Making the Papal States a vassal

[MJDreamWalker13]

Hi.

Is it possible to make the Papal States your vassal, assuming they've only got Rome?

If you destroy their army, siege Rome and blockade its port. Would they eventually give in?

[ChivalrousKiller]

Possible, yes. But not easy

Just crush them completely, and give them a lot of money for it

[eXistenZ]

I never managed to get anything done from the PS. buying territories of them never works for me, no matter how much i offer.

only giving money to get crusades, that sometimes works

[ChivalrousKiller]

He's usually corrupt as hell

[eXistenZ]

He's usually corrupt as hell

they always have, and always will be

[Impresario]

Yes it's possible only if they are surrounded and bankrupt and your leader's piety is very high. I almost succeded once to impose vassalage on Rome, however I got attacked by a group of factons all at once
and my focues was elsewhere. Later my leader's piety was eroded.

[Spartan90]

I've never tried to make the Pope my vassal, but he'll do whatever I tell him to anyway, so I guess I've got a proxy-vassal I generally can persuade him to call a crusade where I want one, to excommunicate those I want to war with, to buy settlements off him, etc.

It's pretty easy to puppeteer the Pope in most games.

[Pericles of Athens]

really the pope always hates me.

[Spartan90]

Give him money. He's a greedy bastard, and 10,000 florins will immediately give you perfect relations with him. Chuck in a few hundred hear or there over a per turn tribute, and you've got the Vatican wrapped around your little finger.

Manipulating the Pope via diplomacy has huge advantages, and is probably the easiest thing to do in the game.

[Exarch]

one thing i've discovered about the pope is that he's more prone to excommunicate u if u go to war with his original faction; for eg, if a sicilian bishop got elected pope, and u go to war with sicily, he'll start condemning u and making u have ceasefire agreements or else he'll excommunicate u, and to top it off, he'll do the same with any other enemy ur fighting.

that's why i solved that problem with a nice decorative arrow lodged in the back of his holiness' throat

[Spartan90]

The Pope is only doing that because he has a higher rating with the other faction that he does you. It's very simple not to get excomm'd.

If you are in his good books, you can shed all the Christian blood you want. Just keep giving him a certain sum of money, and you're set. You'll find that the only time you're threatened with excommunication is when your Pope-o-meter is average or just higher. If you gift him a five figure sum before waging war against Christians, then a four figure sum every turn afterwards, you'll never go below eight or nine crosses.

With a tiny bit of diplomatic micro-management, you can conquer all of Christendom without even being threatened with excommunication.

[Praefectus praetorio]

I made papal states a vassal in Stainless steel mod. They had whole Italy + Massilia. I captured all their territories in Italy including Rome and then offered Rome for vassalage. The offer was very generous and they accepted. It would probably be harder in vanilla.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[eXistenZ]

Yeah getting the pope to like you isn't that difficult. offer alliance and tribute and he is your best friend.

Also, if you have an alliance with him, sometimes you have the luck that one of your ships is, with one of his next to your enemy= he declares war on them

[Exarch]

so how tough is the pope when he gets some settlements and a decent army?

[Spartan90]

so how tough is the pope when he gets some settlements and a decent army?

About as tough as any other Italian faction. They have minor differences, but they are very similar.'

Their Papal Guard is quite impressive. But as soon as you kill their crossbowmen with some flanking cavalry, their pikemen can be smashed with your own archers.

[Exarch]

About as tough as any other Italian faction. They have minor differences, but they are very similar.'

Their Papal Guard is quite impressive. But as soon as you kill their crossbowmen with some flanking cavalry, their pikemen can be smashed with your own archers.

it almost feels sacriliegious to go to war with the pope lol
but it feels soooooo goooood

guess i feel like stupor mundi in this respect

[Selukon]

I wish I could find that AAR about the pope conquering almost the entire world as the AI

[Sknit]

I wish I could find that AAR about the pope conquering almost the entire world as the AI

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...t=Decimus+milo
Here you go lad.

[Pericles of Athens]

hay it work the pope is a realy bad guy i was at o rep with him and excamunicated gave him 10000 and i had like 6 rep and he liked me called off the crusade he had on me as well.(i would have beat back the crusade as always but ya know.)

[flashy]

Playing as byzantium on stainless steel, I took rome after they declared war on me. A new pope landed from ships on rhodes, so I gave them rhodes and a little castle bellow gaza, next turn they became a vassal of the turks
That's thanks for you. So much for being merciful!