Brunch at 11, Crushing the Pope at half past, and a board meeting at 12

**hpsauce13** · February 13, 2010, 10:40 AM

During my Byzantine game it had got to the point where it was pope crushing time again. He had been on the warpath, taking chunks from Sicily, and Genoa to the point where he had a nice kingdom of about 6 provinces, so i planned out my war with care. i pre-converted most of the settlements, recruited a new stack or two and manoeuvred my armies into place. so when it came to finally declaring war i was in a great position.

First i laid siege to all all cities apart from genoa (my armies were still marching to the city) on the turn 1 of war.
then rome, florence, bologna and naples sallied out, so i crushed them.
then i attacked small armies waiting outside of the remaining cities, routed both outside and the cities armies took the popes remaining cities.

this in total took me 3 turns.

although it was only 6 settlements, i though it wasnt bad going, so i was just wondering whats the shortest time anyone has gone from declaring war to destroying the faction?

**Kawee** · February 13, 2010, 10:55 AM

I once won it in one turn by taking 4 settlements because I happened to kill all their FMs in that one turn. That really ruined my fun.

**JorisofHolland** · February 13, 2010, 02:19 PM

I don't defeat factions by myself, if I have a choice. I prefer taking what I need (or, most of time, what I want

) and then leave them to someone else, usually making peace and a nice floring through trade.

**Caesar Clivus** · February 13, 2010, 05:29 PM

I only usually finish off factions if they refuse to become my vassal. If they refuse, then it's bye-bye

**hpsauce13** · February 14, 2010, 03:43 PM

Originally Posted by Caesar Clivus

I only usually finish off factions if they refuse to become my vassal. If they refuse, then it's bye-bye

Vassals? hmm ive never actually had any (probably because until his Byzantine campaign my rep was always awful) but even when i had factions down to a few settlements, and their priorities peace, they still didnt accept. but i usually go to war to crush my enemies, because that way they cant reform and hit me again, i geuss all my wars would be 'unjust wars'

**Ichon** · February 14, 2010, 03:58 PM

I actually prefer lingering death for enemies over centuries unless they really piss me off with constant back stabbing or alliances. Only factions caused me such dislike has been; Papal States-obvious reasons, England- they interfere everywhere and can get quite powerful quickly in some games, Cumans- persistent fail but annoying armies coming out of nowhere, and HRE- a few early games I saw them get huge 20+ in less than 100 turns and constantly siege my capitol city plus it was part of the victory conditions(Danemark and Genoa).

I enjoy just take 1 province bites every time a faction declares war until they submit to vassalage. The only factions I'll pursue are natural enemies like Turks vs Romans or Spain vs Moors, Genoa vs Venice, England vs Scotland, Crusader States vs Turks etc. I even a couple times(as Crusader States) gifted all of Egyptian conquests to Turks to stimulate a Islamic rebellion allying with Turks- it doesn't seem likely the entire region converted to Catholic... just the feudal bureaucracy and overlords to run administration and provide soldiers.

**Mr. Tornado** · February 13, 2010, 05:32 PM

I'm usually extremly brutal when it comes to my war policy. There's two types of war for me :

1. Just war. Usually when the computer does something to provoke me (Like trying to spy on me, or trying to take a merchant of mine's assets)

2. Unjust war. When I became a greedy bastard and try to take land just because I can.

As a general rule, when I go to war with someone I won't stop until they're off the map, or until I am bothered by someone else.

**Xenoshi** · February 13, 2010, 05:56 PM

As Byzantine I got sick of paying the greedy pope off so I decided to just crush him, I bought Naples from the Sicilians and sailed 3 fleets stocked with armies over. I had a respectably sized force that landed in Naples and I deployed them right at the border of Rome. Waited a turn. Then declared war on the pope by having my armies storm across the border and attack Rome.

Killed the pope, killed 2-3 members of the Papal States Family, 3rd army marched on Florence and stomped it out (Surprisingly the only two regions I could find that the Papal States owned), killed the pope there. Now I'm doing nothing more than killing the pope as he spawns outside of Rome. All in All if you count the time from War Declared to Capturing all of their cities in Italy, it took me 2 turns. If you count deployment of troops, 3 turns.

Is it possible to fully destroy the Papal States?

**RootsKW** · February 13, 2010, 10:07 PM

Originally Posted by Xenoshi

Is it possible to fully destroy the Papal States?

