Keeping the Pope on the take

[TeutonicSteel]

Recently I started a grand campaign as the HRE and began sparring with Venice right off the bat, then Milan and then well pretty much everyone, thats how it goes in this game no matter how many alliances the AI always decides to fight you no matter what... anyways, I sent out diplomats everywhere and was trading with almost everyone, I built up my empire's trade and was turning some serious gold every turn. I began to expand to the west taking all of France , Spain, england, etc etc. I was doing great but I had one problem, the pope kept threating me with excommunication, I then decided, so what kick me out, so they did, next turn my whole empire decides to riot so I think ok, better get reconciled, so I send a diplomat to Rome and with my ridiculous purse near a million florins, I get the pope to forgive me and give him about 100 g's our relations go from poor to perfect, meanwhile I am conquering his home country of Spain! Now after turns and turns of fighting and conquest, his holiness keeps getting pissed so I keep the money flowing, as his happiness means my people happiness, Now my point of this thread arrives, whilst paying him so much money, I have noticed several things, first he is the only pope I have ever seen contract dread points, he has a healthy 3 of them now. Second , he is the first pope I have ever seen to go on a offensive against a country, (he attacked the moors) and amazingly took one of their territories, I believe destroying them, and finally he is the only pope I have ever seen to have (Get this) a alliance with Egypt, the infidels right? Now my question is, is paying him off with so much money spurring the Papacy to make war, and earn the pope a bad rep by taking my money IE the dread, or do the Papacy ever go on their own crusades without the money and support? I thought they just sit at Rome the whole game... but declaring war? Maybe I just haven't played enough oh well I thought it was odd and funny, thanks for reading this.

[eggthief]

stuff like that happens sometime, the papals are notorious for going berzerk when u give them a piece of land for example.

[Samir]

first of all almost all mods, even tiny AI mods liked Lusteds AI change the Alliance behavior to the better. might give them a try!

second, the pope can be kept happy cheaper with small tributes like 200 per turn. that wont cause him to go berserk as he cant pay any army from it, but keeps your crosses higher than others and therefore gives you a better stance in war with catholics, especially when you are attacked.

war against the pope is difficult but rewarding. especially risky and rewarding against a papal state that has more than two or three provinces. you get excommed and most catholics go after you.

you have to prepare several things before though.

+ relocate your capitol. a center position helps you to keep unrest lower
+ garrison your towns properly before you get excommed
+ consider govenours for towns which are at risk to go riots and build some happyness buildings
+ have a diplomat near a papal city!

military wise:
+ keep the war short and hard
+ prepare several armies and bring them into position BEFORE you strike
+ prepare armies so that they can actually win a battle and siege and prepare the army so that it can do it fast. because then you can take several cities in one turn
+ kill the pope at the END of your campaign, that reconciles you for free, if you have a cardinal you probably get your own pope. that might be even cheaper than bribing the pope all the time
+ if you have enough money, also strike against catholics who attacked you before you finish your papal war

[the_mango55]

Please make use of the enter button.

It hurts my head just looking at that huge wall of text.

[eggthief]

Please make use of the enter button.

It hurts my head just looking at that huge wall of text.

Im
sorry
from
now
on
I
will
use
the
enter
button
more

[the_mango55]

Im
sorry
from
now
on
I
will
use
the
enter
button
more

Almost correct, but you need to double space.

Know what I'm sayin'?

[Kiljaden]

The pope got dread? Never seen that myself, but I'm not even sure where to look for that. Unless you're talking about the papal state faction leader, in which case that's not too strange I guess.

[Theseus1234]

oh

you

mean

like

this?

anyways, the only reason the pope doesnt go offensive in the beginning is because his holiness only has one city with mediocre income. once you gave him the money, he now had enough florins to actually make an attack

[TeutonicSteel]

What about being allied with Egypt, any one ever seen that? What I was doing before I started paying him off big time was just killing the popes every time they came into power. It lifts the excommunication and gets rid of popes from enemy factions, paying them however works so much better in that it raises his faith in you and hence makes everyone happy. But it is neat that he uses the money to fund offensives, it makes perfect sense to me, as for the dread, I'd love to know how a pope got dread, was it the money I was giving him or was it from what he was doing with the money???

[Double A]

You sure it's the Pope? Cause there's another general in there...

[TeutonicSteel]

100% positive, I have the screenshots but cannot find a decent host for them, my old one "allyoucanupload" shutdown

[J@mes]

anyways, the only reason the pope doesnt go offensive in the beginning is because his holiness only has one city with mediocre income. once you gave him the money, he now had enough florins to actually make an attack

also i feel i need to add to this the pope's AI Label only allows him to attack excommunicated factions.

[Double A]

Oh and if I get excomunicatedand don't know it how will I know?

[eggthief]

You'll receive a message and u can check out the pope tab and hold your mouse on your faction, stuff like "has excommunicated this faction" and the one about the fires in hell one means that the targeted faction is excommunicated.

[Double A]

Yay! That's not me!

[Anglo-Pole]

The last few campaigns that I've played the Pope has taken Florence within the first 10-15 turns.

I've never known them to make an Alliance with Egypt though ... that's a little weird.

[pericles_plato]

In my campaign the pope is allied with all the muslim factions before the mongols. If you don't like a pope and you don't want to assassinate him can you just take the city the pope is in then once you take it get ceasefire and all that good stuff to get in his good graces?

[The Noble Lord]

Hi,


Yes , you get that kind of atitude from his holiness every now and then. Well, most of the time.
Just be prepared when he declares a crusade against you, then you march on Rome.
One question though: did u really have one million florins per turn??
Never happened to me, and it sounds crazy.

How can I get to that stage??



CHEERS

[Double A]

Lots of merchant forts?

[Carl von Döbeln]

In my campaign the pope is allied with all the muslim factions before the mongols. If you don't like a pope and you don't want to assassinate him can you just take the city the pope is in then once you take it get ceasefire and all that good stuff to get in his good graces?

same to me