Too Easy: Austria to the Holy Roman Empire

[sir q]

Having already done this successfully in HTTT, I'm going to try to AAR a Holy Roman Empire formation as Austria. This should be everybody's first HTTT game, whether they're a newbie or experienced Paradox gamer, I think. Win or lose, you get exposed to most of the critical systems in the game. Pick your favorite German state, of course, but Austria and Bohemia have the best footing in 1399.

This is a pretty bare-bones AAR. I tend to collect all of the important popup windows for several months or years, then screenshot all of them when an important decision or some sort of event happens. I hope it's clear, but let me know if there's anything I can do to improve the presentation. If the first post with big images breaks the tables too much, I'll switch to thumbnails.

Get ready for a lot of big screenshots and a very low-infamy game.

The objective is to make the Holy Roman Empire as large as possible before forming it into a nation, but also to form it as early as possible, because I'm just as interested in what a very large nation can do in HTTT. There should be very little bloodshed in the course of the formation, and I see no reason not to absorb the remaining European countries peacefully thereafter - I'm a little more open to changing late-game strategies based on feedback, but I think a lot of the early moves have to be done in a pre-determined "best" way. Like chess.

Of course I think my playstyle is the best in the world, but like anyone I've only had this game three days. Feedback is welcome, but I'm probably going to argue with you.

Organization is largely TBD.

#0: Prologue.

The first five years were spent on diplomacy: paying and marrying electors (and anyone else who came calling), mostly. Building strong relations and my own alliance with Hungarian ally Venice kept them out of the first war.

#1: The Habsburgs, 1399-1456.

• Save attached.

#2, part I: The Hesse-Kassels, 1456-1484.
#2, part II: The Hesse-Kassels, 1484-1509.

• Save attached.

#3, part I: On 35% Revolt Risks, 1509-1582.

• Save attached.

 

[sir q]

#1: The Habsburgs, 1399 -- 1456.

Battles are difficult to capture in screenshots. They're a matter of setup. Do you have the high ground? Do you know their morale, their general's capacity, the infantry/cavalry balance? Winning is never a question, as long as I've paused the game and thought ahead - not because I have some great knowledge of the battle system, but because every video game battle is designed so that you'll succeed if you apply Sun Tzu's principles. No joke, read the Art of War if you haven't; it'll make you a better gamer. I won't lie, though, I did reload "old_autosave" at a couple well-timed crashes.

Nevertheless, we (the royal we) "intervened" all the way to Transylvania. If I remember, I allied Venice which gave me an "Alliance" Casus Belli on Hungary & Co. by way of the Ottoman Empire. Bizzare details of European monarchy simulators aside, I conquered a Hungary that was at war with Lithuania and the Ottoman sphere.

Transylvania starts the game as a Hungarian vassal, but peace with the Ottomans forced them to independence and left me to devour both countries. "Balkanization" is an English word for a reason.

Oh dear look what I've gone and done

Along with the rest of the screen to give a clue as to the amount of diplomatic clicking I've been doing. Those electors charge a hefty fee.

Another one? Better watch your infamy boy. I'm actually done at this point, up to 14.6 infamy on "Hard" difficulty. I'll give the Balkans and the looming Ottomans a rest. This war was just a matter of waiting out the treaty and fabricating claims - personal unions are a nice outcome. Functionally, they're no different than vassals on the battlefield. I don't know how much of their income I get, but I do know there are a lot of friendly provinces between the Sultan and Vienna.

No need to have a discussion about morale. You get less on Hard. You need more to beat people in wars. Hungary had substantially more morale than me during the first unification war, before I released Croatia. I like to think that when the files say AI countries get a small morale boost on Hard, that also applies to my juniors and vassals. True or not, I usually try to start the game by building up a few AI countries that will fight for me.

The who did what!?

They elected me in 1425. Between then and 1432, between engaging in boring stalemates in the Netherlands and Poland and gaining little imperial authority, about a dozen of these happened:

Croatia and Pecs, the juniors' capitals, joined up almost immediately. I got "Bestow Imperial Grace" buttons on their countries, so I guess joining your capital joins your nation to the HRE. This is my favorite event. Bring your Poles and your Danes and your Wallonians and your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

"The First Imperial Intervention: Cleaning Up Bohemia's Mess"

"The Second Imperial Intervention: Overextended Hansa Overextends Itself, Is Made To Eat Humble Pie"

"The War of the Korfu Komedy Klub"

"... or an intelligent peace by an island OPM"

"Right, I passed 50 imperial authority. Got ur culture."

