Bohemian Empire: Part 14: 1599-1616: First Coalition

I took a break from HRE fights and attacked the Mamluks, taking Jerusalem and some forts for myself, and releasing Syria as vassal to manage AE.

I allied Shia Persia as well, for AE management.

My maximum absolutism was just 21%, due to all the privileges I granted, so start of age of absolutism meant mass privilege revocation. Turns out revoking privileges is super easy, barely an inconvenience, and by the time Age of Absolutism started, my max absolutism was up to a much nicer 69%.

I passed 5th reform, and unfortunately then I noticed that my Expand Empire CB on Sweden expired, as I lost Age of Reformation bonus for 20% warscore discount. And it would be so nice to get Sweden into HRE.

I was happily fighting Mamluks in a second war, when Pope tried to start a coalition against me. Well, it's amazing it took that long. I attacked the Pope day one

Of course I couldn't let them actually form a coalition, so I declared war on them day one. This did not discourage a bunch of other countries from coalitioning me anyway.

I got a few new minors into HRE, and then I noticed that Bourbonnais I just made join is being attacked by France. Well, that's the first time I use Enforce Peace ever I think. France refused, all HRE minors got +50 opinion modifier with me.

We 100%ed France, and Bourbonnais took 5 provinces and even handed over one to Spain for some reason. I allied Spain after this, since I might have to expand into Tunis or France soon, and they have no other allies, and lost most of their colonies, so they're exactly the kind of weakened state that could use some protection.

Coalition is just Genoa, Anizah, and Hormuz. I don't know why they thought that would be enough. Genoa and Hormuz even have slightly positive relations.

There was also a minor issue - I declared Expand Empire war on Orleans, and winning it made some of their lands join HRE, but not their capital, so they're still a non-HRE power, and now there's an imperial province controlled by foreigners (that is Orleans) costing me some IA.

I still hope to stack up absolutism so high I can get force Sweden (really close) and France (very far, but it keeps getting smaller, so maybe) into the HRE. That would cost some stupid amount of AE, and drag me into war with my ally Muscovy.

Then again, if I broke up Muscovy into pieces, and made them join the HRE too...

I'm not sure how far this campaign will go, I'll probably declare it won at Revoke The Privilegia, and I'm already 5 reforms in, with 4 to go (ignoring some optional ones).  

There were a few awkward simultaneous wars, Great Britain got dragged into this due to their Defender of the Faith, but AI doesn't know how to transport troops, so I usually just ignore them.

I could have pushed the Mamluks harder to get Mecca for +1 missionary, but I wasn't sure if I'd be fighting coalition with Denmark and who knows else just right away, so I only took Syrian cores and some cash.

Bohemian Empire: Part 13: 1590-1599: Denmark in Empire

So I have Expand Empire CB, which I can use to make countries join - and that gives me some free IA.

I got Moldova, Ferrara, Savoy, and Naxos. And while at it I made some of their allies release a bunch of OPMs like Corsica, Lucca, Parma, Donauworth, Bamberg.

I wanted to have a glorious fight against Spain for Naples cores on Sicily, but it turns out they expired, as Paradox split Neapolitan and Sicilian cultures. Those silly microcultures are seriously annoying.

Well, what else can I do? Turns out I can force Denmark to join the HRE. I didn't expect that. France which I recently allied was on their side, but everybody in Europe really hated Denmark, so I had a huge alliance on my side - all the while France was busy fighting Spain.

I made France and Pope release some minors, and got Denmark to join the Empire. A small problem is that they're heretics, but I'll get to it eventually. Not sure how, as Denmark -200 hates me, and even if they loved me they're enormous, but opportunities show up every now and then, and heretic penalty is per country, so they only cost me as much as Ulm would.

Than unfortunately only added mainland of Denmark, not Norway or Livonia, so if I force them to release Norway or Livonia, they'll leave the Empire. Quite annoying.

That costs 25% AE cost, the same as returning cores, so it wasn't quite free, but I managed to convince everyone to please not coalition me just yet.

After that war, I passed the 4th reform. It's going to be about 15 years between reforms by just ticking IA, so counting all other sources I'll be able to revoke about 1650-1670.

Once our 15 year truces expire, I plan to add about 5 more countries I recently released to the HRE, if they're still around. It would be great if I somehow managed to fragment France so much that what's left can be added, but I'm not sure if I can make it.

Playing as Austria, and having all those CBs by 1470s would be really powerful - this late they're just less amazing.

