Hamburg Stronk

Many people who play EUIV think that Lübeck is better then Hamburg. This is because they're ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid. Listen up ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, today we're gonna learn how to make GLORIOUS HAMBURG TRADE/COLONIAL GERMAN EMPIRE! In a few simple steps.

Working In the HRE

Hamburg is first and foremost, a Free City in the HRE. Because of this, you are a republic, and you own 1 province. On Top of that, expanding in the HRE is time consuming, because while you're in the HRE you get 2x AE. Now, you want to remain a free city in the HRE as long as possible. Which will be about 5-10 years if you follow this guide.
Now, ontop of this, ou are a republic. As a republic, you can not become emporer of the HRE. As a Republic, You also can not get PU's, so don't even worry about it.
There are also a few Free Cities in the empire near you, these being Bremen, and Lübeck. The only reason you should attack Either of these nations is if:
1)They expand and thus are not longer Free Cities
OR
2) The Emporer Will not join the war if you declare, which is very rare.
A trick to getting them under your belt is to ally them, give them land, and then unally and attack them, because they are no longer a free city. ;) Take note new players.
Keep all of this information in mine while you are Playing, Because it's important.

Early Expansion Into North Germany

Hamburg Starts off with 5k soldiers on the field. First steps in the game, not in order.
DO NOT UNPAUSE BEFORE COMPLETING THESE STEPS!!!

1) We have 5k soldiers. This is not enough to do what we're gonna do. Start off by building 2 Infantry, and 1 Calvalry. These should raise your army size to 8k, 6k infantry, 2k Calvalry.
2) Ally Lübeck. This may seem counter productive: we're gonna be annexing lubeck VERY soon, before the time where even if we unallied them we would still have a trude. Don't question it.
3) Rival Saxe-Lauenburg. If you don't, there is a Chance that they will join Lübeck's trade league, and then welp ♥♥♥♥ you gotta restart. Your other 2 rivals don't matter as long as you don't rival Lübeck.
4)Check to see if you have a "Spy master" Advisor. They give you +25% spy network construction. If you have one, Save up if you need to - Take it. If it is a level 2 advisor, don't take it. If you don't have one, Don't spend money to look for one.
5) Start building a spy network in Saxe-Lauenburg.
6)Turn your ruler into a general.
7) Mothball your Capital fort.
8) This step required The Cossacks DLC, if you don't have it, ignore this step.
Take an admiral from the Burghers Estate.

At this Point, You can unpause.
At this Point you should be prepared for war. Once you get a claim on Saxe-Lauenburg, it's time to declare war.
If they have ANY ALLIES AT ALL: RESTART. I'm not one to Save scum, but you are only 1-2 years in. It's no big deal.
Also, do NOT call ANY allies into the war, ESPECIALLY not Lübeck.

Now, you are at war with Saxe-Lauenburg, and no one else. This should be an easy war. You can stack wipe them in the first battle, and start to siege. To save money, lower army maintenance while you are sieging. If you get done sieging, WAIT. Do not Peace out. 1 of 4 things is going to happen at this point.
1) [Optimal] Mecklenburg declares on Saxe-Lauenburg
2) [Mediocre] Lubeck declares on Saxe-Lauenburg
3) [Bad] Lüneburg declares on Saxe-Lauenburg
4) [Terrible] Nobody declares on Saxe-Lauenburg

If Situation 3 or 4 happens, restart. You're not going to get anywhere in the game if this happens.

SITUATION 1) To take advantage of this happening, Take the fallowing steps.
1) Raise army maintenance. Wait until full moral.
2) Peace Saxe-Lauenburg-
-VASSALIZE - I CAN NOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, THIS DIPLOMATIC MANEUVER IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.
-Take All money from Saxe-Lauenburg
this should cause you to join the war against mecklenburg.
3)Mecklenburg will either
1-Go to Saxe-Lauenburg
or
2-Not go to Saze-Lauenburg
You just need to kill their army. Once this step is completed, take 1k Soldiers, and siege Wizmar. Take the Remaining Soldiers and siege Rostock.

