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ELECTORS:
Bohemia: 25
Brandenburg: 25
Cologne: 25
Mainz: 25
The Palatinate: 25
Saxony: 25
Trier: 25

PRINCES:
Aachen: 10
Alsace: 10
Ansbach: 10
Anhalt: 10
Austria: 10
Augsburg: 10
Baden: 10
Bavaria: 10
Brabant: 10
Bremen: 10
Brunswick: 10
Burgundy: 10
Cleves: 10
Frankfurt: 10
Friesland: 10
Gelre: 10
Hamburg: 10
Hesse: 10
Holland: 10
Holstein: 10
Liege: 10
Lorraine: 10
Lübeck: 10
Lüneburg: 10
Magdeburg: 10
Mecklenburg: 10
Memmingen: 10
Münster: 10
Nassau: 10
Nuremberg: 10
Oldenburg: 10
Pomerania: 10
Ravensburg: 10
Regensburg: 10
Salzburg: 10
Savoy: 10
Saxe-Lauenburg: 10
Silesia: 10
Switzerland: 10
Thuringia: 10
Ulm: 10
Utrecht: 10
Verden: 10
Wurzburg: 10
Wurttemberg: 10

It took few years, but Ernst of Saxony accepted Simon V as his suzerain!

With Munster, Mainz and Saxony our vassals, we have 3 votes in Electoral Council, permamently, unless we do something really bad.



Furthermore, Simon decided that it's time to accept the tenets of Protestantism. We're not engaged in Curia politics, and our innovativeness and progressivism are not exactly going hand-in-hand with plain old Catholicism.

This of course angers Holstein and Pomerania, our dear allies, who promptly dissolve the alliances. That is alright; Lippe does not need them anymore.



Bavarian royal family inherited Palatinate upon death of Ernst II; this in turn triggered elections in which Simon V of Lippe has been elected!

Long live Simon V von Mecklenburg, King of Lippe, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire!

We might be Protestant and are surrounded by scheming Catholics (Bavarians especially), nonetheless, prestige and glory is upon us!



Amongst religious reforms in Lippe, Simon decided to introduce Suffragan Bishops, and most importantly, grab church property by Dissolving the Monasteries.

With our stability recovering and prestige accumulating thanks to the title of Emperor of Romans, we no longer need a philosopher in our midst.



A-ha! Already a catholic pretender rises to challenge us. Fool! He and his rebels are easily crushed.

As we're heavily Innovative, we need missionaries to convert our provinces, capital of Westfalen especially, otherwise the religious turmoil will continue.

Fortunately an event spawns 2 of them for the cost of 1 stability (as Emperor, we regain that pretty fast)

To pay for their missionary work, the Emperor has to take a loan, unfortunately.



It seems we won't even need missionary work, for people of Osnabruck accepted teachings of Luther on their own. Very good!



Finally, with conversion of Westfalen itself, the instability of the era is now gone.

As you can see in top right corner, we're mustering forces. Our previous allies, Holstein and Pomerania, have some lands that are considered core parts of Lippe, and of course we cannot allow this to continue.



A disaster strikes the royal family of Lippe; Simon, son of Emperor Simon, dies of a fever despite the medicus' best efforts.



Fortunately, just before Simon ventures onto the battlefields of Pomerania, he gets a heir, Simon Heinrich.



Pomeranian lands are besieged by our vassals, while Simon, along with General Woldemar, took the two armies of Lippe against Milanese and Pomeranian forces sieging Oldenburg.

We destroy their forces at Bremen, and then fight at Munster against their other army. Also, Poland offers us an alliance, which we accept.



By end of October, Pomerania surrenders Mecklenburg to us. However, Savoy, Switzerland and Castille are besieging our provinces again.

Milan is the leader of the enemy alliance; maybe, with the beating we gave them earlier, they will accept a white peace now?



After rounds and rounds of refusing a white peace, Milanese agreed for peace if we revoke claims to Bavarian-held Ruppin. Sure thing.

While we took a hit to our legitimacy, Castille had to agree to peace as well, being part, not leader, of the alliance.



Shortly after the war, Simon V dies; his infant son and heir, Simon Heinrich, is elected Holy Roman Emperor, governed by a regency council.

God be with him! Especially that we're working on establishing formal alliance with certain other, Protestant, nation...

The scandalous Simon ascends to the throne as his father dies shortly after beginning of the war against Swedes.

Our vassals and ally Holstein join the war, while Sweden calls in Norway and Georgia for help.

In mid-September 1501, Swedish fleet gets pulverized in the Baltic, allowing us to roll out a simple plan:



March to Stockholm, capture it and demand the Sweden to pay for their warmongering!

Fleets of Pomerania and friends are blockading Swedish coasts, their land armies occupying Jutland peninsular.



Another important building unlocked; +25% Production equals more money in a long run. Big provinces with valuable goods tend to have the biggest effect.

As German states produce lots of metal, cloth and salt, they usually can squeeze most of coin from production rather than tax or trade.

Meanwhile, as shown by our amount of money, Lippe forces are running and looting across Sweden, fighting Swedish regiments. Of course, Stockholm is the end of the journey, but why not grab some free ducats while we're at it?



While Sweden is humilitated and Holstein gets some gains, we unfortunately lost the bid for Imperial throne; Ernst II of Bavaria has managed to sway Saxony in the last moment, getting 3rd vote.



Of course, we will fight for the Throne; Simon Knyphausen ought to help us greatly. The moment he starts working, Saxony casts its vote in our favor!



Simon V, being scandalous per usual, updates the old religious policies a bit.