This last reform passed in 1450, and by what can only be described as the bizzare kind of fate ordained by a pseudorandom number generator, the Habsburg dynasty came to a quick end. A picture says a thousand words.

Perhaps I shouldn't jump to conclusions: "my" heir was the one-year-old Habsburg King of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor.

I note that the royal houses of Europe are something of a sausagefest. It's a wonder these fellows last longer than a few generations what with the total absence of women of their rank. Never mind: if monarch traits are genetic, Hesse-Kassel must mean "reduces war exhaustion."


Next up.

#2: von Hesse-Kassel, or "they changed it to Haskell on Ellis Island"

 

[sir q]

next round preview:

 

[tuore]

Looking nice! After I've finished my Castille-Spain game, I'll try Austria.

 

[unmerged(105596)]

Interesting, I'm doing the exactly same thing.

 

[sir q]

Chapter 2, part I: the von Hesse-Kassels, 1456 -- 1484.

So much for that velvet glove. I had patience for intransigent electors and a crappy emperor in 1420; not in 1458. Bohemia's weak defense of the empire was allowing medium states to eat small ones, and while that's nice for later imperial liberations, it's also pointless internecine warfare that does nothing to expand my future borders. We may not be Emperor right now, but we're eventually going to inherit the Empire; we don't make a profit when Bavaria annexes Ansbach.

If Bohemia's not going to enforce imperial law, someone has to.

Let's start with Bohemia. The three-province elector of Cologne is alliance leader.

Though we lost the crown several years ago, we've kept some 60 regiments on a forcelimit of 20. I'm thinking when we need the imperial army, there won't be time to rebuild dozens of regiments. Austria is very financially stable.

This war will net me only one elector. The wise (?) choice of Cologne as alliance leader allows me to trim Bohemia substantially, then move on; the one-province Palatinate is annexed by someone (maybe Bavaria?) before I can get there, costing me another elector.

No matter, old vassal Saxony and new vassal Cologne toe the line, and probably wishing to avoid the same fate Mainz and Luneburg do too.

*demotes the pope*

The last war ended around 1460, and was followed by boring years of peace and diplomatic clicking. In 1466, waiting for King Ladislav II the Passive of Bohemia to die, I got greedy in the Balkans. After Corfu shattered Anatolia in the last post, the Ottos had been beaten up pretty badly by their own rebels and were in no shape to intervene... and I really like vassal states.

Bosnia, Serbia, Moldavia, Bulgaria, Infamy Limit...

We pulled the new vassals into alliances, barely, before the fairly minor badboy wars. We were badly overextended in the Balkans - 60 regiments only does so much good with 700 manpower - so these ended in stalemate. A few more imperial states were eaten up by the traitorous Burgundy.

Annoying. It gets harder and harder to become Emperor as you gain infamy.

Fortunately, infamy burns fast;

we get back the imperial manpower, forcelimit and casus belli;

win a delicious peace from Milan;

and continue to muscle reforms through the Reichstag.

Part 2: Losing Burgundy.

 

[tuore]

 

[sir q]

Chapter 2, part II: the von Hesse-Kassels, 1484 -- 1509.

<foreshadowing>

I say, be careful with that second-to-last imperial reform

</foreshadowing>

If the Holy Roman Empire is out of balance, it's because during the passage of reforms, the member states stay too strong and the emperor gets even stronger. The penalties to members from later reforms should be substantially harsher, forcing members to rely almost entirely on the Emperor for defense.

In other words, I'm mad that Burgundy didn't bring me along. Double mad, because in spite of a strong early showing, they surrendered Valciennes and Cambray to the French.

Call it overkill if you want; I still never end a war above 0 manpower.

Imperial liberation.

If there's a chance I won't beat the AI army in the first big battle, this is how I fight. Occupy everything, then come back to break armies and recover my provinces. Defensive slider was maxed 40 years ago.

I could get used to these peace deals.

Speaking of sliders, here's how Austria looks in 1488.

That healthy-looking 20-year-old heir died the next day.

The more the merrier!

Europe looks deceptively friendly. Must be the royal marriage with France. At some point around now, Montenegro revolted two provinces away from my three-province vassal Bosnia, and the strange little kingdom of Wallachia came into being from an Ottoman province between Transylvania and Serbia.

On the other hand, Austrian-cultured gold mines Gorz and Krain defected to us.

Too much peace for too much time. Weakening Burgundy, the Empire's buffer against France, is stupid. Declaring war without a proper liberation CB is also stupid. As you'll see in a few screenshots, this war caused immense damage to the empire. I guess I just lost patience with the Burgundians after watching them devour France in my last game; I was running out of principalities to liberate, too.