Oh and there's supposedly some way to make countries join peacefully, but I have no idea how that even works.

Danish War. Spain's separate war with France distracted their troops, so it wasn't too bad.

My navies were getting wrecked by pretty much everyone, and wargoal was on an island, so that was a bit awkward, but it somehow ended up working out fine.

Bohemian Empire: Part 12: 1575-1590: End of the Turk Menace

Third Swedish War of Independence erupted - it was Sweden, me, Muscovy, and Great Britain vs Denmark, France, and Pope.

Brits sunk Danish ships, so we had supremacy in the North, but French and Papal navies turned out to be stronger than mine in the Mediterranean.

Sweden decided to troll me, and gave my vassal Naples most of its cores from Pope, without any discount as this is wrong CB. This is of course total bullshit, core return should always be at AE discount, but EU4 CB system is just not smart enough to support that. And that's after I annexed what was left of Mantua. Together, that meant France and Spain both in coalition territory - fortunately France was already involved in Swedish Independence War, so we'd have a long truce.

I integrated Hungary, mostly to get proper control over Ragusa trade node, and that was another opinion hit with all HRE members.

Then I destroyed what was left of the Ottomans, and that was the last straw for the Mamluks, who broke our long alliance. I allied France instead, so if Spain coalitions me, they can get some French land maybe.

I passed 3rd reform, this time without any extra delays. That gave me Expand Empire CB which I can use to force minors into the HRE. Sounds like fun, except people say it's bugged.

Bohemian Empire: Part 11: 1563-1575: Finally Reforming HRE

So I read the files, and that Imperial Incident that makes junior PU partners join HRE, it doesn't happen for the emperor. It's baffling why, but that means Commonwealth won't autojoin, and so I'll need to pay mana to integrate them someday.

Anyway, I just noticed that Naples got severely beaten my the Pope, and have very little land left. Then I cleaned up Venice, and got some land from Aq Qoyunlu. Georgia emerged, so I diplovassalized them, and threaned war for one of their cores.

Naples separatists even occupied half of Papal States, and had army five times bigger than the Pope, but EU4 rebels mechanics are so pointless that never amounted to anything.

All that got me over diplo relations limit, so I integrated Stettin, and that made the whole HRE really angry at me. Fortunately there's nobody strong to back all those minors, so no coalition happened so far.

I attacked Ragusa, Ottomans respected their 1444's silly guarantee, so I broke their alliances with Muscovy and Tunis. Mamluks took full advantage of it and attacked them right away, taking half their land. Guarantees should expire after like 30 years, this is just silliness.

I was finally had IA to resume reforming HRE, but Muscovy dragged me into some pointless war with Nogai, so I wasted 24 IA before I was at peace and could press the button, basically half another reform. I hate AI allies.

I have no idea how I managed to keep alliances with Muscovy and Mamluks for so long.

Mamluk alliance hinges on me sending insults to Ming or Spain on a regular basis

Muscovy alliance on using diplomatic trickery to fight their allies without fighting Muscovy itself

Of all the great powers, Denmark/Sweden is really due for destruction. The Sweden want independence, and this time I can support it without it being too much hassle.

Bohemian Empire: Part 10: 1555-1563: Heretic-Free Empire

I changed my mind, and decided I don't want to get into Swedish-Danish fight. That would delay liberation of Danish-occupied parts of the Empire too much. And it's much more fun to attack France.

Sweden declared its independence war, supported by England and Spain, against Denmark and Muscovy. That's good balance of power in theory, but really all its allies were too far, and in ended up losing.

While I was fighting France, Muscovy got tired of saving Denmark, so I declared on them as well.

Then it was a few minor wars, a lot of diplomats demanding conversion, and I only got rejection once from Geneva, as there really wasn't any way to get them into a fight. Rejecting conversion gives me a CB, so that was the last one.

While at it, I took some more land from Mantua, so together with some trade power transfer, I have over 50% trade power in Venice end node now. That's mostly thanks to milking estates for mercantilism. I'm at 59%, next highest is Venice at 38%, and really most countries have below 15%. 59% mercantilism is +118% province trade power, and it will only increase, at least until absolutism comes and I have to change my approach.

Finally after a bit over 20 years, HRE is heretic-free, and completely free of foreign control (not counting two provinces held by Commonwealth, as they don't cause any penalties). Now that there are no more Imperial Authority exploits that I know of, it will take until about 1650 to unify it.

