Over-extended your borders? Give the Pope call!

[Sammyboi]

Ever found yourself in a situation where you've bitten off more than you can chew? Today, playing as Spain, I did. Milan attacked me, and being the 2nd most powerful nation (behind me) they weren't listening to my diplomats. I marched into north Italy and took Genoa, but found they had 6 full stacks guarding Milan. I'm sure most of us already know that Milan has some very powerful armies with stupidly low upkeep. My weary troops would surely be worn down here, so I decided to retreat to Marseille and consider a new approach. But what to do with Genoa, which was by now a Huge City? The answer came to me - gut it and sell it to the Pope Demolishing every structure except the ones which can't be demolished and the Abbey (wouldnt want to annoy the Pope here) yielded a tasty profit. Then a quick chat with the Pope and we negotiate a price of 12'000 florins for the keys to the city. Interestingly a full stack of Papacy militia sprung up inside once the deal was done. Would Milan have the nerve to attack the Papal States to get their city back? Not a bit of it. I was able to bring my troops home for resupply and laugh heartily that while I wasn't able to hang onto my conquests, they surely weren't going back into Milanese hands for quite some time....

[Sher Khan]

This same idea came to me when I was getting pounded by the Mongols in my French campaign (God, I can't wait to get the Scots Guards). Being a cav-heavy faction, I find I'm unable to destroy the fiends (although, I've let them taste their slow victory at the expense of 3 stacks per one of mine).

So, I then gave the Pope Antioch while I cleared out the Byzantines from Cyprus. I then laughed as I watched the Mongols dish out death on the papal armies while I had lots of feasts and banquets on my island retreat.

[Fuhrer Euik]

wow, I never thought of giving a doomed city to the Papal states....sounds frigging sweet, I'll try it!

[Oracle]

yeah, except you won't be getting your city back anytime soon unless you're willing to risk the wrath of da Popemobile.

I've done it a few times but mainly against non-Catholic factions. I give city to Pope, Pope loses city, I call Crusade, Crusade gets city back, everyone's happy... except the enemy.

[Revan The Great]

That seems like a terrible exploit and cheat though.

[freekyjason]

hmm i did something similar. but different and still very evil

milan kept breaking the ceasefires/alliances etc i made with them, and they were a bit too strong for me to take on at the time, cause i was busy fighting the mongols. so i sent a diplomat to milan, and offered them a city for a ceasefire. antioch as it happens

they took it, and now while they are busy fending off mongol invasions, and have to deal with being excommed, i have 2 stacks ready to take genoa, and they only ahve a small garrison inside too much money being spent on the front lines to defend their home

maybe the milanese should learn to stick to agreements

[Aldaris]

That seems like a terrible exploit and cheat though.

How so? It is a clever use of diplomacy, in my opinion no exploit and most certainly no cheat.

[Da_TRU_1]

God bless the pope I guess haha

[Flavius Nevitta]

I prefer asking the pope for a crusade if possible. Was at war with Spain and Milan, both with a huge army.(me being the English btw and owning all of France). So ask for a crusade to Milan and get rid of 2 problems at once. The Spanish sent 2 full stacks on crusade instead of attacking me and the Milanese were busy fighting 2 Spanish, a German and a Polish full stack crusade when I arrived with 1 crusader army and 3 regular armies. defeated them in the field and took Genua, Milan, Florence and Venice. From the money gained it quickly built another army which now awaits the Spanish when they return from their crusade.

Oh and btw>

Sicily is a vassall of Milan and after I took the Milanese cities they showed up with a big army to attack me.Their only problem was that they were excommunicated as well and when they tried to march to Florence the POPE!!!! attacked them and destroyed their whole army. So thanks to the pope. Always nice to have one of your English priests becoming pope and have perfect relationships lol

[the_mango55]

I did something similar to this as the HRE. I immediately mustered a rag-tag army together in my Italian city and captured the rebel Italian city above Rome. I the gave that city to the papal states for free, instant perfect relations. Next turn I sold them the city I started with for an alliance, trade rights, map information, military access, and 500 florins per turn for like 20 turns.

This had several benefits:

• It gave the Italians one less tempting target to go to war with me over
• It greatly improved relations with the pope, I can get a crusade wherever I want now
• It puts three "untouchable" provinces directly in the middle of Italy, making it impossible for Milan or Venice, two of my biggest threats, to gain Italian dominance
• The 500 florins per turn makes up some from the lost income from the cites
• it means any catholic faction to attack me will face the prospect of a quick execution and crusade called upon them (Denmark has felt the wrath already)
• It gives me a strong and solid ally and trade partner, who doesn't have any plans for expansion (as far as I know)

[Sard]

Ive been doing that when I go on crusades. Run around in the middle east, capturing Antioch/Acre/Jeruselem/other territories, sack them and then give em to the pope. Great way to boost your papal rating and its ironic seeing the pop control the holy land

[Skipper]

Wow, nice tactic! I love it!

I WILL be trying this out myself. I'll help with replentishment money from war campaigns and will get rid of the ones I don't want to spend a fortune defending.