

[Sacrifice]

I've seen on the paradox forums some suggestions, only I have an historical interest in the HRE and was wondering what country/scenario/settings and strategy is best for becoming the HRE. Post your thoughts!

[Barbariccia]

The quickest would be to start in 1399 as Bohemia, get into a war with an Orthodox power that can't reach you, concede defeat with the requirement of changing to Orthodox, then go to town with Enforce Religious Unity for Imperial Authority. I'm not sure if that still works in Divine Wind 5.1, but that'd be the quickest, albeit the most ahistorical.

[Blessings O'Babylon]

...To say the least.

[Quill]

In the games I play - Austria always seems to control the HRE, so that might be a good choice. The only problem with the religious unitiy is that you need to wait for the reformation to occur before you can start enforcing things. Another way is to annex small HRE states and then release them as vassals - instead of making them vassals as a condition of peace. That will give you IA. It's costly in infamy however.

[Beelzebub's Gnarled Urethra]

thanks shoggoth,ill try that

[Gulthuril]

i unified HRE once. the best way is to get a lot of vassals (when i mean a lot, i mean that you can't see you allies when you load your game) and become pure evil for the others(insult have a high BB, not in the limit, but high BB) so the people will DoW you and you get a lot of imperial auth.

also it happens to me that when i order that all HRE became vassals, the 90% was already

so i get the rest and only one or two revolt.

it was so huge my empire when i unificated that i get bored xD

[🅹🅸🆂🅺🆁🅰]

changing religion (eighter to orthodox as listed above or to protestant/reformed in 16th century) and then making start enforcing religious unity is easiest way imo, just be sure you have all voters as vassals when you do it cause they would never vote for heretic

[Butterfly]

Probably the /simplest/ way is to play Bohemia from 1399, and actually try to fulfill the role of Emperor. Protect the Empire states, forcing any nations who have annexed another to release them again. Play the diplomacy game, get relations up as high as possible with everyone. You might not even need to vassalize electors, though it helps to do so to prevent others from doing it. Keep infamy low, keep relations high, and every time you attempt to pass a reform, it works.

tl;dr: Bohemia 1399, keep extremely low infamy, high relations with all empire members.

[Justice]

Well, I formed as Austria.
> Try keep low BB.
> Vassal the hell out of German states.
> Weaken your eastern border nations. You want the Horde to break them and annex them.
> Use superior TEchnology and troops from HRE and vassal to fight and beat Golden horde. Not only is this an easy way to get territory but you get either 5 or 10 Imperial authority (I forget which) for each victory.
After that I'd suggest continuing south until you come through China. Don't wanna go for the West and destroy any possible competition before it can get an empire going.
Also, Royal Marriages. Royal marriages everywhere.

[Pewt]

Originally posted by Sacrifice:

I've seen on the paradox forums some suggestions, only I have an historical interest in the HRE and was wondering what country/scenario/settings and strategy is best for becoming the HRE. Post your thoughts!

If you want to form it as quickly as possible, start as bohemia and either constantly annex/release silesia (use a good stability advisor, invest 100% into stability, and attack silesia every time you are at -2 stability) or do some footwork involving converting between religions. Both are detailed in this thread:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?579053-Blitzkrieg-HRE-formation

[Felicity]

i love you pewt

[vacri]

I've just formed HRE from Burgundy in 1595... the only problem is that it pretty much ends the game. There's nothing you can't do, except perhaps a world conquest. Which I tried... and found very dull. Twenty years later I'm sitting on an infamy of half a thousand and there are constant stab hits, rebellions, and murdered merchants. I own Europe and the west, but the thought of taking the rest of the map just makes me recoil from the tedium. In short, I think the HRE should really be a goal, not something you exploit to get, since it's so game-ending.

[Khar]

Likewise managed Burgundy to HRE around the same time, but it takes most of your focus -- I didn't colonize the new world at all, and I had hordes of vassals -- literally something like 80 or something "allies." What parts of the mainland and most of the English isles I don't control I could easily steamroll. Only being slowed down by Russia and Gondwana of all places in world conquest. Luckily for me, my aim is economic power, not world conquest, so it's not as boring.

Essentially you need to get a lot of vassals, especially the electors, to ensure their loyalty. Having low BB, high diplomacy, excellent imperial authority and so forth does not ensure your control over the HRE, and even vassals are not enough -- more than one of my vassals voted against me, even with 200 relations, crazy diplomatic power, no BB and 100 prestige. The numbers underneath the system basically demand you have the loyalty of everyone in some very stringent form of another beyond just playing nice as Bohemia.

Want HRE? Wars will be on the horizon. A lot.

[Shark]

I just formed the HRE with Milan by the late 1600s. Got real lucky France and Austria were my allies all game. After France took out Burgundy and Spain they decided to colonize the world.

Once I became Emporer and Austria lost it Bohemia attacked Austria. The attack essentially crippled the Austrians and allowed me to build up a large army with the HR Emporer perks. From there I just joined in every war and made sure to convert every protestant HRE member.

[Myll]

Here's a technique that helps bring HRE Emperor status quickly and works whether you're largest and most powerful like Bohemia, or you start as little Luneberg (which can conquer the entire world BTW) -- There is a process to vassalize via freeing nations, but you have to be very quick about it. Note- this process only works for Nations that can perform a Royal Marriage:

1. Keep an eye on all Casus Belli and prioritize the ones that contain would-be nations with Royal Marriage options, so you can spring them loose.
2. Use the Pause button a lot on this one, and TIMING is critical, once you Sue for Peace and break out that new nation: a. Immediate Royal Marriage the moment after they become a new nation, b)At the moment your Diplomat arrives and you can send another, make them an offer to become a Vassal, c)In some instances the relationship may be soured from the last time you fought them, so you may have to perform some bribery by sending cash to raise relations to 190+ but you must race, because you are against other nations who may also become an Ally -- and those extra alliances can lower chances of them accepting becoming a Vassal.

Having all these worker bees as vassals quickly adds up so you can easily perform the next step, making every single voting nation of the HRE -- into a Vassal. I've played most games with every Voter nation being my Vassal (or at worst - an ally).

----------
Separately, once you start the game, see who the HRE Voting members are - even without justification, if you're a single province country that can raise back Stability quickly -- take the -2 Stability penalty if needed to force each of the small 1-province voters to become vassals, take the Infamy penalty. Again, little Luneberg or Saxony or any of the central 1-province nations can easily grow to become Emperor by simply taking over the voters as Vassals. Their status as Vassal outweighs the Infamy penalties, along with +200 relationship that is normal as a starting Vassal, so that's 200+250 points 450 total voting in your favor, so unless your Infamy is over 30, you're a sure vote-in as Emperor if you hold 4+ voters as Vassals.

[Hat8]

I'd say that Prussia is the best. You can use the Protestant wars as a springboard to pass all of the reforms and have a powerful military.

Becoming Emperor is pretty easy too - just vassalize a bunch of states.