How to be Elected the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
“The Emperor is the leader of the Holy Roman Empire, tasked with defending and maintaining the sovereignty of member states.”
There are several things deciding whether you get elected as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) or not. The factors that electors take into account when deciding who of the eligible candidates to vote for can be categorized as depending on either the status of the candidate countries, or the relation between the elector and the candidate countries.
Status of the candidate country
One Province Minor: -25
Under 50 Development: -25
Sufficiently large and an HRE member: +25 or +50
Not an HRE member: -50
Legitimacy: -50 to +50
Prestige: -25 to +25
Diplomatic Reputation: +10 per positive point and -5 per negative point
Relation between elector and candidate country
Same Culture Group: +5
Different branches of Christianity: -50
Current Opinion: -200 to +200
Alliance: +30
Royal Marriage: +10
Trust: -20 to +20
Subject Electors (towards their overlord): +50
Independent Electors (towards candidate with electoral subject): -50
Leader of the same religious league: +200
Leader of the opposing religious league: -200
At war: -200
Status of candidate country
To increase your chances of becoming the Emperor of the HRE you have to improve the status of your country.
The first thing you have to make sure is that you’re eligible to become the emperor, and that you’re a member state of the HRE. Also, try to avoid being a One Province Minor, and make sure that you have at least a total of 50 developments in your country. If all of this is true, you're at least not in a disadvantaged position and you should be considered a decent candidate in the eyes of most electors. Then, what you have to focus on, is improving the legitimacy, the prestige and the diplomatic reputation of your country.
Legitimacy
There are two main ways for legitimacy to either increase or decrease; these are called active and passive modifiers.
Active modifiers (usually one-time-modifiers) are those that are dependent on the players actions while passive modifiers are not dependent on player action, instead they rely on existing variables.
Active modifiers:
Passive modifiers (per year):
Ideas and Policies
Prestige
Prestige represents the glory, honor and status of a nation. Countries gain bonuses with positive prestige, and penalties with negative prestige. The prestige can be increased in the following ways:
Ideas and Policies
Prestige can be lost in the following ways:
Diplomatic Reputation
Diplomatic reputation can be increased in the following ways:
Ideas and Policies
Relation between elector and candidate country
Not only the status of you country has an effect on your chance to become the Emperor of the HRE, also the relation between your country and the electors are important aspects to pay attention to.
Some of the things are more or less fixed (even though they can be changed) for most part of the game, such as the culture group or branch of Christianity. Also, being part of the same religious league increases the chances of getting the vote of an elector, while being part of opposing religious leagues decreases the chances.
Having an elector as a subject makes the subject more likely to vote for you; however it also makes other electors less likely to vote for you.
Being at war with an elector makes it very unlikely, but not impossible, to get that elector’s vote.
Besides these factors, there are four main things to consider when improving the relation with the electors; the current opinion, alliances, royal marriages and trust.
Current Opinion
Each country has an opinion of every other country that they know of ranging from -200 to +200.
There are several ways to increase the opinion:
Positive relationships decay at a fixed rate. Negative relationships are affected by the modifier “Improve Relations” which is affected by the following:
Alliance
Countries will only accept alliance offers if they have more positive than negative reasons for doing so:
Countries ruled by monarchs may arrange royal marriages with others. This improves relations by +25 while in effect. The factors that influence a nation's acceptance of a royal marriage proposal are:
Trust is the measure of the strength of an alliance with its value fluctuating between 0-100 with 50 being average. The trust in your country depends on several things:
Increasing your Diplomatic Presence
To make sure that you’re a popular candidate for the position as Emperor of the HRE, you have to maintain great relations with several electors at the same time. To do this, you need a large number of diplomats and a large number of diplomatic relations.
Number of Diplomats
Each country has two diplomats by default. One additional diplomat may be gained through each of the following triggers, ideas and policies:
The base diplomatic relations cap is four diplomatic relations. One additional diplomatic relation may be gained through each of the following triggers, ideas and policies:
The Most Important Idea Group
The goal to become the Emperor of the HRE require you to play a game of diplomacy, so the most useful Idea Group is, not very surprisingly, Diplomatic Ideas.
