canceled sieges

[David Bukalski]

I was sieging 2 castles when the pope told me to end them in 7 turns. It was 6 turns until the occupants starved so I figured Id go ahead and finish them. On turn 4 though my armies lifted all the sieges simultaneously. What happened, did I miss something?

[mrbrownstain]

The Pope usually orders to cease all hostilities towards a specific faction for a number of turns. As for cancelled sieges; in my experience a siege can be ended by an opposing faction by the assasination of the besieging captain or general.

[Quillan]

The likely cause was your enemy making an alliance with one of your allies. Mutual allies cannot be at war with one another. Say you're playing Spain, and you're allied with Milan, but at war with France. The French and Milanese form an alliance, it will cause an immediate cessation of hostilities between the French and Spanish. This is a bit wierd, because if you were at war with the French, you yourself could not even ask for an alliance with one of France's allies, but the AIs don't follow the same rule. They can ask it of you, for example.