Free and Hussite Empire. There's event chain for PU juniors to join the HRE, but since it already fired for Hungary, I don't know if it can also fire second time for the Commonwealth.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world. I'm not really challenging other Great Powers much, so they can do whatever.

I'm allied with Muscovy and Mamluks, and they hate each other, so it's not going to last much longer, and I'll need to pick sides. Muscovy annoys me a lot more with its Ottoman alliance, but the Mamluks have much nicer clay, especially Jerusalem for free missionary.

Or maybe I could ally France now that they're no longer occupying any Imperial clay

Bohemian Empire: Part 09: 1544-1555: Restoring Imperial Order

So my main problems are 46 countries with enough AE to coalition me (most sort of managed by my diplomats), 24 heretic imperial princes, and 22 imperial provinces occupied by foreigners. And once I liberate HRE clay, those liberated princes will largely be heretics as well.

I did the usual strategy of starting as many wars against as many heretic OPMs as possible, as long as it didn't involve any major power. I liberated some provinces from Provence while at it. Knights of Rhodes were constantly raiding me, so I took Rhodes, and while I was at it, I seized the island of Venice. I couldn't take anything more due to AE, but eventually I'd like to take that whole end node.

But really it wasn't the OPMs that were coalition risk - even if half of the HRE hated me, they wouldn't create a coalition without some strong external support. And that someone was the Ottomans. Unfortunately they were allied with my ally Muscovy. So I distracted Muscovy with some silly war against the Golden Horde, and invaded the Ottomans.

That was a fun war, as I had to go to 161% OE. A lot of haters as well, but with so many diplomats and without majors it's very manageable.

After my first decade I reduced imperial heretic princes to just 11, and foreign-occupied provinces to 18. With my first reelection I even have positive imperial authority, so I asked some bigger countries (Switzerland and Brabant) to convert.

I'm supporting Swedish independence for fun. Muscovy is allied to Denmark so they might end up breaking up with me.

I was pretty much forced to seize that Turk land. Anatolia is now two trade companies.

All that Greater Circassia was just a way to distract Muscovy that got out of hand

Converting the HRE worked mostly fine. It's just Austria, Utrecht, and some OPMs left.

Bohemian Empire: Part 08: 1535-1544: Victory of the Hussite League

The HRE was a mess, with 21 Catholic, 17 Hussite, 9 Protestant, and 8 Reformed princes, including 3 Catholic, 3 Hussite, and 1 Protestant electors, 25 provinces under non-imperial control, OPM emperor Burgundy who was forced to revoke second reform, and Bohemian control over Brandenburg still not recognized.

I pressed Abandon Personal Union button for the first time in my life and got rid of Cilli. 16dev OPM PU is not worth that diplo slot.

Then I started picking fights with HRE minors, and converting them. I declared myself Defender of the Hussite Faith.

I was trying my best to start Hussite League, but Emperor did it first - one of electors got annexed, and Emperor just proclaimed some Hussite OPM as replacement, so now we're in majority of 5.

I tried to join Hussite League, and then I discovered you cannot become League leader if you're in consort regency. EU4 has so many of those tiny rules you won't run into in 100 campaigns. Well it was just a few years' wait.

The Leagues were small:

• Hussite League - Bohemia, 13 HRE minors, none of my allies were interested
• Catholic League - Emperor OPM Burgundy, Spain, Portugal, 3 HRE minors, some Emperor's minor allies, and Genoa's trade league as Emperor as also minor member of a trade league, first time I'm seeing such an embarrassing performance

Austria decided to join halfway through the war. The war wasn't too difficult. Spain had naval superiority, but it couldn't control the whole sea at once, so it didn't do them much good. After all the minors were defeated, everyone invaded Spain, and their mountain forts were not enough to stop us.

I became the Emperor but the Empire was a mess. I granted 2 missing Free Cities. And then I had to subjugate Saxony, and eat all the resulting AE.

And then I discovered the mission tree was all lies, and the "legitimate vassal elector" thing tooltip promises is not true at all - it applies to elector votes, but vassal electors are still bleeding imperial authority like crazy. Never mind then, I consoled changed Brandenburg and Saxony from vassals into PU subjects. That was on the original dropdown, the tooltip just lied that other options are even remotely reasonable.

And The Empire is still a mess. 24 heretics, and 22 provinces occupied by foreigners (France, Denmark, Provence, and technically Poland), 0 IA (with big negative ticking), and only 1 reform passed. I have a lot of work to do.

That's the Empire as I received it. Full of Frenchmen and heretics and worse. A lot of work to do.