Nope. It will keep getting a new capital once you destroy its existing regions.

**Silhouette** · February 13, 2010, 10:40 PM

Very cool. Some of those rich Alpine & Northern Italian cities can be a pain to take without proper siege gear. I think my fastest was one turn too. It was against Scotland, playing as Denmark. 3 naval stacks with a nice viking army and a couple trebuchet's to boot.

Um, generally when I beat a nation, I use them as a buffer state, and gradually push them back as I want to expand, sort of like what the United States did in the Americas. It's kind of nice having a couple vassals or allied puppet kingdoms absorb the blow of a large Seljuk horde.

**Tyrenia** · February 14, 2010, 12:14 AM

My record was Spain (Leon-Castile) in 3 turns. This was an accident however, as I wanted to make them my vassal, but in trying to reduce them to one city, took out their entire family (which, in my defence, had been decimated by Portugal and Aragon). I reloaded a previous save, so they would still be my vassal...

**JorisofHolland** · February 14, 2010, 08:26 AM

Originally Posted by RootsKW

Nope. It will keep getting a new capital once you destroy its existing regions.

Well that's not true. The Pope, however, will keep respawning. Unless you manage to assassinate all the Cardinals, there will always be a Pope, and thus the Papal States. And I don't recommend killing them all, the AI will build more priests than you are able to kill.

**gluteus maximus aurelius** · February 13, 2010, 06:38 PM

Originally Posted by Mr. Tornado

I'm usually extremly brutal when it comes to my war policy. There's two types of war for me :

1. Just war. Usually when the computer does something to provoke me (Like trying to spy on me, or trying to take a merchant of mine's assets)

2. Unjust war. When I became a greedy bastard and try to take land just because I can.

As a general rule, when I go to war with someone I won't stop until they're off the map, or until I am bothered by someone else.

Same as me, I've wiped several factions out in 1 turn from declaring war on them. This is usually because I plan to wipe them out, then send reasonable sized armies with artillery etc. They never usually have more than 4 cities though, as that's a fair few armies to be sending around. I think the most I took was while playing as Portugal where I owned half the map already and decided to wipe the Poles out, they had 6 settlements and I had full stacks all over the place.

On a similar note, in the same campaign I wiped out three separate factions in the same turn. What's the most anyone else has killed in a single turn?

**Ba'alzamon** · February 13, 2010, 06:20 PM

Sounds interesting..

**DeliCiousTZM** · February 14, 2010, 07:19 PM

Late era RR/RC Moors vs Portugal destroyed in the first 4 turns VH/VH thats my fastest 3 cities Silves Lissabon and the one over lissabon i forget. but go try that destroying Portugal in the 3 first turns. Wasent easy

**merocaine** · February 15, 2010, 09:28 AM

Wales in one turn in the Britannia Campaign, One field battle, 4 dead nobles, one eliminated faction! actually it was a bit of an anti climax..

**Rean** · February 15, 2010, 03:54 PM

Hmm, this was not the fastest elimination but it was kinda strange. I was playing with portugal and decided to take british isles wich were totaly controled by Scotland. I sent 3 full stacks and easily took 3 most southern settlements, but on the next turn i see about 3-4 full scotland stacks. I thought it was going to get intresting, but after i took caernevorn (spelling?) and end my turn i see that scotland is no more:/ In this whole "war" i only killed 1-3 generals and none of them was heir or king. Stupid ai probably got frightened..

**sbroadbent** · February 16, 2010, 05:37 AM

Originally Posted by hpsauce13

although it was only 6 settlements, i though it wasnt bad going, so i was just wondering whats the shortest time anyone has gone from declaring war to destroying the faction?

I eliminated the Irish on the same turn as I declared war on them. One battle to take out Dublin (which was only defended by a family member), and then a second battle to defeat a nearby field army (of which at least their faction leader) was part of. Oddly enough, they completely vacated Cork on their previous turn, so I was able to just walk in without a fight.

Anti-climactic was definitely a word to describe that turn.

**hpsauce13** · February 17, 2010, 04:02 AM

well actually in this current byzantine game i attacked the turks and after a few battles i had killed all their nobles

which was abit annoying. however this gave the fatmids a chance to take on all the holy land from edessa to bagdad, so now at turn 140 they have a huge empire (for the AI) of about 25 provinces