Only 1000 hours in the game, need help with HRE! :)

[bbasgen]

I confess that in all my EU4 playing time, I haven't spent that much time playing Europe. I've made Europe eating monsters, but usually not as European nations. I just got the Emperor DLC and thought I should have a go at Austria for the first time. I'm at 1515, and by "normal" EU4 standards I'm doing okay: Bohemia and Hungary are both PU (the integration of Bohemia completes in 1527). I've taken a lot of Venice, they still have Venezia, and their navy is probably small enough now for me to take it (incidentally I'm thinking that I should move Austria's main trading port there, right?). I've also cut into Milan a bit (made the Swiss a vassal in the process), and vassalized about half of Burgundy's former provinces on the border. My 5 diplomats are working around the clock and I've got great relations with most everyone. Even France likes me (+89 relations and only -12 AE). My AE tops out around -36 for anyone of consequence. Oh, and Austria's manpower situation is to die for! I have 78k pool. The only thing that keeps me from fielding a massive army is my budget, which at the moment is +9 monthly.

All of this to say that I'm pretty close to the point where I can start ignoring AE and just steamroll. But, alas, I want to play nice. I haven't even finished my first century. I have enough room to stretch, and I'd really like to figure our this HRE thing. I am the Emperor after all, and feel a bit responsible. I have enacted only 1 reform so far, and my imperial authority is 9.14, changing by -0.02 every month. That tool tip shows me that heretic princes are a big problem. How do I solve that problem?

It also appears the electors all want me dead. All the electors love me as nations, but I'm rated at -1000 for all of them now. The tool tip doesn't provide any explanation for how I've achieved this terrible modifier, but clearly I'm a horrible emperor! To be fair, because I'm clueless, I've probably been neglecting my duty. Is it because they all war with each other a lot, and I've let it happen? I don't see many options for me to intervene, so I thought that I needed to start demanding land back. Well, I don't know if there is causation, but shortly after I started doing that, the elector situation went to pieces.

In summary, I'm confused. I think I've got Austria in a very strong position as a nation, but the jewel in the crown is the HRE and it is a total disaster. What can I do to fix it?

 

[Big Bad France]

Usually, if the electors rate you at -1000 it's because you either don't have an heir or have a female heir, making you ineligible for them to vote for.

A trick to stopping the reformation is to declare wars for unlawful territory. You can take and core any province within the HRE when you are emperor, so don't fully annex anyone (you need lots of princes for IA generation) but give yourself provinces to border as many countries as possible. This has the added bonus of keeping them small and making it more likely that centers of reformation spawn in their capital. When princes convert, declare war on them and force convert them back to catholic. If the COR is in their capital, this will also remove it.

You can also gain IA by getting nations to join the HRE. Look for opportunities to release small nations on the imperial border. Then you can declare war on them to force them to join when the truce timer is up.