Diplomatic Idea
The Diplomatic Ideas gives you several useful benefits that will help you convince the electors that you would be an excellent Emperor.
The first idea, Foreign Embassies, increase your diplomatic presence by adding another diplomat.
The second idea, Cabinet, increases the number of diplomatic relations you can maintain at any given time by one, making it much more likely for you to form the close ties with several countries that you need to be elected.
The fourth idea, Benign Diplomats, gives you 25% faster decay of negative relations. It helps you to avoid having too many enemies, but will probably not secure any of the elector votes.
The fifth idea, Experienced Diplomats, increases your diplomatic reputation by two.
Completing the diplomatic idea group also unlocks several possible policy combinations that are useful when trying to become the Emperor.
Diplomatic Idea in combination with:
Administrative Idea:+1 Diplomat
Aristocratic Idea: +1 Legitimacy
Defensive Idea: +1 Diplomatic Relations
Expansion Idea: +1 Diplomatic Reputation
Offensive Idea: +1 Diplomatic Reputation
Quality Idea: +1 Diplomatic Reputation
Quantity Idea: +1 Diplomatic Reputation
Humanist Idea: +20% Decay of Negative Relations
Innovative Idea: +1 Diplomatic Reputation
Naval Idea: +20% Decay of Negative Relations
“The Emperor is the leader of the Holy Roman Empire, tasked with defending and maintaining the sovereignty of member states.”
There are several things deciding whether you get elected as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) or not. The factors that electors take into account when deciding who of the eligible candidates to vote for can be categorized as depending on either the status of the candidate countries, or the relation between the elector and the candidate countries.
Status of the candidate country
One Province Minor: -25
Under 50 Development: -25
Sufficiently large and an HRE member: +25 or +50
Not an HRE member: -50
Legitimacy: -50 to +50
Prestige: -25 to +25
Diplomatic Reputation: +10 per positive point and -5 per negative point
Relation between elector and candidate country
Same Culture Group: +5
Different branches of Christianity: -50
Current Opinion: -200 to +200
Alliance: +30
Royal Marriage: +10
Trust: -20 to +20
Subject Electors (towards their overlord): +50
Independent Electors (towards candidate with electoral subject): -50
Leader of the same religious league: +200
Leader of the opposing religious league: -200
At war: -200
Status of candidate country
To increase your chances of becoming the Emperor of the HRE you have to improve the status of your country.
The first thing you have to make sure is that you’re eligible to become the emperor, and that you’re a member state of the HRE. Also, try to avoid being a One Province Minor, and make sure that you have at least a total of 50 developments in your country. If all of this is true, you're at least not in a disadvantaged position and you should be considered a decent candidate in the eyes of most electors. Then, what you have to focus on, is improving the legitimacy, the prestige and the diplomatic reputation of your country.
Legitimacy
There are two main ways for legitimacy to either increase or decrease; these are called active and passive modifiers.
Active modifiers (usually one-time-modifiers) are those that are dependent on the players actions while passive modifiers are not dependent on player action, instead they rely on existing variables.
Active modifiers:
- Royal Marriages
- Events
- Papal Influence: +1 per year for 20 years
- Succession. Strong claim increase legitimacy, weak claim decrease legitimacy.
Passive modifiers (per year):
- For each royal marriage: +0.1
- Regency Council: -2
- Constitutional Monarchy: +1
- For each negative stability: -1
- For each point of Power Projection: +0.005
- Owning an unlawful imperial territory: -0.5
- Prestige: Effect ranging from -1 to +1
Ideas and Policies
- Bavarian National Idea (1): +1
- Bohemian National Idea (2): +1
- Policy: Diplomatic-Aristocratic: +1
- Policy: Aristocratic-Economic: +0.5
Prestige
Prestige represents the glory, honor and status of a nation. Countries gain bonuses with positive prestige, and penalties with negative prestige. The prestige can be increased in the following ways:
- Hiring advisor: +1
- Trading in fur: +1
- Defender of the Faith: +1
- Curia Controller: +1
- At war with target of crusade: +1
- Winning battles
- Exploring Terra Incognita
- Papal Blessing
- Provinces converted with the Age of Reformation ability Prestigious Conversion: +0.3 per development
Ideas and Policies
- Offensive Idea (4): +100% for winning land battles
- Naval Idea (4): Naval Glory: +100% for winning sea battles
- Advantageous peace deals
- Bavarian National Idea (3): +1 per year
- Policy: Humanist-Quality: +0.5 per year
- Policy: Innovative-Plutocratic: +0.5 per year
Prestige can be lost in the following ways:
- Each uncontested core: -0.1 per year
- Unlawful territory: -1 per uncored province held in the HRE conquered from a member of the HRE.
- Losing battles
- Disadvantageous peace deals
- Refusing a Call to Arms
- Increase influence and loyalty of estate: -5
- Disinheriting heir: -50
- Innovative Idea (1): -1% yearly
- Policy: Humanist-Quality: -1% yearly
Diplomatic Reputation
Diplomatic reputation can be increased in the following ways:
- Legitimacy: -1 to +1 (0-100)
- Overextension: -2 per 100%
- Statesman Advisor: +1
- Papal Influence – “Send Papal Legate”: +1 per year for 20 years
Ideas and Policies
- Diplomatic Idea (5): +2
- Influence Idea (5): +2
- Policy: Aristocratic-Exploration
- Policy: Diplomatic-Expansion
- Policy: Diplomatic-Offensive
- Policy: Diplomatic-Plutocratic
- Policy: Diplomatic-Quality
- Policy: Diplomatic-Quantity
- Policy: Humanist-Influence
- Policy: Innovative-Diplomatic
Relation between elector and candidate country
Not only the status of you country has an effect on your chance to become the Emperor of the HRE, also the relation between your country and the electors are important aspects to pay attention to.
Some of the things are more or less fixed (even though they can be changed) for most part of the game, such as the culture group or branch of Christianity. Also, being part of the same religious league increases the chances of getting the vote of an elector, while being part of opposing religious leagues decreases the chances.
Having an elector as a subject makes the subject more likely to vote for you; however it also makes other electors less likely to vote for you.
Being at war with an elector makes it very unlikely, but not impossible, to get that elector’s vote.
Besides these factors, there are four main things to consider when improving the relation with the electors; the current opinion, alliances, royal marriages and trust.
Current Opinion
Each country has an opinion of every other country that they know of ranging from -200 to +200.
There are several ways to increase the opinion:
- Improve Relations: Up to +100
- Send Gift: Up to +25 (Lasts for 5 years)
- Give Subsidies: +15 (only as long as the subsidies are given)
- Offer Military Access: +10
- Transfer Trade Power: +20 per 100% trade power
- Royal Marriage: +25
- Proclaim Guarantee: +10
- Alliance: +50
Positive relationships decay at a fixed rate. Negative relationships are affected by the modifier “Improve Relations” which is affected by the following:
- A diplomat as advisor: +20%
- Each point of prestige: +0.50%
- Each point of over-extension: -0.25%
- Humanist Idea (6): +30%
- Diplomatic Idea (4): +25%
- Policy: Diplomatic-Plutocratic: +25%
- Policy: Administrative-Aristocratic: +20%
- Policy: Humanist-Diplomatic: +20%
- Policy: Humanist-Influence: +20%
- Policy: Naval-Diplomatic: +20%
Alliance
Countries will only accept alliance offers if they have more positive than negative reasons for doing so:
- Proposer army strength : -20 to +20
- Proposer navy strength: -10 to +10
- Attitude towards proposer: -1000 to +50
- Nation's opinion about proposer: +0.25 per positive relation
- Trust: +0.5 per point
- Allied to proposer's rival: -50
- Proposer allied to rival: -50
- Proposer diplomatic reputation:
- +5 per positive point
- -5 per negative point
- Proposer is at war:
- -1000 per offensive war
- -50 per defensive war
- Not the same religious group: -20
- Distance between borders: -0.2 per distance between borders greater than 30
- Proposer is threatened by nation's rival: +20
- Proposer already has a powerful ally: -50
Countries ruled by monarchs may arrange royal marriages with others. This improves relations by +25 while in effect. The factors that influence a nation's acceptance of a royal marriage proposal are:
- Attitude towards proposer:
- Friendly: +40
- Protective: +40
- Threatened: +10
- Neutral: -20
- Domineering: -980
- Hostile: -1000
- Outraged: -1000
- Rivalry: -1000
- Nation opinion about proposer:
- Positive: +0.25 per point
