Taking a fellow catholic faction without pope being angry

[complete noob:(]

Does anyone else just assassinate the enemies family tree at the beginning of the game until they die out? I find it useful for early expansion (taking out scotland or denmark) without incurring papal hate

[Dredd]

Personally, I wouldn't do it since I can always regain those lost crosses in the religion tab by doing menial tasks such as entering a Crusade. Too much money wasted for just to declare war. Plus, by the time the Pope excommunicates me(IF), I'll have a giant empire by then and no one can really do any harm to me.

[PrestigeX]

I build churches, and I go on crusade -- but what I do is sack the target, and then gift the settlement to the pope.

sometimes give gifts to the pope of money as well.

I find assasins too tedious.

its easier to make your papal higher than your enemy, and then the pope doesn't care too much.

[trustno1(2)]

Use a blitzkrieg tactic. Have an army outside each of their settlements (Or at least most of them) and wipe them out quickly. If the message to stop fighting appears, wait a while and attack elsewhere, as I have never noticed the other faction attack me after that warning. Then, once the time is, attack them again!

[TheDarkKnight]

Use a blitzkrieg tactic. Have an army outside each of their settlements (Or at least most of them) and wipe them out quickly. If the message to stop fighting appears, wait a while and attack elsewhere, as I have never noticed the other faction attack me after that warning. Then, once the time is, attack them again!

I do something on a lower scale than this...Typically I just wipe out large armies because it only takes one turn, or attack smaller settlements that cannot hold out long. Hopefully I will take the settlement before I am forced to call it off. This is better early in the game when you can't afford to blitzkrieg every settlement your enemy possesses...

[Silverheart]

1. Make sure to have good relations with the pope.
2. Declare war on the faction you want to conquer.
3. Wait for the "cease hostilities" mission from the pope.
4. Place some tiny armies right next to enemy settlements while keeping your campaign armies at the border or hidden in some forest.
5. Wait for the enemy to attack the tiny armies, thus violating the "cease hostilities" mission and insulting the pope.
6. Continue with this until you get the message that the enemy faction has been excommunicated by the insulted pope.
7. Send in the campaign armies and conquer the living dirt out of them!

It´s vital to maintain good relations with the pope through all this (build churches, convert non-catholic regions and give him money on a constant basis), because then he´s more likely to accept a request to call a crusade against your excommunicated enemy.
With a crusade against the enemys´ most distant settlement going on, you can utilize two or three campaign armies to really wreak havoc on your enemies´ territory at record speed.

[Diamond]

In the beginning of the game, you can get two-three small armies (with siege engines) and assault them all on the same turn.

[Silverheart]

If your relations with the pope is high enough, you can also just press onward and ignore him.
You´ll get worse relations, but if it´s above 5 crosses or so, you won´t get excommunicated - you are likely to get a new "cease hostilities" mission very shortly thereafter, though.

[Silent Assassin]

Does anyone else just assassinate the enemies family tree at the beginning of the game until they die out? I find it useful for early expansion (taking out scotland or denmark) without incurring papal hate

If you get caught doing so you won't only get some hate from the Pope but relationship and more importantly Reputation drops. Going on the dark side (Dread) because by doing assassinations your King will get Dread traits which will make the Pope hate you even more and your rep with him will be harder to bring up or maintain afterwards.