Papal States: Part 12: 1558-1571: Religious Wars in the Holy Roman Empire

Heresy in the HRE needed periodic culling. Even after I got rid of 4 heretic princes, they were up even worse to 33.

My war list included 11 cobeligerents, and 34 countries total, but I could call my allies to do most of the work.

I took Serbia's leftovers for myself, gave Berlin to the Commonwealth, and released some minors from Switzerland (to make Brandenburg and Switzerland convertible next war), but overall the war was just about conversions, and some church donations. After it was all done, heretic count fell to 19 (would be 18 but Hamburg went heretic halfway), and that even included one of the electors Saxony.

There were still 5 active centers of heresy in the HRE, so there was little hope of it staying that way, and the heretic count started ticking up before my soldiers even got home.

Well, I really wanted to expand into Persia, but once more Commonwealth dragged me into some stupid steppe war, where I'd end up in a truce with all the Persians.

Heretics in the HRE started a heretic league, and unfortunately my allies took opposite sides:

• Catholic - Austria, Burgundy, Spain
• Protestant - Commonwealth, Portugal

So far I'm trying to convince the heretics to accept Jesus peacefully so I didn't join either league. But if heretics attack, I'll be called into the war as emperor's ally anyway. Heretic count ended up going back to 27 just a decade after my big war, almost completely reversing my progress.

As I couldn't go East through Persia, I went through the Red Sea instead. I took Mecca for myself, and setup Alodia as a vassal on the other side.

God is blessing me with more and more money, and now I'm up to 525, and started upgrading monuments to level 3. It's not much longer to 1000 and economic hegemony.

I took Expansion as 4th idea group. It's not even for colonists (I sent one to Africa), it's mainly for -10% autonomy in territories, which would double tax and manpower I get from trade company regions, and I could maybe stack it. But it is also my backup way to reach China, in case I need to go through Indonesia or something.

My attempt at doing mini league wars.

I can't do the real ones, as Emperor is always leader of Catholic side, no matter how weak compared to other members.

It looks like I'm trying to recreate the Roman Empire, even though I'm doing my best to reach China.

My intervention in North Germany definitely reduced that nasty blue.