At this Point, Lübeck may or may not declare war on Mecklenburg. IF they do, finish the siege of Rostock, peace Mecklenburg. Remember our strategy before?
-Take Rostock
-Vassalize Mecklenburg
-Take all their money.
You should now be at war with Lübeck. IF YOU GET LUCKY, you may also be at war with Pomerania. All of Mecklenburg's previous Allies should also be at war with pomerania. Start to siege Lübeck. If you need to, make a Mercenary to help with the siege. Once you're done with that, Annex Lübeck.
You should now own Hmaburg, Rostock, and Lübeck, with Saxe-Lauenburg and Mecklenburg as vassals.
-Continue Reading if you're at war with Pomerania-
Now, Focus on Pomerania. Siege Stettin while your De-Facto Allies fight off pomerania. Once pomerania is fully sieged and stack wiped, Wait for Lübeck to be cored, then peace out pomerania and take Stettin and Stolp.
You should Now own Hamburg, Lübeck, Rostock, Stettin, and Stolp, With Saxe-Lauenburg and Mecklenburg as Vassals

SITUATION 2)
Kill Lübeck's Army. Make a Mercenary stack. Siege Lübeck. Annex Lübeck.
Obviously Not as good as the previous Situation, but still good.
You should now own Hamburg and Lübeck, with Saxe-Lauenburg as a vassal.

You're now done with the largest section of this Guide. You should be Very Powerful now, and the date ingame should be from around 1450-1465.

Later Expansion into Germany

If you're trying to continue this game, then you're in good luck. I don't have time to go through all the things that can happen at this point, but i'll tell you a few things to watch out for and what to do.

1)Remember how you're a republic? Yeah, stay as one. Hamburg is perticularly strong as a republic, because you get +.5 republic tradition per year. this is extremely powerful. You will be rolling in the 6/6/6 leaders in this game, and if your republic tradition ever gets too low, just use 100 mil power to strangthen government and get 10 more republican tradition.

2) The teutonic Order gets ♥♥♥♥♥♥ by Poland. This is very common. Now, remember hwo you own stolp? Were you wondering why you took Stolp and not another province? here's why. You can fabricate a claim on the teutonic order, and declare war on them now. In this war, i suggest taking Danzig and memel, and Königsberg if you have low enough agressive expansion.

3) Sweeden declares independance, Drop what you're doing. fab on denmark. Declare war. You'll probably have a fiar amount of agressive expansion at this point. I'd suggest just taking Holstein and Slesvig. If you can, take Denmark's capital too. it's an important trade port and once you have it you will be unrivaled in the Lübeck node.

4) The Protestant Reformation. This is a Guaruntee to happen. Now, protestant, in my opinion is the best religion in the game, but going protestant depends on 3 things.
1- Are you going to colonize.
Yes> Go Protestant
No> Go to Question 2
2- Are you going for the Protected Market Achievment (100 Mercantilism)
Yes> Stay Catholic
No>Refer to Question 3
3- Are you going for the An Early Reich Achievment (Form Germany)
Yes> Go Protestant
No> Go Reformed

5) The League Wars
Avoid them. You are not an elector, and you never will be. You're not the emporer, and you never will be. You gain NOTHING out of joining the league war.

Idea Groups

1) Trade.
As Hamburg you have so awsome national ideas for trading. Taking trade ideas can improve your income a lot, and since you'll practically own the Saxony, Lübeck, and Baltic Sea trade nodes, you'll make a ton of money.

2) Plutocratic.
Plutocratic ideas are ridiculously strong. They give you moral and manpower recovery speed, which are good military ideas. They also give unrest -2, institution spread +10%, and burgher Loyalty +10% monthly. All of these are very good, although don't really fit in a category. AND you get a plethra of trade ideas, which will boost your income even more.

3) Either Administrative (If you're not colonizing) or Exploration (if you are)
Administrative is an excelent idea group. It gives many bonuses like core creation cost -25% and administrative technology cost -10%. You will earn your admin back in no time, and since you will have tons of money, mercearies will be good, which administrative ideas gives a bunch of bonuses too.

Exploration is fairly self explanitory. You want colonies? Get Exploration

4) Administrative (if you went exploration) or Offensive (If you already have Administrative)
I already explained why administrative is good in number 3, go look up their.

Offensive is one of the strongest military idea groups. You get bonuses to generals, and you get +5 disciplin, which combined make a very good army. on top of that you get siege ability which is useful, although not as much as the other ones, and a bunch of other military ideas.

5) Expansion (If Colonizing) or Influence (if not)
Expansion gives you another colonist and more settler increase. That's why. It's for faster colonization. Do you want me to say expansion is some godly idea group? 'Cuz it's not. It's just good if you're colonizing.

