What city do you guys base your theologians guild headquarters?

[Glade]

I vaguely remember that Rome and Jerusalem give unique traits to priests that visit those cities. Is Rome the best place to base the guild at? Should i take Rome from the Pope? What will happen if i do?

Im playing my first game in years. The faction i picked is aragon. Ive taken Cordoba from the moors and its got a theologians guild already. Do i just stick with Cordoba (or however its spelled)?

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Well now for expediency in taking over the Vatican council you could just Build a cathedral in Cordova and build it into your theologian headquarters, via the mass production of priests. Personally I usually don't take Rome unless I'm playing an Italian faction or have already been excommunicated. In that case take Rome and put the Pope somewhere convenient where he can help you but not be a nuisance.

Leon also carries a +2 piety trait but I don't remember if it extends to all Catholic factions once they take Leon.

What happens if you declare war on the Papacy? defacto excommunication and If your lucky and take Rome quickily and kill most of the Popes armies he may acquiesce to your supremacy and not start calling crusades on you. Of course you would have to provide him with a new home and depending on what difficulty setting you have chosen, getting him to accept terms could get rough. Btw.. the Pope is eternal and the Papacy does not cease to exist even if you have taken all it's territories from it.

One card in your favor however is the the Stainless Steel Vatican is rift with corruption and the Papa really loves the Green stuff $$$.

[Ichon]

Build it where you can afford to make higher level church buildings like Cathederals and your priests don't have a huge distance to travel from to reach heathen lands. I prefer Murcia or Palma as Aragon or even Tunis once you reach there. Cordoba works for now though as you'll need more priests right away to continue conquesting Moors.

[Kulgan]

Any city that is all of the following:

- Is close to ( enemy ) territories that need to be conversed
- You're not going to loose by accident
- Isn't supposed to establish another Guild. For example in extremeley rich towns you'll want a merchants guild or a guild that provides growth ( masons, sint-johns.. )
- Is prefrably huge in size, you can only build second tier and headquarters of guilds in larger towns.


This narrows it down quite a bit, but these conditions make for a exellent theologians guild offcourse. A less then exellent guild can still be good.


Kulgan

[axnsan]

1. Can be upgraded into huge city
2. Coast settlement so I can send them to turkey/egypt
3. Won't take me 35098549084 turns to get to 34000 pop
4. Not into immediate enemy threat (a city that is sieged every turn doesn't make a good pope training ground)

[JorisofHolland]

Anything that is (or can be)
1) a huge city; otherwise I can't build it
2) is not coastal, but close to the coast.
3) is not an important military centre
4) is not an important trade centre (all my coastel ones are important trade centres, but sometimes inland cities are rich as well)

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

2) is not coastal, but close to the coast.
3) is not an important military centre
4) is not an important trade centre (all my coastel ones are important trade centres, but sometimes inland cities are rich as well)

Well.. the thing is.. Once your up and running money's not really gonna be an issue and depending which faction your playing, city units may not be battle worthy at all. Take HRE for example por sods, a castle faction if I ever saw one.

So...To my mind it's all about expedience. Once you have a Cathedral & a theology guild up and running, each new priests are now Bishops and the papacy belongs to you.

[JorisofHolland]

2) is not coastal, but close to the coast.
3) is not an important military centre
4) is not an important trade centre (all my coastel ones are important trade centres, but sometimes inland cities are rich as well)

Well.. the thing is.. Once your up and running money's not really gonna be an issue and depending which faction your playing, city units may not be battle worthy at all. Take HRE for example por sods, a castle faction if I ever saw one.

So...To my mind it's all about expedience. Once you have a Cathedral & a theology guild up and running, each new priests are now Bishops and the papacy belongs to you.

By turn 40 I have turned a large town into a huge city, most of time. But my economy is still not up and running by then (about 5-7k per turn most of time). I play VH/VH, low taxes all the way (I'll loose those bad traits when I have a huge city and put it on High Taxes)

[axnsan]

If the priest takes more than 1 turn to reach a ship then I find the city unworthy of being a religious centre
Genoa is the best for this. The port is right next to the city itself.
London works good too

As for the potential merchant or explorer's guild bonus I couldn't care less... I already have over 100k anyway

[Glade]

If the priest takes more than 1 turn to reach a ship then I find the city unworthy of being a religious centre
Genoa is the best for this. The port is right next to the city itself.
London works good too

As for the potential merchant or explorer's guild bonus I couldn't care less... I already have over 100k anyway

London??? That probably the worst place that i can think of. It took me at least 10 turns to get from Aragon to Ireland. To get priest from London to the Mediterranean will take ages.

[Glade]

Thanks for the swift replies guys. I think im gonna stick with Cordoba for now but i plan to take rome later. The only better location for a theologians guild would be Crete but its way too small a city. Whats the crappiest city in the game? Somewhere to put the pope in after i take his city. Somewhere were he cant cause me any trouble.

If i kill the pope am i still excommunicated when the next pope gets inaugurated (is that the right word for it?). Does anything happen to a crusading army if a faction gets excommunicated? Can i take Rome and then take a crusading target to get some points with the pope?

