One first the other third; not sure it makes much difference on the order since you have to wait 50 years anyway.

But then you suggest Influence first? 50 years can pass quite fast. By the time I can integrate I should have the most important Influ ideas

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

But then you suggest Influence first? 50 years can pass quite fast. By the time I can integrate I should have the most important Influ ideas

Personally, I tend to take Influence first just so I can do cheap annexations/integrations as soon as possible. But as Bri says it doesn't make too much difference here. Particularly with PUs like the ones you mentioned, which you don't really need to be in a hurry to integrate.

I don't spend the points to integrate those unions at all. I just keep stacking diplo rep and inherit them for free, so Influence is a lower priority to me than Diplo. I always take Diplo first when I'm playing the HRE game.

But is it even a choice with Bohemia and a well fed Hungary? Trying my best to keep the otttos out of gaining ground in the Balkans.

So some rather big vassals to inherit by RNG.

I just ally Poland and conquer the Ottomans (and the rest of the Balkans) myself. I don't feed Hungary or any other large vassal. I'll fight reconquest wars for Bulgaria and Byzantium after I conquer and release one province, for example, but once they hit their natural boundaries, I stop and integrate them.

Shifting my collection point to the Venice node while conquering all of it means that the trade from the Balkans, Anatolia, Syria, Egypt, and so on can be routed there. It's my standard Austrian strat.

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

But is it even a choice with Bohemia and a well fed Hungary? Trying my best to keep the otttos out of gaining ground in the Balkans.

So some rather big vassals to inherit by RNG.

Blob out and stack diplo rep. I just inherited a full-sized Burgundy this way as Venice (got the Burgundian Inheritance, and fought Austria to keep the Lowlands so it was a very big Burgundy, but never got the Duchess of Burgundy Dies event). Had enough diplo rep and development to get me like 26% inheritance chance.

Also if Hungary isnt to big you can inherit them for free by forming Austro-Hungary

Better form Germany or unify the HRE before it becomes a problem then, because some nasty stuff happens afterwards.

Originally posted by Hanamo:

Also if Hungary isnt to big you can inherit them for free by forming Austro-Hungary

This is literally the loser path if you can't do the rest of the missions. No idea why anyone would ever recommend this.

For HRE play, I find Diplo to be a way better first pick than Influence. You asked for reasons, so here's analysis: The biggest two issues you have in the HRE are "becoming/maintaining oneself as Emperor" and "managing AE generation/reduction".

Let's note areas the two sets are equal: both give +1 diplo relations, and both give +2 diplo rep.

For the first, you need to establish and upkeep good relations with either 4 electors, or, if you're an elector, 3 electors, and that ensures there's exactly no possibility you won't be re-elected. That's a task much easier to do if you have additional Diplomats. You'll get a third additional diplomat from a policy if Admin is your second idea group, or, if you're intending not to stay Catholic and so you select Religious as your second idea group, you get a policy that will help with the process of the transition to the new religion when the time comes. And for the second issue, you get an Improved Relations buff, and your total Improved Relations affects decay rates for diplomatic relations adjustments (making the decay rate slower for positive adjustments, and faster for negative ones like AE). In other words, that Improved Relations buff will make your AE go away sooner.

By comparison, Influence doesn't have any of that. Influence is focused on keeping your subjects loyal, improving the benefits the subjects provide to you, and making it faster and easier to integrate them. Here's the thing: for the most part, those benefits are meaningless for a PU, which you have a lot of. PUs don't provide income to you, so the improved income from the idea set doesn't get you anything. Unlike most other subject types, PUs also compare only their own strength (military and economic) to yours, rather than the sum of the strength of all subjects compared to yours (as a regular vassal does). So liberty desire from development is going to be much lower, and their overall liberty desire is also going to be much lower, too. And, you can Support Loyalists with a PU for +20 loyalty, which you can't do with regular vassals. Lastly, if your diplo rep is high, you can instantly integrate a PU (it's random, though) upon a new ruler taking the throne in your country, so you mostly don't want to diplomatically integrate them anyway (meaning that the cost reduction to that is pretty moot for a PU). But even if you did want to, you can't for 50 years anyway, and guess what you'll have at about that time... a third idea group, which you could use to select Influence if you picked Diplo as your first idea group. Perfect timing for when you'd even be able to integrate them anyway.

That said, it's also worth noting that you get a stacking relations penalty if you integrate an HRE vassal, so I'd make the case that selecting Influence even as your 3rd idea group in HRE play isn't necessarily a good choice. Remember that as a part of centralizing the HRE you will get all HRE members as vassals anyway, and integrate them for free in the end, so your objective should be to be releasing countries out of HRE neighbors and then forcing those countries to join the HRE (if they don't do it on their own), not acquiring vassals (because they'll become your vassals later anyway). I like Diplo, Admin, Religious, then Influence, personally. You'd pick up Religious in that case right as the reformation is occurring, making it easier to counter the effects of reformation if you plan to stay Catholic, or easier to transition if you switch. Admin as your second choice is a solid pick for your second idea set all around, and gives the policy for the additional diplomat. Between that and the other added diplomats you'll have from Diplo Ideas, government rank, reforms, etc, you can easily keep all the HRE members at topped off +90-100 improved relations, which gives you a lot of room to accumulate AE without anybody even thinking of a coalition.

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

But is it even a choice with Bohemia and a well fed Hungary? Trying my best to keep the otttos out of gaining ground in the Balkans.

So some rather big vassals to inherit by RNG.

Hungary shouldn't be "well fed", in fact they shouldn't gain a single province after you PU them (unless they were already cut down to size by Poland and the Ottos and have some cores to reconquer). The land in the Balkans serves you far, far better when it's taken directly by you, or in the case of Bulgaria and Byzantium reconquered for a released vassal then swiftly integrated (probably finished before you are even able to begin integrating Hungary).

It is absolutely viable with Bohemia as well, particularly if you reduced their size by seizing either Prague (for the Great Project giving more Imperial Authority) or Cheb (for the juicy gold mine income) - in fact, before they added decisions allowing you to steal it, this was the only way (and probably still the most efficient way) to become an HRE Elector yourself to further secure your own Emperorship permanently.

Can't hurt to have Diplo, influence, espionage, and aristocratic as Austria at some point really. Min-maxing diplomats and diplo rep is criminally OP for Austria as they can already stack up the most diplo rep of any country and if your diplo rep is high enough the AI will pretty much do whatever you want.

As mentioned, the PU mechanic. Diplo will be fully functional by the moment the age of reformation so you'll get the massive +20% province cost associated with the +25% from splendor against other religion. It means Austria will have a very high incentive to take over east Mediterranea and go deeper until the age of absolutism. Making TC and routing trade in Europe, you'll be rich and powerful.
Influence is great with a smaller country when you want vassals but the liberty desire is a problem. And you want vassals to get the noble privilege that gives +2 diplomatic relations to grow powerful quickly through vassals and allies.