Excommunication

[Australianus]

Anyone got any ideas on handling excommunication better? I realise that if the pope is old the period of excommunication is short but I cannot always control this. I have been allied to the pope and been attacked by a non ally of his, and been excommunicated. As the English, I allowed one French Crusade to enter Wessex (on its "direct" route to Constantinople and lost a third of my best units. I refused the next one on its way to Livonia and was excommunicated. I had no time to adjust my Wessex garrison pending the arrival of the crusade.
Obviously his holiness knows that I am a complete infidel and is out to get me. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-help.gif

[Conner MacLeod]

You could try your own crusade, that might help things with the Pope a little. Also fighting non-Catholics is another way to gain areas without risking excommunication.
If you do get excommunicated just make sure to check your provincial loyalties, and lower taxes/increase troop presence if necessary. It probably won't last more than a few turns.

As for the French crusade in Wessex, I have no idea why it was doing that but NEVER allow the French even to pass through wessex. If you let them, they'll steal units from your garrison (Wessex should be your stronghold on the island), weakening an extremely important province. Assuming you don't have the other side of the channel held down (Flanders I think is the area) you leave yourself open to invasion. I'd risk excommunication before allowing anyone else free pass on Wessex.

Maybe someone should make the "Angry Pope" mod where factions randomly get excommunicated and uprising occur cause of it all the time. Some people find the single player too easy, the Angry Pope would make it harder.

[Servius]

Ways to make the Pope happier/more lenient with you:
a) launch your own crusades
b) build religious buildings in the Church line. I think the Church, Reliquary, and Cathedral make the pope happy, but he doesn't care if you build monestaries. Something like that.
c) ally with him and...
i) save his ass when other nations have him under siege.
ii) send small support forces into nme provinces next to his zones if you think he'd like to attack there but doesn't have the manpower. You can always call off the attack if he doesn't come too or brings too small a force for him to win it.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Just so you know, excommunications end when the Pope dies OR your king does, either one will work. Though, if the Pope particularly hates your empire, he'll imediately excommunicate your new king too :-)

Also, like the other guy said, I never let any crusades enter my provinces. If you have an oft-crusading neighbor and you have a sea link to Outremmer, you can ally with your neighbor and he'll just ride on your ships rather than making to your province to hop on your ships first.

If you have no other way but to let the crusade in, reload an Autosave, watch for the approach of the crusade, and when you know it's about to enter your province, move everyone out of it so that when the crusade comes in, it can't leach any of your troops.

[ichi]

I think the best way to deal with a Pope who excommed you is to assassinate him. Make many assassins, get their valor up by using them against emissaries and Alims and Bishops from other factions in your own provinces.

One the first turn after excommunication, send 5 or 6 V2 or higher assassins over the pay a visit to his Papalness.

ichi

[jadast]

I ignore the pope. Being excommunicated adds a little spice to the game. Putting down rebellions and bracing for crusades adds a little something to the fun factor.

[gaelic cowboy]

Ya just ignore him as long as you have a sufficiently strong garrison in the province any crusade will just sit on your border's and not dare attack. And a nice murder or two of old popey doesnt go amiss. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[Auxilia]

I rather enjoy flattening the Vatican and deposing him - just make sure you if you do that, you keep the mother of all garrisons in place for when a successor rears his ugly head http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[Mummer]

*Mutters about the stupid revival Popes popping up at the worst possible times.*

[katar]

kill the pope on the battlfield(don`t let him escape to the castle), no excommunications. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

then destroy all buildings in the province, pull all of your troops out and crank the taxes way up.

soon you get a nice rebellion and the rebels will claim the province.

when the pope arises again, he has to deal with the rebels first which can thin his ranks a bit.

once he has wiped out the rebels you attack him again and kill him on the battlefield and make it go rebel again.

repeat as necessary. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif