Spain is the Emperor - Help

[Immortal88]

I've been having a great Ironman run as Spain and colonized the entire coastline of North & South America and Africa and completely stomped France, Burgundy and GB, though the Ottomans blobbed into Africa like no one's business. It's 1724 in my game now and it's getting somewhat tedious so was looking for a few achievements to have some additional goals to shoot for, before my game ends in a hundred years. I saw the "Spain is the Emperor" Achievement and thought I definitely wanna do that because I won't play as Spain for a while now as the colonizing business is really tedious as hell.


Anyway how exactly do you get a foot in the door to even be considered electable? I have 10 cored provinces inside the HRE territory (that I've refused to give back). The current Electors value me at somewhere around -188 and -400.
I could fabricate on 3 of those Electors as they border me: Aachen and Trier each with 2 provinces and Rome/the Papal State with 1 province. I read somewhere you can conquer and vassalize the electors and with enough pampering they'll love you enough to actually elect you, but I want to make sure I do it right, so I'd rather ask the pros here.

So how exactly do you become the Emperor as Spain? There are also a few non-elector OPMs I might have been able to vassalize a long time ago but apart from my ally Austria all other members of the HRE massively hate me because of -60 unlawful territory relations penalty. Austria is not the Emperor anymore by the way, it's the Palatinate - I also border two of their 5 provinces and they are currently being besieged by Trier who are allied in this war with Mainz, Bavaria and the Papal state. How would you go about this with slightly less than 100 years time left? I dwarf everyone in the HRE with my money and manpower so it's anything goes to become the Emperor.

 

[Quickslow87]

Vassalize four of the electors (in your case, through war). If you can, force them to your religion in the peace deal. They'll love you eventually.

 

[DVF]

Yep, the easiest way is provs just to vassilize a majority of the electors and improving the relations to max. You won't get much imperial authority, but that's another problem

 

[Immortal88]

Small update I'm in some massive war that triggered after I've vassalized Trier and in this subsequent war I've also vassalized the Papal State and Aachen as well. The question is who will be my fourth future elector vassal. What would happen if I actually vassalize the current Emperor ?

I'm in a weird situation now though, Austria is quite big and likes me quite well but they would become the next Emperor now that I've vassalized the three states mentioned above (probably because they are at war with the current Emperor due to being my vassals). So let's hope Austria won't be elected. Funny thing is that everything is being carpet sieged either by me or my ally Austria and all our enemies are dead-except for one single lousy regiment with - tada - none other the Emperor himself as general. He's 33 years young so I really need him to survive and not get killed lest my relation with Austria goes down the drain

So yeah, does anyone know what happens if I vassalize the current Emperor in this war as a fourth elector? Will he always vote for himself no matter what? There are two other electors I haven't yet vassalized yet involved in this war as well so I'll probably vassalize one of them, even if France + Burgundy are breathing down my neck a bit with their paranoid coalition.

 

[Pilot00]

As far as I know, if you vassalise the emperor the electors immediately elect a new one.
If you went the path of war in your place I would just vassalise them all and leave the emperor last. Improve my relations to the max and. Then DoW and vassalise him as well.

But I could be wrong, never got the HRE right.

 

[TheBromgrev]

No matter what you do, you still have to burn off the unlawful territory penalty. Get as many BROT bonuses as possible to speed that up. The electors, even if vassalized, will vote for whomever they want and that penalty is a huge roadblock to overcome before they vote for you.

 

[FloatingOrb]

Rule of thumb in the HRE is always vasalize unless your allied with the emperor. Unlawful territory is brutal.

 

[Immortal88]

Thanks for all of your input guys you've been very helpful, I did stack as many better relations over time boni as I could already The Emperor got stackwiped but thankfully wasn't killed, I didn't vassalize him thanks to your tip but I have my four electors now. They are just -30 to -20 away from Austria now due to gifts and subsidies so in 3-4 months I should be in line to be elected Emperor. (Any sneaky ways to speed that process up? I suppose not but it can't hurt to ask).

Another quick question completely unrelated to HRE business: The wiki says you'll get a merchant from forming a trade company if that company is in a node where you have 51%+ trade power. Do ships count towards that and if so, do I lose the merchant again if I reassign the ships somewhere else and thus drop under the 51% mark? Also there is a mercantilism achievement if you get 100% mercantilism... that just seems crazy I went with mercantilism in every single event choice, had very high papal influence all game long and always invested it in mercantilism yet I doubt I'll even get to 50% in this game, how on earth do you pull off 100%?

 

[ahyangyi]

Also there is a mercantilism achievement if you get 100% mercantilism... that just seems crazy I went with mercantilism in every single event choice, had very high papal influence all game long and always invested it in mercantilism yet I doubt I'll even get to 50% in this game, how on earth do you pull off 100%?

I heard the merchant republics begin with more mercantilism and have more events and missions to boost it.

 

[AlphaSonic]

If you want Mercantilism play Genoa, every mission about conquering a center of trade gives them 10 mercantilism.

 

[GChapman]

Playing AoW? Then you have to be the right religion to become emperor. I guess, the vassal trick does not work if you have the wrong religion.
Without AoW, the vassal trick is fine. Just vassal some electors be war, improve relations and wait until the current emperor dies.


About A Protected Market: http://www.eu4wiki.com/Achievement_conditions

Venice, The Hansa, Genoa, and Novgorod begin the game with 25% mercantilism. Genoa has access to seven missions that provide 10% mercantilism each.

http://www.eu4wiki.com/A_Protected_Market

Increasing the level of mercantilism happens primarily through events but the country Genoa has 7 missions, each giving 2% upon completion.

Did they lowered the 10% to 2% in some patch?

 

[Immortal88]

Yes I play AoW. As Spain naturally I'm Catholic and thus eligible to become Emperor, but that's surely a vital hint for some who might attempt the same achievement.

 

[Pornek]

Thanks for all of your input guys you've been very helpful, I did stack as many better relations over time boni as I could already The Emperor got stackwiped but thankfully wasn't killed, I didn't vassalize him thanks to your tip but I have my four electors now. They are just -30 to -20 away from Austria now due to gifts and subsidies so in 3-4 months I should be in line to be elected Emperor. (Any sneaky ways to speed that process up? I suppose not but it can't hurt to ask).

Cut down the size of emporer. He gets large nation in HRE opinion bonus.

 

[Immortal88]

The situation is well resolved now, I've got at least +40 election preference with all of my 4 elector vassals, I'm just waiting for the current emperor to die right now

EDIT: Note to self - if the Emperor comes to the rescue when a HRE member state is attacked he'll get +100 relations with everyone. I'm glad I caught it immediately so I could quickly bribe my vassals with gifts and top off my relations with them to get in the green but for a brief moment there the Emperor almost got reelected. I guess it works both ways, if you're the Emperor you might get some use out of it

 

[Viperswhip]

The real trick is the number of female rulers Spain gets. I became head of the HRE once for less than 3 months before Isabel ascended the throne and that was that. I know later the HRE can be inherited by a Queen so maybe your game is far enough along that you won't get screwed by that little detail.