Yes, Europe as it should look like ....
Oh, wait! Hold on. This doesn't seem right.
There we go, that's what I'm talking about!
Welcome to the Holy Roman Europe with 213 princes in the HRE.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Usually there is the age-old question: What to do after revoking? Some will conquer the world, some will just quit because they are unstopable now. However, I embraced the HRE-system and converted whole Europe to it.
Germany
Of course Germany is as small fractured as I could get it. The only exception are the Low-Lands because no matter what I tried those stupid lemmings just instantly rejoined the Netherland Republic as soon as I released them again. So Friesland, Gelre and Holland are not present. Besides that I added some client states to get more princes into the HRE. I restricted myself to 10 client states (there is a bug where you can get an infinite amount).
Unfortunately I had to keep the Czech land for myself because I would have lost too much from my powerbase. I already dropped from 2000 dev to 980.
France
France looks beautiful too. I had to restrict the tag "France" to Paris because the historical rival modificator is adding liberty desire. Here again I added 2 Client states in Provence.
Iberia
Iberia was a real pain to get into this shape. Especially Portugal gave me a really tough fight by exiling themselves to Australia, even though they had 3 European provinces left. Then they started building level 6 forts in Polynesia.... It was fun to fight them with such a weak naval power as Austria is.
Then I also pushed Morocco, Tlemcen and Algiers into the HRE. More to the strategy later.
British Isles
The British Isles as they should look like. Nothing special here really. I have no clue about the border frictions in that region. If I have assigned the wrong provinces to the wrong tags, then please shout at me as loud as you can!
Scandinavia
Scandinavia without Iceland because I couldn't fit it on the screen. Sapmi and Karelia revolted so I got those additional tags too.
Eastern Europe
Russia was also split up into all the tags I could find there. Hopefully I didn't miss one. Here again I forced Kazakh, Khiva and Sibir into the HRE like I did in Iberia.
Eastern Europe was split into all those tags too. I tried to match their national cultures with their borders in most cases. Unfortunately, I lost the tag of Danzig because the Teutonic order joined my HRE close to 1594 on their own. There was nothing I could do .... I'm sorry.
Anatolia and Balkans
Anatolia took me the longest time because the Ottomans were so big. I also tried to push in some nations but failed in doing so. In the end only Syria remained a prince. The rest of the Asian land was given to Georgia, Armenia and Syria. Again, I had to keep the Ottomans small or they would have too high liberty desire. Aq Qoyunlu unfortunately vanished before I could get there.
The Balkans were split up for every nation to have a proper core. Athens however was already gone.
Southern Italy
Italy also received a tag from Africa: Fezzan. Poor Sicily had to give land to it. Also Malta revolted and created a tag I swiftly integrated into the HRE. Again two client states were added.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hopefully I can motivate some of you to also try this challenge run and beat my 213 princes in the HRE! Here are the strategies on how you can get all those tags to join under the imperial crown.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to get more than 200 tags? First of all you have to be quick so no nation looses it's core. Next, you can push most nations on Africa and Asia into the HRE. Here is how it works:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What are your thoughts on such challenge runs? Unfortunately, there isn't an achievement for having 200 princes in the HRE, even though there definitely should be one. I very much enjoyed this campaign because it was so radically different. Normally, I would just blob away and outright conquer Europe in the early 18th century. I did that too but I never gained much development. My all times high was 2000 dev. In the end I only hat 980 left.
Playing this diplo and vassal game is pretty funny but mostly I liked the hunt for those removeable nations. There is that date in the midgame (1594) where it is decided if you succeed or fail. It's like the achievements with time limits. After the deadline however you can go crazy and potentially get half of Asia into the HRE. I just stopped it at 213 because I just wanted to finish the campaign at this point.
In the spoiler there are some additional interesting screenshots. Feel free to request some more if you want to.
Once word came out that Karl II von Habsburg reached the age to marry, nobody in Europe could hold back their most beautiful woman anymore.
Thanks for reading! I anticipate your comments to my challenge run.
Oh, wait! Hold on. This doesn't seem right.