Can a priest get more than one pilgramage trait? Like if i build him in Rome and move him to jerusalem will he get the +piety from both? Does Constantinople give any bonuses?

[sbroadbent]

Thanks for the swift replies guys. I think im gonna stick with Cordoba for now but i plan to take rome later. The only better location for a theologians guild would be Crete but its way too small a city. Whats the crappiest city in the game? Somewhere to put the pope in after i take his city. Somewhere were he cant cause me any trouble.

I'd throw him on an island without a port, perhaps one with a castle. In my Papal States game, it required second level port facilities to even start building ships. Giving the Pope a castle will limit the Pope's income.

Option:
1.Crusade to (and capture) Jerusalem (or other middle east region, just somewhere very far away).
2.Give Pope Jerusalem. Let the Pope deal with the muslims.
3.Take Rome. Get Excommunicated.
4.(Optional), grab additional middle east territories and gift to Pope for reconciliation, and to bolster the Pope's chances of surviving against the muslims so that he doesn't come running back and demanding Rome from you if he gets spanked).

If i kill the pope am i still excommunicated when the next pope gets inaugurated (is that the right word for it?). Does anything happen to a crusading army if a faction gets excommunicated? Can i take Rome and then take a crusading target to get some points with the pope?

As long as you are at war with the Papal States, you will forever be excommunicated. Doesn't matter how many Popes die, or how many of your faction leaders die. Always have an exit strategy when in a war with the Pope.

If you are excommunicated, you are no longer catholic therefore no more crusades for you. If you are in the middle of a crusade, your armies are no longer on crusade. You won't be able to get many papal points back until you get reconciled or you make some large payments. In one game I was excommunicated but managed to buy my way back up to 10 crosses. Even though I was still excommunicated, I could still call a crusade

Can a priest get more than one pilgramage trait? Like if i build him in Rome and move him to jerusalem will he get the +piety from both? Does Constantinople give any bonuses?

I believe you can get all possible pilgrimage traits if you send an eligible unit everywhere. Just make sure he spends at least one turn in the region. Important note, you don't need to be in the settlement in order to get the bonus. So long as a unit or agent is in the region it can still get it (whether or not you need to control the city is another matter though). I got the Pilgrim to Jerusalem when the character was outside the city.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Once you have a cathedral and a theology guild together in the same city, you'll own the college of cardinals and won't need to send priests anywhere to beef them up. Upon creation they are now bishops and with your Papal bribes many fill Cardinal vacancies upon creation.

[axnsan]

Yeah but you can go to russia...

[Vespasian92]

Yes, generals and preists can get multiple pilgramage traits. If you are determind to kill the pope and take Rome, shove him in Palma. Its close to your bases so you can have an easy eye on him and has the same isolation benefits that Crete would.

[axnsan]

Not for me. The AI's priests always seem to become 10 piety missionaries for sitting around in their home region with 99% catholic populace

So then I have to get some 10x priests too. And some assasssins ...

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Ahhhhha...but you play at expert settings....Us wimps that punk along at M/M settings can be lazy as all get out...

[Stolet]

I like to make Florence a theologians' guild city, because of that great church they have in real life. When I'm Muslim, I build the guild in Mecca or Medina, just for the "historical accuracy", although by the time I've conquered those cities I already have a theology guild somewhere else, like Damascus in my current Fatimid campaign.

[Mogons]

As Aragon, a good choice would be Leon (once you take it from the current owner, that is). Leon region gives a +piety trait for Catholic priests (and for generals) for making a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Playing as Portugal, Leon or Aragon, this is where I always strive to make my religious center, with the theologians guild and then cathedrals.

The other +piety pilgrimage locations are Jerusalem (all religions), Constantinople (Orthodox), Mecca and Medina both (Islam) and Rome (Catholic).

The trait triggers from being inside the town itself OR just for visiting the region, so you don't need to own it. The chance of gaining the trait is, I think, 50% but there is also a 25% chance of getting the negative trait -piety (turned off by the corruption seen at the site, etc.).

The trait isn't that big a deal, but the added piety can be really helpful, especially for your generals and family members. The extra piety can mean the difference between controlling the college cardinals or not.

Playing as Genoa, Venice, HRE or Sicily, I prefer to make my religious headquarters in Florence, Naples or Bologna, since they're only one region away from the Rome bonus.

Mecca makes a perfect place for the Islam theologian's guild line, because building the imams there gives them the piety bonus. Then march them north to Medina for that bonus, then put them on a ship up to Aqaba and march them into Jerusalem, and you've added (except for the occasional negative trait) three levels of piety just from visiting those regions. Then send them off via ship from Jerusalem to convert wherever. This method does amazing things for your general's piety too. You can drag a poor piety Islamic family member or general up to religious zealot by making those 3 regional trips. Of course, you can also make them worse if you get unlucky on the trigger roll.

[Glade]

Mogons thank you for separating the pilgrimage locations by religion.