What is the best way to end this campain?

[thorrez]

Hi, I explain my situation, I play England, I have only 42turns left, and I have nor Jerusalem, nor the 45 land (only 23 atm :/).
The good point is that I am very rich, but the f...ing pope always ask me to stop attaking France, or Spain, ...., so I can't destroy France and Spain enough fast (I need at least 22 land in a few time).
So i would want to know if the malus on public order due to excomucation will go dow, or keep his level until I'm reconcilliate?

And even if it keep his level, should I attack, or try another way?
(I have no other direct neighbour, except Danemark but they'll be dead soon)

[Bumson]

My suggestion would be to move an army next to all of your target cities...then assassinate the pope...this will cause his threats to disappear and a new pope elected...before the new pope is elected, strike and STRIKE HARD...capturing all the cities.

[H.r.E.]

just ignore the pope and attack those suckers! you have the money to do so , dont you?

[gambit]

Assassinating the pope is pretty difficult. Your best bet is too steamroll the crap out of spain and france. Excommunication is only temporary, doesn't guarantee crusades against you and only causes some disorder. If you've got enough crosses, call a crusade on someone (preferably somewhere near Jerusalem or Jerusalem itself) and use the easy to get crusader mercenaries to steamroll even more. You should have the money and manpower to create strong armies swiftly, just use your power. Put artillery in most of your armies too.

[H.r.E.]

thats another idea , make 10 full stacks and 10 ships and rock the holy land

[Theseus1234]

i agree with H.r.E
with money, you can support troops to both defend and rapidly expand into your neighbors
i would recommend a two front attack, with part of the army trying to conquer iberia, and the other trying to destroy france
have a blitzing army, filled with your best troops, then have a smaller garrisoning army
conquer the city with your blitzing army, retrain if need be, then set off for more land and let some of the garrisoning army garrison the city
rinse and repeat

[thorrez]

I'm already fighting in 3differents fronts, but a 4th wont be a problem. I own the north africa, but I haven't any castle there (and I can't transform the town into castle, why can't I ?) so it's hard to attack Spain with millita :S

I had succed to take 2 French city in the same turn (41) , but the following turn, I loosed the last cross I had, and the pope ask me to stop attacking france (only 1 city left, with a full stack army on the path to attack it).

About killing the pope, he just died, but pretty all the college is full of ennemies' cardinal, France have 2 left, and I killed 3 other!

Would I be able to join Crusade if I am excomuniate?

I will try to buy some town, I didnt think about it, thanks.
(I have 220K florins)

[dr_guerra]

Get 3 generals on some ships with your best troops (3 different armies) then go rampaging through the Byzantines, Russians, Moors, Egyptians and Turks.

Attack all ex-communicated factions

Just go nuts. Heavy taxes and shift to military production.

[Strom]

Start a new campaign if you're concerned about winning within the time limit.

Sustainably capturing more than one city every two turns is very difficult, a good rule of thumb for the long campaign is to allow four turns for every city that you need to capture.

However if you really do have a *lot* of money you can try buying settlements from other factions with diplomats. They're more likely to sell you small settlements and they're cheaper so try buying those.

It's a good idea to pump out lots of priests in the early mid game as that can lead to you controlling the college of cardinals, which leads to friendly popes. This makes the end game much easier, but it's a bit late for doing that now as they wont have time to become cardinals before the game ends.

The AI has a bad habit of leaving many of its cities virtually undefended so try capturing those by assault (bring artillery if possible, even better hire mercenary artillery if it's available after you swoop in with a fast army, or just wait one turn to build a couple of rams and ladders.) If you have a lot of cavalry in your army then you can sometimes besiege a city with an enemy stack nearby, the AI will come to rescue its city and you can heroic victory to capture the city (the AI undervalues cavalry so it's more likely to attack and more likely to lose.)

Best of luck.

[thorrez]

I havnt so much free general! (Mine might use condom, I havnt a lot of generals :/ )

I bought 2 castle to the Roman Empire (ennemy ) for 5000 and 7500 florins!

I now have 27 regions, and 39turns left, I really need a crusade, to get pope favours, and land to conquer!

[Harry Lime]

Moved to Battle Planning

[MrVamp117]

Once you win the game, can you keep playing forever? Or can you only play for your remaining turns?

[Strom]

Once you win the game, can you keep playing forever? Or can you only play for your remaining turns?

The game will declare you the victor and then ask you if you want to keep playing. I've always stopped at that point so I don't know how long you can keep playing for.

[symbiont]

Once you win the game, can you keep playing forever? Or can you only play for your remaining turns?

I finished a campaign successfully but went on cause I wanted to fight the Timurids - what I haven`t done so far. I went on and on and had always an eye on the remaining turns which still counted down. As there were zero turns left the game didn`t end - it just stopped to count.

After two or three further turns, I left the campaign.

[thorrez]

Hm I will soon attack Venice, they are excomuniate, I hope pope will like it, because Venice are allied atm

I'am planning a massive attack on iberia ( one on the last french city, one on a spanish citadel, and one on a undefended fortess, south iberia (with milita ).

[thorrez]

11 regions left to conquer, 33turns I can do it!

(I'm attacking excomuniate faction, but I don't earn crosses :/

[Viking Prince]

11 regions left to conquer, 33turns I can do it!

(I'm attacking excomuniate faction, but I don't earn crosses :/

Crosses designate troops on crusade. When the crusade is completed, the crosses disappear. Merely attacking an excommunicated faction does not earn you special merit. You are still killing catholics.Also, specific types of units will have the cross of the crusade on their shields.

[Lunes]

I think he means crosses with the Pope. If you can call a crusade on Venice you really should. That would get you lots of crosses and right before you take the target city have all your generals join the crusade. The experience bonus will help greatly. But make sure you only do this if you know you can take the city... if your not sure don't risk the desertion.

[Sodbuster]

Wow you took 16 regions in 6 turns. Keep it up, sack them all, and you'll own everything in no time.

[Viking Prince]

Lunes -- thanks. You are probably correct.

If the papal rating (crosses) are not sufficient to call a crusade, then hopefully he is close enough to gift at least a few hundred florin a turn in tribute as a gift for maybe 4 or 5 turns to get him enough crosses. What is needed to call a crusade? (I think 5 is marginal, more is always improving the odds.)

Once again, I do not think attacking an excommunicated faction raise the papal rating however. Gifts to the pope, build churches, recruit priests, and volunteering for already in progress crusades are the only means to raise the papal rating this late in the campaign.

Also, trying not to do things to lower the rating is also important; such as killing catholics by exterminating or sacking catholic settlements, not releasing catholic prisoners, etc. Being excommunicated refers to the ruler, not the population.

Please correct me, if I am in error here. Thanks.

Also to Thorrez (OP) Great work! I know we are all rooting for you. Nothing better than making up for lost ground with a sense of urgency to feel the game is well played.

Personally I would rather complete the game close to the time limit than blitz through in 75 turns. The quick blitz leaves the world a cinder and is not my style of play, but to each his own.