Should I attack the Papal States?

[Idaeus]

Hey guys!

New to the forums here so go easy on me. I'm playing as Sicily in a campaign right now... I've conquered the area around the Papal States but I'm not sure if I should attack. Will I get all of christendom against me? Can I take just one of their 2 states but leave rome alone? What will be the effects and what do you reccomend me doing? What happens if I destroy the whole Papal faction? Thanks for your help!

[Sisko]

Well, I think as far as I know from what I read in the manual, you can never truely "beat" the papal states, you can take their land away from them, but then they'll just move their capital to a Catholic factions lands. All of Chrisendom can then attack you without respite from the Pope.

It can in my view, be a bad idea to go after the Papal States, unless you want to possibly be attacked on all sides by several, or all Catholic nations :S

[preston]

i attacked them as Milan and to be honest with you its a BAD idea. I had EVERY catholic faction allied against me and every single one of them had mulitple crusades against me. and Sisko is right you can't beat them because once rome or their last province is gone they take up homage in another catholic factions land that is not excommunicated. So think wisely before you try to wipe them off the face of the earth. oh and +rep for asking a really good question

[AdmiringtheEnemyeh?]

Heres what you do if you want to attack the pope. First find a very isolated region, such as rhodes, and conquer it. Gift it to the papal states. Blitz the papl states, and make sure you kill all their other settlements BESIDES the isolated one you just gifted them. The pope will then spawn on that island, for all eternity. The next step is to sent to faction leader off in a small fleet to die. You relations with the papal states will then be normal again, and you will have their settlements. Good luck!

[Muagan_ra]

Heres what you do if you want to attack the pope. First find a very isolated region, such as rhodes, and conquer it. Gift it to the papal states. Blitz the papl states, and make sure you kill all their other settlements BESIDES the isolated one you just gifted them. The pope will then spawn on that island, for all eternity. The next step is to sent to faction leader off in a small fleet to die. You relations with the papal states will then be normal again, and you will have their settlements. Good luck!

Rep point, for a stroke of sheer genious.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

If you do that be sure to have a ceasefire before you have that 'accident' with your faction leader. I tried to do the same when playing as France and I had to kill the pope three or four times before I figured out that I couldn't get a reconciliation while being at war. I cost me also three faction leaders.

[dm04]

This stupid pope interferes way too much in my affairs and so I overrolled them. They have only rome left and I dont care. Yes my faction (england) is excommuncated but thats ok, they were independent from the pope anyway and the tons of crusaders badgering my empire are actualy fun .

[Lunatic1701]

This stupid pope interferes way too much in my affairs

Yes I think medieval monarchs found that too.

[Recluse]

No, don't do it, unless you are prepared to handle everyone attacking you at once.

Listen to Alphonse. Getting the ceasefire you'll need in order to get reconciled will not be easy either.

[Captain Crimson]

As your Sicily, if you have control of the two islands west of Italy, go for it. You should be able to hold off the other catholic nations if you control most of Italy. Crusades might be a problem, but Muslim archers are nice on the walls. And the AI is very easy to defeat in sieges.

Also, you get to nick the popemobile, which is worth the death of loads of catholics.

And now due to technical difficulties with me typing a post while the OP is posting, my last post is moot.

...I think you should try and kill the moors and get Timbuktu. Then you'll get the cash you need to slaughter the holy father.

Merged ~sapi

[Akbar]

The main problem with attacking the Pope is the decrease in public order that comes with excommunication. Having crusades called against you is something you should be able to handle; if you can't, never ever play as Turks.

[Captain Crimson]

The main problem with attacking the Pope is the decrease in public order that comes with excommunication. Having crusades called against you is something you should be able to handle; if you can't, never ever play as Turks.

Or Egyptians. The lack of good foot archers hurts us on the walls. The only way I find turks to handle early crusades is call a jihad on a city int he west and meet the crusading one head on. The horse archers pick off the general then you withdraw. That'll teach the pope fanboys . Damn them and thier popemobiles....

CC

[Idaeus]

Well perhaps I would try Admiringtheenemyeh?'s great idea if i had a stronger faction but tbh this is the, not worst, but least succesful campaign I've played so far. And the most fun one! I'm constatnly under attack by Milan, Venice, Romans and Moors I just barely have any chance to recover... But just barely! I couldn be assed to take care of jerusalem after capturing it so i gave it to the papal states BEFORE realising they are allied with the Holy Roman Empire. Anyway I'm just gonna leave the papal states alone, I need to get a proper foothold on the rest of Italy first.

Btw what is this rep thing? Reputation? How does it work?

[Vindahl]

Btw what is this rep thing? Reputation? How does it work?

Basically its a popularity contest! Its really not that important, but you can read a lot about it here... http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...utation#faqrep

[sgtgoody]

I took Rome once as Sicily and had to fight off 4 or 5 crusades against Rome. Eventually I was reconciled. I'm not sure how as I didn't really try to do anything. It just seemed that once the pope realized he wasn't getting Rome back he stopped trying. Someone else must have taken the last Papal State because suddenly the pope started spawning right outside Rome. He didn't have an army or anything so I just left him alone. After a few years I was able to take control of the papacy anyway so he was one of my own guys and I could crusade against anyone.

Still, as has been said, if you are going to attack Rome just be prepared to fight hard to hold it.

[Kaskas]

There is an easy way to get reconcileated and avoid crusades against you if you intend on conquering rome.
When a pope dies there is an election, the more cardinals you have the more votes you will have available. To have more cardinals make more priests and give them some time to get promoted.
I have found that even being at war, if a cardinal from your faction is made pope you will be reconciled and hostilities cease, although this may only cease hostilites from the papal states, not sure if it may afect other relations, it didnt for me since i had been at war with most catholic factions anyway
So if you want to conquer rome, but dont want to suffer the consecuences, just make sure you have plenty of priests/cardinals and get the current pope killed.
If you dont get elected you can always try killing the pope again

[Oploc]

My experiance, No. do not attack the papal states, as he continues to come back as the pope. hard to explain but you basically CANNOT kill him; he keeps spawning.

[Bluice]

Can I take just one of their 2 states but leave rome alone?

The Papal States actually expands...?

Everytime I have played they simply stay at rome and their army wanders about doing nothing unless an enemy is near by.

[homefry]

Attack him and take his settlement.

[Queen Annes Revenge]

when I've conquered Rome, I've gotten excommunicated and such. But... where does the Pope go if he has no land?? Even using toggle_fow to look for him, he was nowhere on the map to be found, yet he's uniting all of Christendom against me from God knows where! (pun intended)