- Austria failing to get either Bohemia and/or Hungary to personal union already comes next to a restart. Even with your big starting army, as emperor you simply won't have enough armies, money and manpower to face all the wars to come.





- Austria realizing once again your most greedy princes have strong support from other major powers. So again, Bohemia and Hungary will guide you through the worst, but still there is need for at least one major power outside of the HRE as ally.





- Austria facing the (in)famous Franco-Ottoman love, which almost seems inevitable for a human player





- Never-ending wars for imperial liberation





- Endless efforts in bribing electors and, at least as much as that, keeping electors away from blobbing at the same time - no, you should not marry them and you should not ally them, at least never ever more than one at a time, or they will just become the worst blobbers of all.





- As Brandenburg, just as forming Prussia noting Poland won a PU over Austria. Which at this stage can be the worst possible event as it comes next to dismantling the HRE. If you have been allied to Poland until now, this soon will end, and if you have been hoping for protection from the emperor, you may now forget this as there will be numbers of OPM-rulers next to come before any major power settles to the role.



- As Brandenburg, becoming emperor yourself just to prevent your rivals from doing so. You have been the first working on bringing imperial authority down in any possible way, so now you have to run that wreck, and you have to choose between repairing damage at cost of others, or to speed up total demolition for your own profit while heading for Germany.





- As any nation: the league war starting, the timing of the league war starting, and finally the bloody useless league war itself (Unless you are emperor, want to become emperor or you just found an easy way out for getting those tech bonuses. Any ideas welcome...) Likely it will just kick off as you are yourself at war with another major faction of your own league, just adding insult to injury.





- You never get it all, even as Austria I have never seen this happening. Either you have to pass on the Burgundy heritage or on keeping Italy in the Empire. I have never seen a ‘perfect’ game as any nation of the HRE.





- The horrible mess of even more horrible interfaces and menus you have to keep monitoring all the time, even more so as emperor.​

- Seeing the final blob one day, no matter if it turns out to be Germany or HRE, it just makes you happy.





- Seeing the vassal-swarm in action on your final steps forming the HRE, which btw is a strong argument for stopping right there – then again, this used to be like auto-war mode and may just make you lose interest due to a serious lack of future challenges.





- Probably this is the best place for learning land wars and any kind of combat/siege mechanics





- Enjoying machiavellic skills. Where else could you probably find so many provinces as give-aways on which multiple rivals have simultaneous cores and vital interests?





- Enjoying land war and continental blobbing





- Diplomatic twists of extreme density, options to win wars before they ever started





- Endless options for royal marriages, heritage and forced unions





- Using separate peace offers for maximum profit, sometimes even in wars which are blatant losses in total





- The most thrilling ironman games I ever found. Even some 100-150 years into the game, one miscalculated war effort may just bring you back to where you started. In my eyes, this gives HRE-ironmans very special charmes.​