Anyone ever attempt this strategy?

[.L.]

The popeface took quite a bit of territory in my Retrofit game, so I devised a strategy to position an army close to 3 of his settlements) Antioch, Thessalonica, Florence(All were Huge except Florence). When the current pope died, I selected a different "event" when the papal election came up. then stormed the settlements, got my pope elected, then got myself reconciled and sealed an alliance with the pope.

[ChivalrousKiller]

Yeah, often
The Tempe Sede Vacante is a great time to do whatever you want

[Rougeman]

what about rome

[ChivalrousKiller]

There are many fun strategies in which you can take advantage of the Pope. I once assassinated all other cardinals except my own and established a puppet regime in the Vatican

[Lord Matt]

There are many fun strategies in which you can take advantage of the Pope. I once assassinated all other cardinals except my own and established a puppet regime in the Vatican

I almost did that.
But 2 years after my Cardinal became a Pope he died. And i didnt had another cardinal.

[Teutonic Warlord]

There are many fun strategies in which you can take advantage of the Pope. I once assassinated all other cardinals except my own and established a puppet regime in the Vatican

Same here, but I would usually just assassinate the current Pope instead of enemy cardinals. I find the Pope is easier to kill unless you use that little surround agent glitch. Lord Matt, you can usually pump out cardinals easily if you have a Theologians guild building and a cathedral in a settlement. Together the bishops usually are good enough to become cardinals as soon as they are recruited, assuming spots are open and you aren't excommunicated.

I honestly take over the Papacy and CoC on nearly every Catholic campaign I have. Once my cardinals get late in life and other factions have no cardinals/don't really have the ability to easily make one, I let my cardinals/Pope die out until no one is left. I can make war on the Papal States, and when I want a ceasefire, I just train a bishop. He automatically becomes Pope.

[.L.]

Too well guarded, if I wanted to take Rome I would have to starve them out, I can't really storm a settlement unless I can afford a 1:1 ratio.

[Nazgûl Killer]

I actually never used this strategy. I don't like those kind of things and view them as more of an exploit than an actual strategy. Sure it makes the game a hell of a lot easier... But a challenge is far better than just having an easy game, don't you think?

[Teutonic Warlord]

I actually never used this strategy. I don't like those kind of things and view them as more of an exploit than an actual strategy. Sure it makes the game a hell of a lot easier... But a challenge is far better than just having an easy game, don't you think?

Isn't a strategy technically exploiting something anyway? I mean, I have never attacked the Papacy right before an election, but you can see above what I do. I think a puppet regime is legitimate.

[DennisRoos]

What happens when there are no cardinals left. Like if you assassinate all cardinals and the pope in a single turn, what will happen? Or when you are the only catholic faction left and don't recruit any priests for a hundred years?
Will new priests be able to promote to cardinals of there is no pope left? If not, then you could wipe out Catholicism while being a Catholic faction.

[Teutonic Warlord]

What happens when there are no cardinals left. Like if you assassinate all cardinals and the pope in a single turn, what will happen? Or when you are the only catholic faction left and don't recruit any priests for a hundred years?
Will new priests be able to promote to cardinals of there is no pope left? If not, then you could wipe out Catholicism while being a Catholic faction.

When there are no more cardinals and the Pope dies, the position of Pope is empty and so is the CoC. Since there is no biased Pope, no one has extra favor with the Papal States except by war or alliance. Like I said above, I take over the CoC while destroying the other Catholic factions. Once I have all of the cardinals, I stop recruitment, and the CoC starts to die out as I continue smashing everyone else. I am not sure about Muslim or Orthodox factions, but Catholic factions can't destroy Catholicism/the Papal States. I find it useful to wipe out all the other Catholic factions and then take all the settlements of the Papal States. The Pope will spawn some place random, but he can't really declare war on you unless you left him a decent sized army. At this point, you only want to create a Pope to end excommunication and to call crusades.

[Nazgûl Killer]

Isn't a strategy technically exploiting something anyway? I mean, I have never attacked the Papacy right before an election, but you can see above what I do. I think a puppet regime is legitimate.

Huge difference between exploiting a tactical fault and exploiting a gameplay fault, the one refers to a weak spot in your enemy's defenses and the other refers to a programming error. I dislike blitzing as it is, and using it against the Papal States when it can't retaliate properly is just exploiting a loophole in the program as far as I'm concerned. You can call it a strategy all you like, but in my book it equals cheating.

[Teutonic Warlord]

Huge difference between exploiting a tactical fault and exploiting a gameplay fault, the one refers to a weak spot in your enemy's defenses and the other refers to a programming error. I dislike blitzing as it is, and using it against the Papal States when it can't retaliate properly is just exploiting a loophole in the program as far as I'm concerned. You can call it a strategy all you like, but in my book it equals cheating.

Actually, I was just wondering. I have never done it before and never planned on doing it. Honestly, I am just fine with my strategy to make the Pope, who starts out as the puppet master and you one of his puppets, my puppet. I like to have my poetic justice.

[Nazgûl Killer]

You didn't get my point, my point is that having a Pope-puppet is just fine, I do it quite often, but using the Tempe Sede Vacante to launch an attack on the Papacy and then be reconciled after taking most or all of his settlements is a pretty cheap tactic.

[Teutonic Warlord]

You didn't get my point, my point is that having a Pope-puppet is just fine, I do it quite often, but using the Tempe Sede Vacante to launch an attack on the Papacy and then be reconciled after taking most or all of his settlements is a pretty cheap tactic.

Actually, I did. I may just not have conveyed my message across very well (Sorry!). I was just wondering if you considered exploiting programming faults, etc. to be a strategy or just cheap moves by the player.

And as for the OP strategy, I remember now that it may not always turn out too well if the next Pope elected isn't crazy about you. As the BE, I took down Sicily, and the Pope attacked my Naples. I repelled the attack and killed him in Rome. New Pope=peace. However, within 3 turns the new Pope attacked Rome (Papal States still had Florence and Ajaccio). So, the Popes could have a tendency to declare war on you, excommunicate you, and/or call crusades on you, and Catholic factions will most likely be willing to attack you to gain Papal favor.

And ian123, your answer is actually in another thread, I think, but no worries. If the Pope has no regions, he may spawn ANYWHERE, which can be a problem because you may have to go looking for him if you want to get rid of him.

[tudor93]

Yeah I agree with Nazgul, but each one of us has his own style of playing, I don't mind if you exploit the AI stupidity who is already dumb
I haven't played M2TW in a while (I just started a hotseat campaign, but it doesn't count , we are talking about SP) but in all my campaigns I was kinda roleplaying and I wanted to stay on the good side of the Pope, I didn't exploit

[ian123]

A bit off topic, what happens if you take over rome then fill the area with units so that the popey doesn't have space to spawn? And in some of my games when the pope gets elected and I kill him the next pope appears in Tripoli o_0