The way to keep the peace

[Ecthelion]

Are you tired of breaking 4 sieges and resolving another 5 battles every turn as the AI declares war on you the moment they touch your borders?

Well, I've found the solution!

Simply do this: Let's say you're the HRE and France declares war on you. Take Burges, Reims, Dijon and Marsailles. THEN GIVE THEM TO THE POPE! Now you have the ultimate barrier against French armies! Not only that, but by giving 3 provinces to the Papacy you are guranteing an alliance and perfect relations with the man in white himself.I've basically fenced myself off from the rest of the world this way.

Mind you though, the non-Catholic factions have no issues with invading Papal lands so you might want to get military access with the Papacy and help them out when the need arises.

[Sher Khan]

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I can't believe I never thought of that.... I can now surround Northern France as the English with Papal lands and keep those Danes and French at bay.

But... I still enjoy taking cities though. :hmmm:
Maybe it's just better I fight every battle and take every settlement.

[DarkKnight]

This should work great with the danes! Quickly nab Hamburg as the Danes gift it to the Pope quickly before HRE invades and BAM with one province you have secured your borders!

[Pre]

Yea this is a good idea, but what about later game expantion?

[Hurricane]

Yea this is a good idea, but what about later game expantion?

You could send some spies and assassins (to blow up happiness/law and order buildings) into the city once it has a large population, causing it to revolt, then you take it over with an army, the Pope will be none the wiser

[Mythos]

I never managed to get a city to revolt with spies even when the spy slots were full with 6+ spies. I even got one city down to 35% unrest but nothing happened.

As the Byzantines i found they way to peace was to let the hungarians take sofia. I took Crete from Venice and then asked for a ceasefire that they gladly accepted. I was going to let them take Durazzo but they had problems with Milan taking Venice so i took durazzo myself while they were preoccupied. Now they took Venice back so i guess they will come knocking my door. I took Smyrna, Rhodes and allied with the Turks then concentrated on building and getting alliances with everyone. I wanted to play realistically so I had 1 stack of HC+HA based in constantinople and a half stack of low quality inf and some trebizond archers in Nicaea. The Turks broke the alliance when i asked for map info and they attacked my ports next turn. I took my emperor with his fast full stack and sent him to take caesaria and left my prince with his smaller stack and some mercenaries to take iconium. It worked out fine. After i took these cities, i asked for a ceasefire and sent the emperor back to constantinople and the prince to guard the eastern borders. Hungary (i was allied) and venice (allied too) never made a move although the hungarians had a full stack in Sofia.

It seems that if you decide to rush your neighbours it sends them into overdrive. It fact i watched the map while i was building. No rushes, no stacks build out of nowhere. Everything was normal. If you rush, it seems to affect your neighbours, and their neighbours and so on.

[Mythos]

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[Ecthelion]

You can still expand if you want to. By giving the papacy provinces you achieve two major goals:

The Pope will love you. Your faction will get a HUGE preference when it comes to cardinal promotions. Currently there is only 1 cardinal on the college who is not from my faction, and no one is excommunicated.

Also you will be guranteed an alliance with the Papacy along with military access rights. So just march through the Papal provinces and conquer beyond them, then trade provinces with the Pope to expand your Papal shield.