There we go, that's what I'm talking about!
Welcome to the Holy Roman Europe with 213 princes in the HRE.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Usually there is the age-old question: What to do after revoking? Some will conquer the world, some will just quit because they are unstopable now. However, I embraced the HRE-system and converted whole Europe to it.
Germany
Of course Germany is as small fractured as I could get it. The only exception are the Low-Lands because no matter what I tried those stupid lemmings just instantly rejoined the Netherland Republic as soon as I released them again. So Friesland, Gelre and Holland are not present. Besides that I added some client states to get more princes into the HRE. I restricted myself to 10 client states (there is a bug where you can get an infinite amount).
Unfortunately I had to keep the Czech land for myself because I would have lost too much from my powerbase. I already dropped from 2000 dev to 980.
France
France looks beautiful too. I had to restrict the tag "France" to Paris because the historical rival modificator is adding liberty desire. Here again I added 2 Client states in Provence.
Iberia
Iberia was a real pain to get into this shape. Especially Portugal gave me a really tough fight by exiling themselves to Australia, even though they had 3 European provinces left. Then they started building level 6 forts in Polynesia.... It was fun to fight them with such a weak naval power as Austria is.
Then I also pushed Morocco, Tlemcen and Algiers into the HRE. More to the strategy later.
British Isles
The British Isles as they should look like. Nothing special here really. I have no clue about the border frictions in that region. If I have assigned the wrong provinces to the wrong tags, then please shout at me as loud as you can!
Scandinavia
Scandinavia without Iceland because I couldn't fit it on the screen. Sapmi and Karelia revolted so I got those additional tags too.
Eastern Europe
Russia was also split up into all the tags I could find there. Hopefully I didn't miss one. Here again I forced Kazakh, Khiva and Sibir into the HRE like I did in Iberia.
Eastern Europe was split into all those tags too. I tried to match their national cultures with their borders in most cases. Unfortunately, I lost the tag of Danzig because the Teutonic order joined my HRE close to 1594 on their own. There was nothing I could do .... I'm sorry.
Anatolia and Balkans
Anatolia took me the longest time because the Ottomans were so big. I also tried to push in some nations but failed in doing so. In the end only Syria remained a prince. The rest of the Asian land was given to Georgia, Armenia and Syria. Again, I had to keep the Ottomans small or they would have too high liberty desire. Aq Qoyunlu unfortunately vanished before I could get there.
The Balkans were split up for every nation to have a proper core. Athens however was already gone.
Southern Italy
Italy also received a tag from Africa: Fezzan. Poor Sicily had to give land to it. Also Malta revolted and created a tag I swiftly integrated into the HRE. Again two client states were added.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hopefully I can motivate some of you to also try this challenge run and beat my 213 princes in the HRE! Here are the strategies on how you can get all those tags to join under the imperial crown.
Phase 1:
Play the HRE. There is nothing more to it. Either keep the princes small or blob away and add imperial provinces. Just be sure to liberate all HRE princes you can before Ewiger Landfriede is passed. Releasing princes after the reform is really hard to do.
Next goal is to revoke as soon as possible. You have to do it around 1550 or you will fail in phase 2.
Phase 2:
This Phase ends with November 1594 because that is the date when all removeable nations will vanish from the map. You need to conquer all major European Powers except the Iberian ones to release those nations. You can directly integrate them or just get them back on the map to renew their core. You also need to expand the HRE territory by coring provinces and adding them to the HRE.
This phase gets a lot easier if you Revoke the Privilegia early so you can utilize your invincible German vassal swarm.
Phase 3:
After 1594 you want to clean up the mess you potentially have created and release every nation you can find, even though they have infinite cores. I recommend to fully core and convert their territory first. Next you realease them as vassals with your religion. Since you have most likely already revoked, those vassals will be like any other German vassal of the HRE. The Return Province action will also work but those nations will not be your vassals despite being a member of the HRE. For some nations (Cyprus or Livonian Order) this is the only option to release them because they can't be released as vassals.