Influence is good if you're nto colonizing as hamburg, because you get lots of bonuses to vassals and annexing them, which you will probably have to do a lot of mid game to keep agressive expansion down. speaking of agressive expansion, -20%. that'll save you LOTS of time, and so will the extra diplomat, because you only have 2.

6) Quantity.
When you're expanding into Germany, you'll notice how little manpwoer you have, even if you own a lot of land. that's because while province developement doesn't matter much to your insane income due to trading, but it does to your force limit, manpower, and the equivilents to your navy. In order to wage larger scale wars in the mid-late game you'll need quantity.

7) Innovative.
From an outside prospective, innovative doesn't look too good, but it is. Technology cost and institution embracement are very good for large and expanding empires, and an extra leader without upkeep, the bonuses to number of adivsors and advisor cost (which can get pretty hight late game) and even mroe bonuses to mercenaries, and you got yourself a good idea group for an expanding trade empire.

8) This last Idea group is not strictly neessary, and you may not even get to it by the end of the game.
You can choose either Humanist or Defensive.
Humanist is extremely good at lowering unrest and stopping revots. sadly, the idea cost at the end will go unused since you will have already gotten all of your idea groups, unless you have a few stragling ideas left behind that you won't to get.

Defensive will boost moral by a lot and give you lots of military bonuses, and lower fort maintenance, which is useful since forts are so expansive.

Neither of these idea groups are necessary, but in the end are useful to have if you get to this point.

[Azulus]

Hi, no unfortunatly not, after the war is was still allied to Lübeck and Lübeck was in the Tradeleage. Well it may have been possible i i pull the stunt, relase saxe-launburg and hope for another try..but it din´t came to my mind at that time.

[Rhenia]

thanks for the feedback. i would have to ask if you went for lubeck after mecklenburg (as that is the point of the war.) i've actually only got to get the full extent of the start w/ lubeck Saxe mecklenburg and pommerania twice. the higher you set the difficulty of the game, the more likely the ai is to desire provinces, and then they're less likely to ally eachother. if you really want to get everything, very hard might not be a bad idea. i'll edit the guide in a bit to account for alliances, because actually i have noticed Saxe and dithmarschen tend to ally a lot now.

[Azulus]

Hi, i tried this tactic yesterday and it still worked ... to some degree.. first i started 5 - 7 times and Saxe-Lauenburg always got a alliance before i got a CB. I tryied one time with a war against Alliance Saxe-Lauenburg an Ditmarschen, Annexed Ditmarschen first and waited to 1460 but no still no one declared war on Saxe-Lauenburg :/. I was short before .. ok after the patch it seems it doesent work...but then voila.. Saxe-Lauenburg withaot an ally. I declared war, won, waited, Mecklenburg declared on S-L, i vassaeld S-L at war with Mecklenburg .. but then no one declared on Mevcklenburg :/ seems that the problem is, that Mecklenburg still got an ally in pommeria :(.. Strategy for full sucess (Option 1) seems to bee very small. S-L and Mecklenburg both should´nt have no ally at the point that mecklenburg declares on S-L...and thats next to impossible. But even though a good start :)

[vatas]

What is your reasoning to pick Protestant if going for Early Reich? I'm currently stuck in my Brandenburg game because I can't choose between Protestant and Reformed.

[Wubbzo]

Lubeck has better ideas and the Merchant Republic Government Form is much stronger trade wise than an oligarchical republic.

[XXX_PUZZYKILLA_XXX]

ULM>HAMBURG

[Rhenia]

mmm must have got a few things wrong, but a few points. 1)Lubeck starts as a free city my friend. 2) someone declaring on saxe-lauenburg is not lucky, infact it has happened to me every time i've tried this except for once, and i may as well put this here although i am going to add this to the guide, if they don't, you can still vassalize and use saxe-lauenburg's claims to declare on mecklenburg. 3) you can get the 1 extra mercantilism every 50 thingy thing points if you're catholic, so it is a little bit faster. 4) depends on what you're colonizing, you can get a settler bonus if you're prot, but if you're colonizing the new world it can be very useful to be catholic if you can't/won't fight for colonies.

[Stayin Alive]

okay in some points and helpful to some extent, but ive never seen lubeck become a free city since they are a merchant republic, 100 mil power gives you 3 repulican tradition not 10, and your very lucky if someone actaully does delcare was after you've full sieged saxe-lunenburg. also i wouldnt stay catholic for getting protected market, id just spam diplo, also being catholic is arguably better for conlonizing.

[freza1234]

dont copy my BOYS guide