Guess what happens when you try to push this reform on member states that hate you.

I didn't even have time to pull my troops out of Burgundy.

In less than 20 years of existence, Wallachia had become the senior in personal unions over Burgundy and Bohemia. This peace pulled the last important opponent besides France out of the war.

I do not know the dynastic and inheritance consequences of vassalizing a country that's senior in a PU with two others.

Flanders revolted off of Burgundy around now and failed to join the Empire. I'm not sure if neighboring states actually lose the option to join the empire after the Privilegia is revoked. I need to check when I load the game again. Nevers joined the empire between the time I clicked the reform and the time I clicked the "oath of loyalty" popup to make everyone my vassals.

More balkanization, more imperial authority.

France spent the next ten years beating the shit out of us. We had enough released-state allies and vassals near France - Cologne, Alsace, Nevers, Lorraine, etc. - that we got beaten down to -70% warscore, even after driving large French armies out of Austria and the Balkans.

But patience pays; the French spent a decade demanding we cede Genoa. Like hell I'm giving up the last center of trade in the empire; I think the Flemish have Antwerp, and the Hansa quit when I revoked the Privilegia.

A boatload of Austrian gold solves this problem...

... and leaves us to focus on a new one.

Annexing Saxony was clearly unnecessary, but I wanted to see if it had any effect on imperial authority. It didn't.

Somehow, Salzburg defected to Austria.

It's 1509. The empire is savaged, losing Bohemia, Burgundy and the Hansa. France is strong and getting stronger. But we own the Balkans.

If we unite now, there will be a great deal of bloodshed in reclaiming lost imperial territories.

If we wait, we may be able to push some states back in diplomatically - but the only guarantee is that France will get stronger.

 

[unmerged(105596)]

I say, be careful with that second-to-last imperial reform, I got a nasty world war going on with that one...

 

[sir q]

#3, part I: On 35% Revolt Risks, 1509 -- 1582.

The trigger for the end of Religious Civil Disorder, in English, sounds like this.

"If you have religious turmoil, this event will fire an average of two months after one of the following becomes true:

Force-converted
Catholic country, <10% Calvinist, <10% Protestant
Calvinist country, <10% Catholic, <10% Protestant
Protestant country, <10% Catholic, <10% Calvinist"

I spent about ten hours playing through this 105-year civil war, took 214 screenshots, and realized how difficult it will be to write a coherent story during a 105-year civil war. So this chapter will, generally, cover the civil war, while the next will cover foreign affairs during the same period.

We stayed our hand on the last reform. After loading the save as Burgundy, it turned out that neighboring provinces can still, at least, click the Join the Empire button. This gave me hope for restoring some of the lost states to the empire...

... but seven years of gifts and royal marriages brought a grand total of 0 provinces into the empire.

Three years of relative domestic stability allowed us time to build a proper army, which, as expected, was soon needed. The army report from the day RCD began:

Things are still under control, but two of three adviser seats are already filled with High Judges.

And his piss-poor diplomatic and administrative skills will bring our country to its knees.

A little diplomacy and a few uprisings bring us to 1524; we're up to three high judges. King Franz I's younger brother, Johann, is 7/8/8; we send the king onto the battlefield.

I typically run the game at 5* speed, pausing frequently to deal with things. For this reason, I'm deeply grateful that every rebel army that will spawn in a month spawns on the same day.

Now let's run this shit into the ground!

See you in Hell, Sicily.

Once you get to this point, triggered events seem to decide almost entirely the duration and severity of your civil war, and your diplomatic options for the duration.

You peasants don't scare me.

Well, okay, maybe they should.

Zero legitimacy? Are you kidding me? Did they just give some stoner our last name and make him the king?

This will prove to be the most helpful single event in the 16th century. Montenegro is the two-province minor that revolted off of Bosnia; there are fifteen HRE provinces between France and Montenegro. They immediately ask for military access and start slaughtering rebels along our entire border, all through Northern Italy, and in Croatia.

And so begins the second phase of the ... Imperial Civil War? Holy Roman Civil War? Roman Civil War? Never mind.

The end of -3.3% prestige from unclaimed cores.

Although this also zeroes out our prestige, which has been around or above 50 since this thing began.

I'd probably been playing for six or seven consecutive hours to get through the last 55 years. Civil wars are impossibly time-consuming. But I'm growing tired of right-clicking on red and black rectangles, so I let the thing recover a bit.

Patience, patience, patience. The turning point will come, and it will take you some time to realize you're no longer pausing to chase down four to six new rebel armies every month.

But the hole we're in is still a mile deep and a foot wide.