Pope and C of C control

[Old Geezer]

As Portugal in a Retrofit Campaign at turn 56 I have taken complete control of the college of Cardinals and the Pope. I started the campaign with this goal. As soon as I captured Cordoba I started building the church line until I got to Cathedral and recruited priests almost every turn and sent them to preach in low christian areas. After I got the Theologin Guild HQ (about turn 50) and liquidated some cardinals, I started getting priests promoted to cardinal the very turn that they were recruited - about 5 of them. I finally got to level 10 on the PopeMeter when my man got elected. I have been able to get 2 crusades called. I am going to try an see how many crusades I can get called. I guess that I should not expand too much in the east or I will be sabotageing myself.

I think that this process is easier and faster if you play as one of the Italian factions because you can obtain an alliance with the Pope at the beginning of the game and the cities are more advanced/prosperous so that one can get a cathedral and the theologian guild.

Anyone have any other suggestions as how to speed up this process?

[Conquistatore]

Could always just migrate and settle in the middle-east. Would save you having to transport troops and agents over there. Keep a settlement or two near the Pope though.

[Sith_Lord]

As Portugal in a Retrofit Campaign at turn 56 I have taken complete control of the college of Cardinals and the Pope. I started the campaign with this goal. As soon as I captured Cordoba I started building the church line until I got to Cathedral and recruited priests almost every turn and sent them to preach in low christian areas. After I got the Theologin Guild HQ (about turn 50) and liquidated some cardinals, I started getting priests promoted to cardinal the very turn that they were recruited - about 5 of them. I finally got to level 10 on the PopeMeter when my man got elected. I have been able to get 2 crusades called. I am going to try an see how many crusades I can get called. I guess that I should not expand too much in the east or I will be sabotageing myself.

I think that this process is easier and faster if you play as one of the Italian factions because you can obtain an alliance with the Pope at the beginning of the game and the cities are more advanced/prosperous so that one can get a cathedral and the theologian guild.

Anyone have any other suggestions as how to speed up this process?

I did that with Jerusalem on the first crusade. There was one more crusade on Antioch before I gained full control of the pope, through bribery and the College of Cardinals and then not one crusade was called that I hadn't demanded. I destroyed Milan while walking through both Marseilles and Genoa to detroy the Milanese during one crusade. I had one general (my greatest general) go on, I think it was 5-6 crusades. I demanded each one.
Just keep pumping the islamic turf with priest and youll get cardinals monstrously fast.

[General Nuisance esq]

The assasin method works well in combination with plenty of priests
In my last campaign I ignored being popular and focussed on getting priests and training up my assasins (captains then merchants or diplomats and a little bit of sabotaging gets then up to 8 or 9 stars) then I started slotting a few cardinals to make room for my boys and once I had a majority of cardinals and 1 as a preferentia I slotted the pope (great film of the pope in his chair and my boy with a crossbow)

Needless to say my faction supplied the new pope and all the catholic factions that I was at war with were hated by the pope whilst I had a perfect relationship (despite a history of attacking other catholic factions and killing prisoners)

But just to make sure (and cos it was fun) I carried on slotting cardinals and getting more of my boys into college (those boys are so easy to find just go to the college of cardinals page, highlight your next victim (cardinal) making sure to close the page on the right and it shows you where they are located)

Of course when a new pope is elected all excommunicated catholic factions get forgiven and on the turn when you do the dirty deed, slot the pope first then you have a free bash at every catholic faction for that turn as you can't get excommunicated or told off (IE don't attack France for 7 turns) as there is no pope to do it but ALL missions do carry onto the next pope, so wait till the pope has pegged it before starting on your catholic bretheren

Alternatively if you are being threatened with dont attack someone for 7 turns or you will be excommunicated, you can always attack them, get excommunicated and then slot the holy father getting rid of a horrible mission and instantly forgiven (although I don't know if excommunicated factions are allowed to vote in a papal election)

[Old Geezer]

Of course there must be vacancies in the college. When you take a city and exterminate the population the cardinals always escape but disappear when their faction is eradicated.

I was taking some priests to the Near East by ship when I noticed how much slower the vessel traveled. One crusading army that started out with 4 spies and was ahead was overtaken by another crusading army in a ship and they both landed together, which was highly advantageous for me. Why, oh why, do characters slow the ships down so very much? Is there an entry in the desc unit file that can be modded? I don't remember of hand seeing one, but don't remember ever looking - haven't frequented it in over 6 months.

I believe that you are correct Gen Nuisance, but the next turn you still get the warning. It may even be that after the Pope is elected the warning will pop up - I can't remember now. I shall try and remember to check this out. One problem is that if you reload after having the Pope die during a turn from "whatever cause" the election takes place in mid turn.

I am loathe to eliminate my Pope prematurely as he is in his 30's and is utterly corrupt.

[General Nuisance esq]

A bit off topic but in my last campaign as I was moving my assasins towards the polish cardinals I found that I had about 6 of the assasins very close together and it was like a gang of hooligans rampaging through europe destroying all in their wake before moving onto their next target
In 1 case the unfortunate captains of a certain polish unit got hit 6 times in 1 turn