Next day comes confirmation; our Legitimacy ticking up and work of Simon Knyphausen has swayed Modena to our side as well.

With 4 votes out of 7 (Bohemia votes for self, Palatinate for its senior Bavaria, and Hainaut for France, for some reason), we have a solid chance to be elected Emperor of Holy Roman Empire when Ernst II of Bavaria dies.



Finally, the greatness of gunpowder reaches the minds of our strategists, and we can commission artillery units!



Soon afterwards, we get new unit upgrades. What you see on the main map is religious overlay; the dark lemony of Christianity is ridden with blotches of Protestant dark blue. Their current greatest supporter is Vellexon family, the royal house of France.

And yes, Altmark just recently converted to Protestantism. With 3 out of 7 provinces adhering to heretical faith, Simon V is considering... things.



Four provinces are now Protestant; only the heartlands of Lippe remain truly Catholic!



Alas, religious disorder has spread across Lippe, despite our efforts.

We will try to be tolerant, but Protestantism is championed as true faith of German states; even our friends and some of vassals have already embraced it.

Therefore, Simon V is asking his courtiers:



To abandon the teachings of Papal dogmatics, or not??

We have a mission to vassalize Frankfurt, and the wealthy imperial city will bring us lots of money.

That means we can fight for it soon, once we get some manpower reserves. as you can see, support of our allies, we already have!



Meanwhile, in Pisa, right next to Pope's door, Protestant movement begins.



So many targets, unfortunately Pomerania and Holstein control half of them.



They eaten it, they've got its Electorate. They also inherited Carniola and formed a personal union over Palatinate.

With two votes basically guaranteed to them, they, Bohemia and us are now fighting for Electoral support.



For us, it is time for a war. Frankfurt must be subjugated, and we quickly deal with its urban army.



Either Italians really hate the Pope, or there's witchcraft involved.

Shortly after this 'Calvin' preaches his version of Protestant faith, Frankfurt surrenders and agrees to become our vassal.



Thuringia is humilitated as a present for Simon, who has become of age.



Finally, we can muster stronger forces. Galloglaigh regiments greatly favor offense, as you can see.



In meanwhile, Simon 'enjoys' life a bit more than conservative court of Lippe would prefer him to. A noble girl from Ansbach should be sufficient to distract him.



First Kassel, now this? Our country is slowly falling under influence of the Protestants.



Finally, the stubborness of Switzerlander syndics forced all the parties to sign a white peace.

Few days later, Simon once again proves to be a deviant, as maids report he is 'visiting' places in Lippe at night to behave in most un-christian manner.

That boy is a hedonist and casanova, and that will get him in trouble one day, I just know it.



The pope does not sleep, and quickly begins Counter-Reformation after recent resurgence of Lutheran and Calvinist heresies.



Once again, Pomerania calls for aid in a war, but this time, it is the mighty Sweden.

Of course, Lippe will not shirk from its obligations towards our best ally. To arms!

Once this pops up on the screen, the royal family of Lippe begins working on a plan.

Currently, we have cores on both Hesse and Kassel. The lands that belonged to Cologne, Koln and Trier, are experiecing a nationalist uprising.

Once Cologne is restored, this will leave Hesse with two lands that we can easily annex without incuring infamy or wrath of the Austrian Emperor.



Glorious will Lippe be, indeed! While Oldenburg has a powerful ally that is England, Altmark is not only landlocked but its only ally is Denmark.

This will be a good target practice before we deal with Hesse! Onwards, to war!!



Oldenburg was called into the war and our friend, Pomerania, got punched so hard by Denmark they begged for peace three months into the war.

Holstein and Munster are dealing with Oldenburg forces, and we are soon to annex Altmark. Inevitably however, Denmark will make a landfall via Oldenburgian lands.

On 17th November, Magdeburg is annexed into Lippe.



The Danish landfall never comes; instead, Holsteinian heretics went for Schlesvig, tying up army of Denmark!

We cannot miss this opportunity; while our friends are besieging Oldenburg, we must break the Danes and secure Holsteinian independence.



Mm, dead enemy stack is best enemy stack <3

Holstein unfortunately agrees to white peace with Denmark, so we redelegate our forces to besiege Oldenburg.



Out of nowhere, Hamburg and Luneburg join Oldenburgian side; we teach them a quick and bloody lesson why that was a mistake.

On 6th November, Oldenburg capitulates and agrees to become our vassal; exactly 4 months later, in February, Denmark asks for peace which we accept.

Pomerania asks us to formally join the war against Mecklenburg, which we do, if only to honor the treaty because Pomerania wins the war and annexes Mecklenburg just few weeks later.



It is time to strike! We will have entirety of Hesse-Kassel for ourselves!



_{Shoo away Nuremberg, I'm trying to be dramatic here!}

The war quickly escalated into an affair that has drawn Wurzburg, Milan and Savoy as well.

In initial combat, our army gets defeated and flees for Munster, where Ernst Kasimir Eder dies. He served us well.

After Pomeranian, Oldenburgian and Holsteinian forces arrive in Lippe, however, we make short work out of Hessian and Wurzburgian soldiers.



We annex Hesse as planned and take money from Wurzburg.



Because we had no money or diplomats to recruit another general, Otto II von Mecklenburg had to lead the army himself, presumably causing his premature death shortly after we signed peace with Wurzburg.

Fortunately, Bernard ascends right away, and his 8-years old heir, Simon, is there to continue the line in case the worst happens.

On 10th November 1491, Milan decides to send us an offer of white peace, and we agree to end the hostilities.

Glory to Lippe!