Victory!

[Stolpmeister]

Finished the grand campaign as Spain yesterday... at H/H on turn 149.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/Stolpmeister/victory.jpg
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/Stolpmeister/victory3.jpg
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/Stolpmeister/victory4.jpg

I could have dragged it out more and gotten to see the americas, I suppose, but the Mongols were starting to push into eastern Europe with my frontier armies weakened after fighting Poland and Hungary. Also, just as I'd handled the Mongol situation in the holy land, the Timurids were starting to appear.

Yeah, I'm just bragging. :) Anyone else finish it?

[knoddy]

im happy cos ur screenies show that its possible to keep playing after winning.

and grats!

[alpaca]

Didn't you already get the world is round event?
It should be between turns 120 and 128 judging from the events file.

[Stolpmeister]

I'm pretty sure I didn't get it, but I might've missed it. It's at "turn 180ish", "year 1400" or whenever you build a university, accord to the FAQ:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72109

[Throumbaris]

I finished my campaign at turn 104 and had already gotten the message but didnt know you needed to build carracks to get to the americas, bleh.

[Willbreaker]

Congratulations!

Please, share with me how you managed to kill all of those catholic factions without angering the pope or getting inqusitors in your lands!

/Breaker

[Stolpmeister]

Please, share with me how you managed to kill all of those catholic factions without angering the pope or getting inqusitors in your lands!

Those are two issues, really. I'll start with inquisitors. First, try to prevent them from ever coming up. As soon as you spot those heretics, you need to gangbang them with priests. Never send just one, send two or (preferably) three. The inquisition is mostly a problem in Europe... despite alot of heretics running around there, I never saw an inquisitor in Africa or the Holy Land. Europe also has alot of territories in a small space. So you build alot of priests. I tried to have one priest in every castle or city. So whenever a heretic pops up and starts going all "Hay guys, Christ was a donkey!", you can have priests coming in from all directions quite rapidly to smack him with the bible. Second, if an inquisitor DOES arrive, evacuate the area. Get your family members/merchants/priests/seductresses (sorry, I mean princesses) out of there... inquisitors don't move around much. At one time I loaded up three family members in a boat and sent them on a vacation from their native Spain to check out the bikini babes of the french riviera, all because some overzealous ass was running around in Spain burning people.

Killing catholic factions, now that's another story, and alot harder. Being chummy with the pope helps. Build lots of priests, and send some to non-catholic regions to preach - that builds up their Piety, and increases their chances of promotion, making it easier to elect your own pope. Crusade as much as you can. I went on every crusade I could, and called three on my own. Don't be lazy about crusading, and don't be tempted to sack juicy cities on the way - get to the target before anyone else and take it. Taking it is important - holding it, not so much. Also, calling crusades against excommunicated Catholics is goddamn Christmas, and you need to do it as often as possible. Remember you don't need to have a countryman be the pope to call crusades, you just need enough standing. You have to keep an eye on the papal standings at all times, especially after a new pope election. Even having your own guy wearing the pointy hat isn't a guarantee he'll go easy on you - I was down to three crosses in standing with a spanish pope, once.

The sad part about playing Catholic is that you can't always go to war with who you want when you want, and sometimes you'll have to take breaks. I took plenty of breaks, and made some risky expansions. The war with Sicily was especially atrocious - I got reprimanded for my aggression four times, and bit the bullet and waited every time. I'm also not sure about this, but it seems like when you get told to stop fighting, it means the other faction is in trouble. I very rarely had Sicily attack me during out "timeouts", which made them good times to consolidate my gains and build new forces. If you look at the map in my victory-screen, you'll see I've expanded my european holdings a long way to the east. I would've prefered to take England, or Denmark, or Poland in the northeast, but those three were all in favor with the pope. Hungary, who held the easternmost territories, was excommunicated, which made their land legitimate pickings. I might've been too chicken about it, but I never risked excommunication. A tactic when fighting a catholic faction with high favor is to bring trebuchets or cannons - attack the city, shoot the walls down, kill the faggots, get the city, get a slap on the wrist and defend.

Wow, that was longer than I expected. I hope it helped... ask some more if you want to.

[Willbreaker]

Did you play on 2 years per turn or 1 year per turn?

/Breaker

[Stolpmeister]

Did you play on 2 years per turn or 1 year per turn?

I didn't mod it, so I guess it's 2 years per turn? I never really followed the year-tracker... I'm not much of a simulationist.