Forever golden

[Saat98]

Hi. I was in a game trying to earn the Forever Golden achievement. It was going pretty well, and I had already completed all the missions except for the one that requires owning all of Austria, and the one that requires becoming emperor and passing erbkaiserstum. I had already PU'd Austria, but I'm missing a province that belongs to an OPM elector, and I figured that when I pass erbkaiserstum, he will become my vassal and I'll finish the mission. Also, I am already the emperor.

However, I have an IA problem. There are only 3 reforms passed, and it is already 1760. Prussia is PU'd under Sweden, and that is a HUGE drain of IA. That, together with heretic princes, causes that I don't earn any authority when there is internal peace, and lose authority when there isn't. I knew that when you add a province to the empire, you get a boost for authority, so I was counting on adding Spain one province at a time for the bonus; but it seems that I couldn't do that unless I joined the HRE; and when I joined the HRE all of my provinces were added to it (without the bonus).

So, now I'm out of time and far from the 6th reform, so I have a couple of questions. First, is it possible to add your provinces to the empire one by one to trigger the bonuses? And second, can I still get the achievement with my game?

 

[grotaclas]

Adding provinces to the HRE doesn't give IA anymore. Maybe you can convert all HRE members and create a bunch of OPM client states to get even more members to increase your monthly IA gain. But usually the easiest way to finish that mission is to dismantle the HRE. You can try to become ineligible or make the electors hate you(e.g. by killing the electors that like you and don't create new ones). Once you are not emperor anymore, you can dismantle the HRE. This would be easier if there are fewer electors or if the like you enough to ally you.

 

[Cancerofthehead]

Hi. I was in a game trying to earn the Forever Golden achievement. It was going pretty well, and I had already completed all the missions except for the one that requires owning all of Austria, and the one that requires becoming emperor and passing erbkaiserstum. I had already PU'd Austria, but I'm missing a province that belongs to an OPM elector, and I figured that when I pass erbkaiserstum, he will become my vassal and I'll finish the mission. Also, I am already the emperor.

However, I have an IA problem. There are only 3 reforms passed, and it is already 1760. Prussia is PU'd under Sweden, and that is a HUGE drain of IA. That, together with heretic princes, causes that I don't earn any authority when there is internal peace, and lose authority when there isn't. I knew that when you add a province to the empire, you get a boost for authority, so I was counting on adding Spain one province at a time for the bonus; but it seems that I couldn't do that unless I joined the HRE; and when I joined the HRE all of my provinces were added to it (without the bonus).

So, now I'm out of time and far from the 6th reform, so I have a couple of questions. First, is it possible to add your provinces to the empire one by one to trigger the bonuses? And second, can I still get the achievement with my game?

If you want to farm IA now, you need to attack large nations bordering the HRE, force them to release as many nations as possible (at that stage of the game potentially best to take the land, release OPM client states and then attack them, then force those nations to join the HRE with the Expand Empire CB)

If you just want the achievement, it may be easiest to conquer the province you need and piss of all the electors (some healthy AE insults and wars should do the trick) so that they elect someone else and then you can dismantle the Empire.

 

[Saat98]

Adding provinces to the HRE doesn't give IA anymore. Maybe you can convert all HRE members and create a bunch of OPM client states to get even more members to increase your monthly IA gain. But usually the easiest way to finish that mission is to dismantle the HRE. You can try to become ineligible or make the electors hate you(e.g. by killing the electors that like you and don't create new ones). Once you are not emperor anymore, you can dismantle the HRE. This would be easier if there are fewer electors or if the like you enough to ally you.

Welp.

Well, thank you. I'll see if I have a saved file because I had a golden oportunity in the 1650 when I had a coalition with all the electors that didn't love me against me. My current ruler is quite young, and I'll have very little time after. Also, I'm afraid that any potential ally outside the empire already hates me, as I've used quite liberally imperial bans and expand empire.

 

[Big Bad France]

Welp.

Well, thank you. I'll see if I have a saved file because I had a golden oportunity in the 1650 when I had a coalition with all the electors that didn't love me against me. My current ruler is quite young, and I'll have very little time after. Also, I'm afraid that any potential ally outside the empire already hates me, as I've used quite liberally imperial bans and expand empire.

If you are being elected due to elector-vassals, it might be just as easy to lose the emperorship through annexing them and then just dismantling with a quick war over the next emperor before he can create new electors.

 

[Saat98]

If you are being elected due to elector-vassals, it might be just as easy to lose the emperorship through annexing them and then just dismantling with a quick war over the next emperor before he can create new electors.

Nope, all the electors are independent. Anyway, it might be worth to destroy the smallest in order to get enough AE to don't be elected emperor and to have a coalition with all the electors against me.

 

[Cancerofthehead]

Nope, all the electors are independent. Anyway, it might be worth to destroy the smallest in order to get enough AE to don't be elected emperor and to have a coalition with all the electors against me.

One thing to remember, you don’t need all the electors against you. Any allied to you (even if not in the war) or subject to you are counted as controlled for dismantling the HRE. So allying a couple and pissing off the majority can work (so long as the majority are voting for the same person other than you). And vassalizing an elector or two will make the others less likely to vote for you (also consider dumping influence and/or diplomatic ideas to get your diplo rep down and finding a way to tank your prestige since they are major factors for the electors).

Since a war to dismantle the empire will almost certainly include many enemies, I find it is a big benefit if I can even keep one or two electors as subjects/allies.

 

[Saat98]

One thing to remember, you don’t need all the electors against you. Any allied to you (even if not in the war) or subject to you are counted as controlled for dismantling the HRE. So allying a couple and pissing off the majority can work (so long as the majority are voting for the same person other than you).

I know. However, I can keep at most two electors allied, because I have a lot of bonuses to be chosen emperor (big nation in the empire, dotf, legitimacy and prestige at 100, diprep at +7 (that I can lower to +3 at most), 20 IA that I cannot lower with dishonored call to arms as nobody dares to attack me). Also, I have found that I cannot attack an elector if I'm already at war with the emperor (and often the emperor defends the first elector I attack) so I have to be really careful on whom to attack in order to dismantle the HRE. I have tried forming a coalition against me, but that war was really difficult, and I had to peace out with white peace, because all the minors together have more manpower, enthusiasm, etc. than Austria+allies+me together, besides the allies+Austria being dumb and being stackwiped in the first few months of the war.

 

[Cancerofthehead]

I know. However, I can keep at most two electors allied, because I have a lot of bonuses to be chosen emperor (big nation in the empire, dotf, legitimacy and prestige at 100, diprep at +7 (that I can lower to +3 at most), 20 IA that I cannot lower with dishonored call to arms as nobody dares to attack me). Also, I have found that I cannot attack an elector if I'm already at war with the emperor (and often the emperor defends the first elector I attack) so I have to be really careful on whom to attack in order to dismantle the HRE. I have tried forming a coalition against me, but that war was really difficult, and I had to peace out with white peace, because all the minors together have more manpower, enthusiasm, etc. than Austria+allies+me together, besides the allies+Austria being dumb and being stackwiped in the first few months of the war.

You can burn your IA by bestowing imperial grace on random tags.

As to getting to war with everyone you need to, my method is:

First, check which electors will defend if you declare on the emperor, you can now ignore those electors. Just pretend they don’t exist for subsequent steps.

Second, try to find anyone you can attack outside the empire or who the emperor will not defend who will draw in at least one elector. That way you can go to war with electors without going to war with the emperor.

Third, you need to look at alliance chains. Find who is allied to the most electors other than the emperor. Check who each of their allies are allied to and cobelligerent any who will bring in other electors (check a war dec on them to see if the or allies will join). Then look for others or other directions (such declaring independence the elector and CBing the non-elector or another elector).

Fourth, if you have one or two electors you can’t figure out how to get into the war, look into your options for allying or vassalizing then to remove them from the picture.

 

[grotaclas]

In addition to what @Cancerofthehead said, you can make a separate peace with the emperor and then start another war on an HRE member to bring in more electors(and the emperor again). If necessary, you can peace out the emperor multiple times. To dismantle the HRE it is not necessary that you occupy the capitals(of the emperor and the electors which are not allied to you or your subject) in the same war. You can do multiple wars as long as you occupy all required capitals at the moment that you press the dismantle button.

 

[Cancerofthehead]

In addition to what @Cancerofthehead said, you can make a separate peace with the emperor and then start another war on an HRE member to bring in more electors(and the emperor again). If necessary, you can peace out the emperor multiple times. To dismantle the HRE it is not necessary that you occupy the capitals(of the emperor and the electors which are not allied to you or your subject) in the same war. You can do multiple wars as long as you occupy all required capitals at the moment that you press the dismantle button.

Jesus Christ, how did I never think of that before.... That would make things a lot simpler (if somewhat tedious).

 

[Big Bad France]

Another, even easier, way to lose the emperorship is to simply disinherit your heir, making yourself ineligible. That's not ideal, but it's a much better option than reverting to a previous save.