In a sticky situation - Pope has declared crusade on my vassal

[Memnoch]

Playing as the Danes, I managed to get the Moors as my vassal after expelling them out of the Iberian peninsula (they had managed to eliminate the Spaniards and trap the Portuguese in Bordeaux). I pushed them all the way back across the Straits of Gibraltar before they sued for peace, and the vassalage only cost be about 10,000 florins or so.

The problem is that the Pope has now declared a crusade against them! This was rather annoying as this Pope was "my" Pope (ie he was Danish, as was the Pope before him - I've had a majority in the CoC for a while now). I realise that once they become pope they become leaders of a sovereign nation, and that you need to grease their palms now and then to maintain good relations (my relations with the Papal States are always Outstanding to Perfect). I have managed to get away with some useful land grabs against my fellow Catholics as the Pope would usually "look the other way" for a turn or two before threatening to excommunicate me while I donated a healthy sum of florins to him.

In other words, I was the perfect "Christian kingdom", joined at the hip with the Papal States over the years. They provided the moral legitimacy to my conquests of the infidels. In fact, the reason that the Pope had not declared a crusade against the Moors previously was because I'd been getting him to declare Crusades against the eastern kingdoms (Egypt and Turkey).

But for some stupid reason the Pope has now, off his own bat, decided to declare a crusade against Granada, which is held by the Moors (the only part of the Iberian Peninsula they still hold). As their vassal, I am obliged to defend them, right? What will that do to my relationship with the Pope (I'm guessing it won't be good and that I'll get excommunicated)?

[Carl]

get excommunicated

yep, attack a crusading army and it's instant excommunication. Put your army near granada so that your in a support postion though (i.e. your forces will turn up to reinforce the moors), i don't think that wil get you excommunicated as you didn't attack the crusading army. Also, try putting a seris of armies and forts across the mountins at the top of the Iberian Peninsular, shold stop anyone walking their, which will help a lot.

[Quillan]

I'm not certain how much of the Iberian Peninsula you hold yourself, but there is a strictly limited number of land routes through the Pyrenees. One army in the pass along the road blocks it, one army in the pass with no road blocks it. It might take two armies or even three to block the two coastal routes, but they can be blocked. If the other crusaders aren't allied with you, then you can tie them up almost indefinitely with zones of control. Of course, nothing stops them from going by sea, but they don't seem to do that the majority of the time.

You may also try the assassin route, assuming you have a good assassin or two. Kill off the generals of the crusading armies and they'll eventually go away. I've never seen an AI army suffer from desertion on a crusade or a jihad, even if it doesn't move for decades, but they certainly do disband if they lose all the generals and can't get a new one in time.

[Horatius]

What has your vassal ever done for you? The morale obligation to heed the Crusades outwieghs your obligation to a vassal, and you seem to be conveniently the only Catholic in the Iberian Penninsula

Do the math, don't let those pesky Germans, or French take Granada it is yours.

[Memnoch]

What has your vassal ever done for you? The morale obligation to heed the Crusades outwieghs your obligation to a vassal, and you seem to be conveniently the only Catholic in the Iberian Penninsula

Do the math, don't let those pesky Germans, or French take Granada it is yours.

LOL fair enough, I just wasn't sure if I was allowed to break a vassal relationship or not. I suppose I'll take a bit of a hit to my reputation by turning on my vassal?

[pat the magnificent]

officially break off the vassalship with a diplomat first, i think that should at least lessen the rep hit.

[Carl]

Yeah, TBH if the game had working diplomacy, it wouldn't be such a minor issue, keep your relations with a faction above Good and your reputation at reliabile or above and your allaiances are littrially unbreakable. Somone who allies with you simply won't ever break them because of how relibiale you are. Sadly this feature is disabled by defualt and thus you can pretty much break allainces at will, theirs no reason to try and get good reputaion in this gam,e with defualts.

[Horatius]

LOL fair enough, I just wasn't sure if I was allowed to break a vassal relationship or not. I suppose I'll take a bit of a hit to my reputation by turning on my vassal?

Or just break the vassalage right before you besiege Grenada, and the second those pesky frenchmen come to call feel free to mock them by taking Grenada in front of them.

[KHPike]

Declare your own crusade against your vassal...Hire a few crusader units even if you are going to use another stack on the settlement. That way you get a few good units for a cheap and quick buck.

I also disagree that it's a good idea to take settlements if there's another crusader army in your territory. Given the nature of the AI it's just an invitation to attack. XD