I'm trying to reform the HRE as Bavaria, and was planning to do as Protestant as I prefer the bonuses to catholic and (in my experience) it's easier to make everyone in the HRE Protestant than to keep them Catholic.
Current status:
tl;dr I have a commanding position of the empire at 1500 and can probably win any defensive war in Europe.
But I want to eventually become a protestant Emperor. There are, as I understand it, a few different ways of doing that.
1) Convert to Protestantism as soon as the reformation happens. I lose the emperorship but (should I inherit Palatine in time) I'd become an elector and therefore lead the Protestant religious league.
2) Don't convert until the religious leagues open up, then convert ASA
3) Stay catholic (and emperor) until the religious league war starts, then immediately surrender, let the empire go Protestant and then convert myself.
Are there any other options? Currently 1) is my favourite (for RP reasons if nothing else) but is likely to backfire as inheriting an electorship is always a very risky proposition. 3) Feels very gamey and I can't stay I'd seriously consider it. 2) is tempting, but I'm worried about all my non-HRE allies being in the wrong league and all the damage that might do militaristically and diplomatically.
Current status:
Things are going well so far at 1500. I've been allied to Saxony, Brandenburg and Poland (sadly, they never PU'd Lithuania) all game and have 6/7 electors constantly supporting me. Recently PU'd Palatine too. The HRE is in a healthy shape: Italy obviously left but I've got 45 princes including a full contingency of Free Cities and have passed the first two reforms, and I've liberated all imperial princes from Denmark. Austria and Bohemia have been my rivals almost from the start of the game but I've repeatedly crushed and humiliated them, I'm slowly breaking them up to take the best land for myself while also increasing the HRE princes count. The only slight problem is a super powerful France who I narrowly avoided completely losing an imperial defence war from, but they now have 7 imperial provinces (the only ones outside the empire). I'm on a good terms with them so should avoid an outright war, and have allied England and Milan to create a stronger defence force.
But I want to eventually become a protestant Emperor. There are, as I understand it, a few different ways of doing that.
1) Convert to Protestantism as soon as the reformation happens. I lose the emperorship but (should I inherit Palatine in time) I'd become an elector and therefore lead the Protestant religious league.
2) Don't convert until the religious leagues open up, then convert ASA
3) Stay catholic (and emperor) until the religious league war starts, then immediately surrender, let the empire go Protestant and then convert myself.
Are there any other options? Currently 1) is my favourite (for RP reasons if nothing else) but is likely to backfire as inheriting an electorship is always a very risky proposition. 3) Feels very gamey and I can't stay I'd seriously consider it. 2) is tempting, but I'm worried about all my non-HRE allies being in the wrong league and all the damage that might do militaristically and diplomatically.
), i like to wait a couple of months and let others reform first. I had the situation where I reformed first, but no one followed xD that was quiet a middle finger... Converting your provinces is fast enough, the center doesn't help that much. And they can decide to convert your land anyway. Protecting them is quiet important, though, and of course harder when you don't already control one.
