Your dealings with the papacy

[mattycraig1]

Just curious, how do you all find your encounters with the papacy? On every campaign bar those as the italians, I find my papal relations crumbling and always get excommunicated, in my current scottish campaign, i was excommunicated by turn 10!
How does excommunication affect you, are you bothered about it, or do you simply shrug it off? I personally think it suits my play style as a tyranical, bloodthirsty leader, slaughtering people everywhere
Would just like to hear your opinions/ experiances

[DemonLord]

i love it when i get excommunicated cause simply he gives me a good reason to go at his doorstep and tell him right in his face what i think of him.....then i let my troops do the same .

seriously im like you on that perspective i prefer to be clear of the papacy too much pain in the a$$ trying to keep him happy.

[freakkriek]

i'm playing an early campaign as the crusaders states
so i'd thought pretty cool campaign against the turks
so i got alliance with seljuks and destroyed the fatamids and just as i was preparing a sneak attack on the seljuks i noticed the byzantines were getiing waaaaaaaaaay to strong so i attacked them
i was allied with the papal states so no worries i thought but then i noticed the Papal states are VASAL of Byzatium, so there are no crusades against constantinople possible and every city i take brings me lower on the popes favour, i'm lucky since he is MY pope but still. THE POPE SHOULDN'T BOW TO THE ORTHODOX
i'm just trying to devastate the byzantines before i get excommunicated :s

[DemonLord]

oooohhhhh dont take it that way consider the Byzies reunited the churches

but yeah iu can see how this doesnt fit your plans guess you can always.....pay for the popes favor?

[Basileus Antiochus]

I usually pay the pope, it's really not that expensive considering how ppl always have quite a bit of surplus. But when I play as England or Scotland, I never cared about the pope because he is so damn far away and I don't bother sending a diplomat.(even if I get excommunicated)

Of course, if I am very powerful or I am the Romans, I always sack rome....

[mattycraig1]

Well i am personally hoping to sack rome....but seeing as I'm playing as the scots, that time may be very far away! XD

[DemonLord]

lol dont worry make a few ships build a decent force then go straight for the city and have your scotsmen to show their ''precious'' to his Holliness

[Basileus Antiochus]

When the time comes, its so fulfilling....or else you can always send an expedition just to do that(crusade almost guarranteed)

[DemonLord]

yeah knock down rome's walls and you get all hell on you from the rest of the catholics. Whats best than crushing the heads of western armies and then take over their countries hihihihih

[Gogolometro]

Be orthodox, and crusades will never happend when you conquer Rome.

[Ferdiad]

Be orthodox, and crusades will never happend when you conquer Rome.

Thing is Orthodox factions dont get their versions of Jihads which can be pretty annoying at times.

[DemonLord]

well just dont have constantinople thats a jihad magnet right there

[freakkriek]

yeah money seemed like a good option but...
i just asked for peace with them after i took whole their Turkish cities, Rhodes and Cyprus
the accepted obviously, the pope died, i elected a sicilian even though i have 5 cardinals (thanks too the imams)
I was mister popular again, sacked Constantinople and my approval didn't even drop. Now i'll just take the castle next to Constantinople and let all their enemies just eat them apart while I'll be preparing crusades

BTW: this is the first campaign i played where the Moors are allied with Sicily and have killed Portugal and the two spanish houses and are invading France... and winning

[tefras14]

I try to keep a good relation until i can be in a good position both economically and militarily but after that point i don't care. I play as Orthodox factions anyways so he is not too influential with me but it can be a pain in the butt when dealing with the Catholic factions. But when its time to go to war with him i try to occupy Rome

[DemonLord]

point is you might dont want to let papacy become too strong militarily either i've seen the pope having 4 full stacks outside Rome once. That was a propper pain in the butt to deal with or like in my curent campaign who are controlling the whole of italy after the Sicilians went down to the dust due to lack of family members lol.

έλα μωρή ΑΠΟΕΛάρα μας έχεις τρελάνει όλους φέτος

[Lazy]

Its like in real life...
What does every dictator the pope loves most?
Money, money and more money!
Send a diplomat and give them a yearly payment of 100 gold for 13 turns.
Wait for 10 turns ( as long as possible ) and change the paymant to 300 gold for 16 turns.
The church will love you => perfect relations and full papal favour points! No need to crusade and you can ignore all papal missions!

As I know there is no cheaper way to be loved ( in a platonic way ) by the pope!

[Ferdiad]

Its like in real life...
What does every dictator the pope loves most?
Money, money and more money!
Send a diplomat and give them a yearly payment of 100 gold for 13 turns.
Wait for 10 turns ( as long as possible ) and change the paymant to 300 gold for 16 turns.
The church will love you => perfect relations and full papal favour points! No need to crusade and you can ignore all papal missions!

As I know there is no cheaper way to be loved ( in a platonic way ) by the pope!

The Pope will love you more when hes a part of your glorious Empire.

[Lazy]

The Pope will love you more when hes a part of your glorious Empire.

Ok I admit that!
But love has to be earned!
In this special way by having an army, big enough to sack Rome again, next to Rome all the time...

[Ferdiad]

Ok I admit that!
But love has to be earned!
In this special way by having an army, big enough to sack Rome again, next to Rome all the time...

Surprisingly that actually works, the AI knows you can take their capital so their more cautious/friendly, well it seems so at times.

[DemonLord]

well as i already said make sure they dont have too big of a force to defend the city. and bribing people is just so hard these days