Phase 4:
Last but not least you want to eat the other independent European powers. Be sure to fully annex them (it has to say so in the peace deal) so you are able to release them as an HRE prince. For some reason this includes unfinished colonies too and every backwater island in Polynesia. Like a colony with 500 people can fully represent the might of Great Britain....
Play the HRE. There is nothing more to it. Either keep the princes small or blob away and add imperial provinces. Just be sure to liberate all HRE princes you can before Ewiger Landfriede is passed. Releasing princes after the reform is really hard to do.
Next goal is to revoke as soon as possible. You have to do it around 1550 or you will fail in phase 2.
Phase 2:
This Phase ends with November 1594 because that is the date when all removeable nations will vanish from the map. You need to conquer all major European Powers except the Iberian ones to release those nations. You can directly integrate them or just get them back on the map to renew their core. You also need to expand the HRE territory by coring provinces and adding them to the HRE.
This phase gets a lot easier if you Revoke the Privilegia early so you can utilize your invincible German vassal swarm.
Phase 3:
After 1594 you want to clean up the mess you potentially have created and release every nation you can find, even though they have infinite cores. I recommend to fully core and convert their territory first. Next you realease them as vassals with your religion. Since you have most likely already revoked, those vassals will be like any other German vassal of the HRE. The Return Province action will also work but those nations will not be your vassals despite being a member of the HRE. For some nations (Cyprus or Livonian Order) this is the only option to release them because they can't be released as vassals.
Phase 4:
Last but not least you want to eat the other independent European powers. Be sure to fully annex them (it has to say so in the peace deal) so you are able to release them as an HRE prince. For some reason this includes unfinished colonies too and every backwater island in Polynesia. Like a colony with 500 people can fully represent the might of Great Britain....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to get more than 200 tags? First of all you have to be quick so no nation looses it's core. Next, you can push most nations on Africa and Asia into the HRE. Here is how it works:
Step 1:
Own an HRE province in Europe and create a land bridge to your future prince. Provinces sharing the same sea zone work too.
Step 2:
Vassalize the foreign nation and give it the HRE province.
Step 3:
Loose a war to a personalized punching bag (Bosnia for me) and release the vassal you gave the HRE province.
Step 4:
Wait for the truce to be over and attack the nation. Demand every province except for the one in Europe and vassalize the nation. The HRE is now one prince stronger.
In theory you can get as many tags as there are provinces in Europe. If someone wants to try and add Ming to the HRE, it is theoretically possible. So 213 princes is probably pretty low if a player really wants to go nuts with that strategy.
Own an HRE province in Europe and create a land bridge to your future prince. Provinces sharing the same sea zone work too.
Step 2:
Vassalize the foreign nation and give it the HRE province.
Step 3:
Loose a war to a personalized punching bag (Bosnia for me) and release the vassal you gave the HRE province.
Step 4:
Wait for the truce to be over and attack the nation. Demand every province except for the one in Europe and vassalize the nation. The HRE is now one prince stronger.
In theory you can get as many tags as there are provinces in Europe. If someone wants to try and add Ming to the HRE, it is theoretically possible. So 213 princes is probably pretty low if a player really wants to go nuts with that strategy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What are your thoughts on such challenge runs? Unfortunately, there isn't an achievement for having 200 princes in the HRE, even though there definitely should be one. I very much enjoyed this campaign because it was so radically different. Normally, I would just blob away and outright conquer Europe in the early 18th century. I did that too but I never gained much development. My all times high was 2000 dev. In the end I only hat 980 left.
Playing this diplo and vassal game is pretty funny but mostly I liked the hunt for those removeable nations. There is that date in the midgame (1594) where it is decided if you succeed or fail. It's like the achievements with time limits. After the deadline however you can go crazy and potentially get half of Asia into the HRE. I just stopped it at 213 because I just wanted to finish the campaign at this point.
In the spoiler there are some additional interesting screenshots. Feel free to request some more if you want to.
Once word came out that Karl II von Habsburg reached the age to marry, nobody in Europe could hold back their most beautiful woman anymore.
Thanks for reading! I anticipate your comments to my challenge run.
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