pesky meddling pope

[Sandy-San]

so i contol just about every sea on the map. i'm only at war with the egyptians and the horde, and then 'bang' the hungarians decide to attack my ships, and sink one. somewhat annoyed by this, i promptly sink their ship back. then the pope sticks his nose in and tells me not to do it again or I'm excommunicated.

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif i'm not fighting a land war with them at all (although the sea battle was in the aeolian sea (spelling?)) so maybe the pope could see it from his baclony or something.

now the hungarians are sending ships out into the open seas. they block my shipping routes (not the ships themselves, just the routes for troops and trade) but I can't sink them, and the hungarian king won't accept a ceasefire. without my trade routes, my armies in the holy land are going to be cut off if the hungarians send out more ships. and as i've recently taken a lot of muslim territory, and used churches and priests to up the loyalty, i can't risk getting excommunicated.

i do have some very large armies in hungary's back yard, but so does he, and the SOB already make a sneak attack on my shipping, so i'm not keen to move them.

any bright ideas?

[Dark Angel]

Either invade the Hungarians and destroy them before ex-com. Or risk excom then invade papal states and kill the pope then tear down all the buildings and leave. New pope arrives not excommunicated.

I think this works.

[malkuth]

I hate the pope. Three times so far the French have attacked me. And three times so far the pope has Mediated the war and Threatened us both. Usually he goes to the french first (I can tell because there attacks suddendly stop) and then when I finally make an offensive he threatens me.

Luckily right now with my war with spain he has stayed out of it. (I think they might be excumunitcated) Its been a bloody war though. But hopefully soon I will break the stalemate.

[Qilue]

Don't be too affraid of excommuntication. Clear shipping lanes and excommunicated is way better than being blockaded. Plus, if you've been excommunicated, there's nothing else he can do to you. Also, keep a bishop in each papal province so you can check the age of the pope.

Oh, be very careful when bribing too. Twice, I've bribed a province away from a catholic faction and twice been excommunicated when they attacked me. This may be a bug though.

[solypsist]

When mediating between two warring Catholic factions, the Pope will excommunicate whoever is the most agressive in total. If you're attacked by (for example) the French, then defend and be victorious, then just sell back the prisoners, to maybe recoup some of the money you lost on killed soldiers. Chances are you won't be attacked again. But if you counterattack and actually conquer a province, you'll have out-aggressed the other guy, and so will be excommunicated.
Similarly, you can attack another Catholic factions, and take/sell prisoners, and (hopefully) sell off his structures, and then abandon the province without being excommunicated. Basically, you can raid as long as you don't disturb his borders, or hold the enemy under siege once you get the Pope's warning.

[MizuKokami]

you can also, after takeing a province from a fellow catholic faction, assault the castle and keep the land you took without getting excommunicated. so be sure you take catapults with you when you attack, just don't field them until you are assaulting the castle. be sure to assault the castle the next turn, remember you have "two years" to cease hostilities, and if there is no one in the castle after the fighting started, you won't get excomminated. i'm not sure if when the ai tries to relieve the seige as to weather or not it counts towards excomm., so it might be wise to abandon the province if they strike back.

[Hosakawa Tito]

All very good advice. Hopefully you have some 4-5 star assassins available also. If all else fails send a high valor one along with several novice assassins to visit the Pope and arrange an accident. The low level ones should be the first ones caught by the bodyguards, leaving your best one to do the dirty deed. How many assassins does it take to push the Pope off the parapet?None, he fell. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[deutschlanduberalles]

Well, this is definitely not what I notice in my game. For a CENTURY now the English and the French have been bashing at each other, neither are excommed, and I'm getting excommed for the Spanish sinking MY ships (not counterattacking) around the Spanish coastline. (I'm German btw) In fact in my current game NOBODY has been excommed except me and there has been no shortage of Catholic-on-Catholic war since the start of the campaign. Does anyone know what exactly a computer controlled faction needs to DO to get excommed?? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif