The Secrets of an Österreich strategy. (Archduchy of Austria)

[herrhals]

Looks good there, but would you mind showing me your income/financial tab?
Also, a world political map would be nice to see.

[Caesar8]

Here is my preferred Austria>HRE strategy, for what it's worth.

1.) Build up armies, increase relations to at least 175 with electors.

2.) Attack Bohemia (probably no CB), to take Moravia. With 3 stacks of 8 inf/4 cav, you should be able to destroy their army plus fend off any of Bohemia's allies. Once you've taken one province from them, you get 100 points large HRE nation bonus while possibly depriving Bohemia of 50 points bonus. Even with infamy, you can easily become emperor if you keep elector relations high. Should not have any problems with Bohemia for the rest of the game.

3.) Take Northern Italy per mission. I usally take Parma from Milan, too, as you can release it later for Imperial Authority if you need it but in the meantime this gives you a university. This however, is as much infamy as you want for the time being.

4.) Next mission is probably vassalize Burgundy. Burgundy is probably too big to be vassalized at this point, but that's ok. Use the CB to take Antwerpen and release any vassals for IA. If you take Antwerpen by 1420 or so, it will be a core by 1470 and allow you to start colonizing early.

5.) Cancel vassalize Burgundy mission. Liberate imperial states for IA when possible. In five years, cancel whatever mission you have again until you get vassalize Burgundy. Now vassalize Burgundy.

6.) After this, you are just playing for imperial authority to pass reforms. I usally try to take provinces and liberate as vassals when possible or you can just liberate. Always defend when another state is attacked. Keep relations with HRE members (so they vote for reforms) and obviously electors high. You should be able to "revoke the privilegia" before the Reformation. PU's are great but not that important since you are going to unite the HRE anyway. If you have high relations with the states in the Empire, they will probably become vassals. Maybe one will refuse to be a vassal and you will have to conquer them.

7.) After the reformation, convert, by force if necessary, enough provinces to get 50 IA. If you need to, you can now add Antwerpen to the Empire to give that 1 point of IA needed to 'enforce religious unity.' You can also liberate Styria or other states at this point if you need the IA. You should be able to unite the HRE by 1510-1530, depending on how quickly the reformation occurs. You should also have a few colonies by this point as well. With Imperial Ban causus belli, you should have taken back HRE territories from Poland and in the Baltic as appropriate.

8.) As for RMs, I try for as many as possible, unless I'm expecting a war with them. Allies: I try to stay allied with Hungary, as they are annoying to defeat (lots of territory even if weak armies). After awhile, you'll have a horde of vassals and liberated duchies allied with you, so it becomes somewhat difficult to manage this anyway, but you really don't have to worry about it much.

9.) I always stay merc--you're eventually going to control so many COTs in Europe and colonies anyway that it will benefit you more.

10.) After you've united the HRE, and assuming you have enough armies to handle the initial rebels, you can really do whatever you want. I always go after the sound toll, Jerusalem, Mecca, East Indian Trade Route, conquer India, rich Chinese provinces, and then go for forced PU's with other European powers on way to world conquest. But by this point, you are so powerful, that you can do whatever you want--just don't go over the Infamy limit, which you shouldn't have to.

11.) Governments--Feudal Monarchy, Empire, Absolute Monarchy, Enlighted Despotism. Though if you do not want the "imperialism CB" for later, then you can go Admin Monarchy and Const. monarchy or anything else.

Edit: Sorry, misread original post that you do NOT want united HRE. Ignore the above, my mistake.

[Panopticon]

Looks good there, but would you mind showing me your income/financial tab?
Also, a world political map would be nice to see.

Sure. Although I thought that my screenshot already showed that my many CoT's weren't useless.
I have played a couple of more years now as you can see from my superior editing skills. So this is how my finances look now. Awfull. Right?

And this is how the world looks. Pretty much all that is white is mine, including a few islands in the Indonesia area and a small chunk of India.

[herrhals]

Well, I will concede defeat. Your mercantilistic trade income is quite high. I suspect that has to do with having a trade efficiency of 244%. Would you deny though, with 244% trade efficiency, that free trade would actually net you more income? The income in China, S.E Asia, India, West Afrika/Middle east is considerable.

[Panopticon]

Well, I will concede defeat. Your mercantilistic trade income is quite high. I suspect that has to do with having a trade efficiency of 244%. Would you deny though, with 244% trade efficiency, that free trade would actually net you more income? The income in China, S.E Asia, India, West Afrika/Middle east is considerable.

By now it doesn't really matter. I can have a monopoly in as many CoT's as I want and the small bonus from free trade doesn't matter much. Right now I have a monopoly in all but 6 of the known CoT's in the world and those 6 will very soon be even fewer. But my high TE doesn't change that 10 of the 13 wealthiest CoT's in the world is mine and since I'm mercantilistic it would be easy to keep a monopoly in all of them even if I had a TE of 50.
And as I said, I doubt that a free trader who owns 3-4 non core CoT's could have a monopoly in that many CoT's without the bizarre TE.

[ywhtptgtfo]

By now it doesn't really matter. I can have a monopoly in as many CoT's as I want and the small bonus from free trade doesn't matter much. Right now I have a monopoly in all but 6 of the known CoT's in the world and those 6 will very soon be even fewer. But my high TE doesn't change that 10 of the 13 wealthiest CoT's in the world is mine and since I'm mercantilistic it would be easy to keep a monopoly in all of them even if I had a TE of 50.
And as I said, I doubt that a free trader who owns 3-4 non core CoT's could have a monopoly in that many CoT's without the bizarre TE.

One thing I'd ask, though, is how do you get such a high trade efficiency this early? I had similar games with Custom House spams that only reach this TE at the late 1600's (well after 1650) since there's always the limiting factor of magistrates. And I don't think I've ever accumulated more than 60k of cash even with an empire of this size with custom houses everywhere. :/

[Slevin_Kelbra]

Thanks for all the help people.

I like that little Picture Guide now the is the Daughter the blond? cuz i would go crazy too, too bad I can't speek Germany

Now another thing any hints on how to colonize as if I go land wouldn't that hurt it?
Also I am trying to play the game with a Role Playing feel to it well at lest for the one I do a ARR on. Also I want to not use any or little gamey tactics. I was even thinking of limiting my RM's to help out with the Force PU part and the Roleplaying aspect but the AI spam’s RM with me and it gets real aynoring after awhile. I do seem to get ask by everyone and in the current game now there is a possibility of having Hapsburg noble rise in England and other places too bad these aren't PU's

So I may restart and try one of the force PU's maybe with Bavaria or Bohemia? Also what about Slazburg or that one little aynoying ArchBishop between you and Bavaria how to get rid of them, or should I?


I may be back with more questions and thinks again people for the help with so many ideas and hints I wounder why there aren't really any DW vanilla Austria ARR's out well none I found.

[DrunkenOne]

The best opening for Austria and what I do in multi as Austria is day 1 royal marriage Bavaria, then immediately claim their throne and invade. You should be able to easily defeat them, getting 4 good HRE provinces which will become cores and give you Bavarian accepted culture. If you are lucky you might even have an elector allying with Bavaria, so you can vassalize them since you want to do that eventually anyways. From there you can do whatever since you have no infamy, a big army, and a 4 province PUed Bavaria who will field 8-10 divisions on its own.

[herrhals]

The best opening for Austria and what I do in multi as Austria is day 1 royal marriage Bavaria, then immediately claim their throne and invade. You should be able to easily defeat them, getting 4 good HRE provinces which will become cores and give you Bavarian accepted culture. If you are lucky you might even have an elector allying with Bavaria, so you can vassalize them since you want to do that eventually anyways. From there you can do whatever since you have no infamy, a big army, and a 4 province PUed Bavaria who will field 8-10 divisions on its own.

So cheap. I have a self-imposed 5 year rule. No claim forging nor claiming within the first 5 years of gameplay. Makes the game a whole lot more fun.