A more aggressive Pope...

[Bob the Insane]

Now I personally like the game as it is, especially post-patch, but I had a though for something which could change the way the game works a little (if its possible)..

Make being excommunicated much more serious. At the moment being excommunicated is not really any big deal, as long as you have a fairly strong military (the AI doesn't seem to care, why should we???).

If it was altered that once excommunicated you start getting a lot of Catholic revolts and a greatly increased chance of civil war, and that other Catholic factions had to either cancel their alliance with you or face excommunication them selves. This would make the decision to accept excommuncation a far more serious one, and act to prevent extented conflict between the Catholic factions. This could actually result in more 'historic' accuracy in the game.. It would not stop conflict in Catholic europe, but it should help keep a lid on it...


Any opinions anyone?

[Prodigal]

I thought catholic revolts WERE more likely after an ex-comm? I get 'em at any rate. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[Bob the Insane]

They are more likely, but not enough I think, England under the Tudors was a hotbed of Catholic 'terrorism' and revolt... and the Pope was a lot less powerful then...

I suppose it breaks down to what I said, if the AI Catholic Factions don't appear to take excommunication seriously, they why should I ??

[chunkynut]

Quote[/b] (Bob the Insane @ Nov. 11 2002,09:44)]They are more likely, but not enough I think, England under the Tudors was a hotbed of Catholic 'terrorism' and revolt... and the Pope was a lot less powerful then...
Sorry to contradict but apart from the tudors reigning after the MTW game has finished (or very close) they only had problems when they turned England and Wales Protestant and made the King Edward VI the head of the Church of England at some point in his reign (1547 - 1553(long hey)) and religon was disputed hence forth.

[Bob the Insane]

I realise it was after the period of this game, but what I mean was that Papel power was wanning at that time and it still a huge deal to be excommuncated. I think we only got away with it because Henry had a huge army and was kick arse...

Now go back 400 years when the Pope was all powerful, to be excommunicated would have been a massive problem, especially considering the population was massively Catholic and very god fearing...

And for Gameplay, it would help to keep Catholic Europe in slightly more of one piece, as opposed to fracturing as it almost always does now and ending up with a dominant Faction...

It would also Force the Catholic Faction's expansionist tendencies out to the Middle East, increasing the relievence of Crusades (in the game)..

Just a thought (and a bit of a pipe dream..)

[The Yogi]

We don't have to speculate about what excommunication of a monarch would have been in the MTW era, this actually happened to Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich IV.

As a result, all his vassals were freed from their oath of fealty and many rebelled. Given that the Holy Roman Emperor had virtually nothing BUT vassals, the situation was so dire that Henirich presented himself at the Pope's castle at Canossa dressed as a penitent and waited in the snow for several day until the Pope very reluctantly gave him absolution.

He later turned the tables on the Holy Father, and marched on Rome with an army, deposed the Pope and instuted one of his own making.

[Postino]

i got excommunicated once and had 4 rebellions in the heart of my territory. i just bribed them all, but it was catholic revolts, and all of them had a mix of nice crusader peices and vannila infantry.

i am undecided on the ease of which you can bride any rebel armies, certainly ones that revolt from you in the first place.