- Negative: -0.25 per point
- Same culture group: +20
- Same religion: +5
- Neighbors: +5
- Proposer's diplomatic reputation: +5 per point
- Distance between borders: -0.1 per distance between borders
Trust is the measure of the strength of an alliance with its value fluctuating between 0-100 with 50 being average. The trust in your country depends on several things:
- Honoring an Alliance: +10 trust with the ally that called them to war
- Demanding to return cores during a peace talk: +10 trust with the nation whose cores are returned
- Demanding to cede province during a peace talk: +5 trust with the nation provinces are ceded to
- Demanding to revoke cores during peace talks: -? trust with the nation whom the player revokes cores from
- Demanding occupied provinces to be ceded: -4 trust.
- Dishonoring a call to Arms: -50 trust with the country who sent the call to arms, and will grant the player -5 trust with all other countries that are in a war with said nation.
- Releasing a nation in a peace deal: +50 trust with it.
- Entering a state of war with a nation: -5.
- If nation A and nation B are allied and remain allied, then each nation will grant each other 0.5 trust each year.
- Signing a separate peace when not the war leader: -10 trust with all partners in the war.
Increasing your Diplomatic Presence
To make sure that you’re a popular candidate for the position as Emperor of the HRE, you have to maintain great relations with several electors at the same time. To do this, you need a large number of diplomats and a large number of diplomatic relations.
Number of Diplomats
Each country has two diplomats by default. One additional diplomat may be gained through each of the following triggers, ideas and policies:
- Curia Controller
- With Parliament and the “Expand the Diplomatic Corps” as active issue
- Aristocratic Idea (6)
- Diplomatic Idea (1)
- Espionage Idea (2)
- Policy: Administrative-Diplomatic
- Policy: Aristocratic-Exploration
- Policy: Espionage-Economic
- Policy: Espionage-Offensive
The base diplomatic relations cap is four diplomatic relations. One additional diplomatic relation may be gained through each of the following triggers, ideas and policies:
- Diplomatic Idea (2)
- Expansion Idea (5)
- Influence Idea (6)
- Policy: Diplomatic-Defensive
The Most Important Idea Group
The goal to become the Emperor of the HRE require you to play a game of diplomacy, so the most useful Idea Group is, not very surprisingly, Diplomatic Ideas.
Diplomatic Idea
The Diplomatic Ideas gives you several useful benefits that will help you convince the electors that you would be an excellent Emperor.
The first idea, Foreign Embassies, increase your diplomatic presence by adding another diplomat.
The second idea, Cabinet, increases the number of diplomatic relations you can maintain at any given time by one, making it much more likely for you to form the close ties with several countries that you need to be elected.
The fourth idea, Benign Diplomats, gives you 25% faster decay of negative relations. It helps you to avoid having too many enemies, but will probably not secure any of the elector votes.
The fifth idea, Experienced Diplomats, increases your diplomatic reputation by two.
Completing the diplomatic idea group also unlocks several possible policy combinations that are useful when trying to become the Emperor.
Diplomatic Idea in combination with:
Administrative Idea:+1 Diplomat
Aristocratic Idea: +1 Legitimacy
Defensive Idea: +1 Diplomatic Relations
Expansion Idea: +1 Diplomatic Reputation
Offensive Idea: +1 Diplomatic Reputation
Quality Idea: +1 Diplomatic Reputation
Quantity Idea: +1 Diplomatic Reputation
Humanist Idea: +20% Decay of Negative Relations
Innovative Idea: +1 Diplomatic Reputation
Naval Idea: +20% Decay of Negative Relations
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