I was just wondering what people thought of how a multiplayer campaign in the early era with the expansion pack would turn out. With a few exceptions. The pope can only come back if a catholic nation donates troops or florins to back up the pope in exile. All Catholic nations pay a 5 percent tribute to the pope but the papacy cannot agressively attack other factions as not to take advantage of this and can only attack non catholic territories or one that is excomunicated. You can also refuse to pay tribut to the pope but likely face an excommunication. If you are allied with someone you can maintain troops in there territories. Influence is harder to gain but also harder to lose as not to leave a losing nation in a civil war. In a civil war instead of going rebel they become a separate faction of there own so a losing faction cannot be mopped up so easily. The player that gets to play the papacy gets to make excommunications so dirty donations can be made to the papacy as that's what it was really was about I don't think the English ever got excommunicated for attacking the Scots. So an excommunication coming out of nowhere could make it interesting but the excommunications could only be made on a faction that is gaining against a another catholic faction. You can pay a tribute to a nation for a ceasefire or donate money to an ally. You can sell a territory to another faction such as naples not very important to the Byzantines and near imposible for them to hold onto so a deal could be made where the troops return home for free and the Sicilians get the territory. Each faction gets 1 ship. The Papacy has to give back territories to a catholic faction if it was previously owned by a catholic faction unless if that factin is currently excommunicated. There is a 10 percent increase in income for each alliance you have to help offset the powerhouse factions and the Papacy can't have any alliances as they are the backers of the catholic nations
I think the Byzantines would be just about everyones enemy as they can field the most superior troops and I believe everyone would want to get them out of the way asap. I don't think they would be beaten down to hard but would have trouble expanding So I think there would be a strong alliance made between Hungary and 1 of the Muslim factions to deal with the threat
The Turks would be hard driven for an alliance with either the Byzantines or the Egtptians and would be there only chance for survival as only an alliance with Hungary would would not help them greatly.
The Egyptians are pretty well set if they can make sweet deal with the Almos wich I see likely to happen Leaving both factions a threat from 1 side
The almos as stated in the last sentence would probably have an alliance the Egyptians and would try to make easy pickings of the Spanish
The Spanish would be in a tough position unless they could forge an alliance where they only had to deal with Almos and only if pressure is taken off via crusades. Thank god for the pope. At least now there would be some postive posts about the papacy
The Aragones are just plain SOL unless they have lots of luck come there way.
The fighting between the French and English would be Fuedal but I see the Frenchies going down either by the English or the Holy Roman empire.
The English are in the best position even if they lose all there holdings in France wich gives them lots of time to make a fleet and make a nice secure treasury.
The Italians I don't see facing much of a threat as long as they can come to good terms with the HRE and crusade.
The Sicialians could be the sneaky ones out of the bunch and just lay back and let everyone else tear each other apart and pack a power punch.
The Papacy would be the safest and hardest due to the set rules.
The HRE would be the hardest to decide as they have so many fronts and could be there own undoing if they make the wrong enemies. But I see them either going after the Danes first to get a small threat out of the way while it is still small and then taking advantage of any situation that pops up
The people of Novogrod would be in a safe situation but I see them having a hard time with such a low income from all the steppe provinces that as soon as they teched up and upgraded there might be a big threat right at there front door.
The Polish face the same problem as the People of Novograd but also have to deal with the HRE and Hungarians and with such a low income and only a good alliance with there neighbors would set them straight.
The danes are pretty much SOL like the Arogonese and there only chance would be to make an alliance with someone to agressively attack the HRE aggressively and likely the Italians there best bet as they could be the HRE's second target
The Golden Horde is what would make this real interesting as it all depends what Europe looks like and I see them as making a new best friend and worst enmy at the same time
I could just see a campaign game being a very nasty ffa
where dirty alliances are made and broken and backstabbing all the time.
My number 1 picks are the English Almos or the Egyptians and second choices being the Italians Spain(if other factions weaken the Almos via crusades) Sicilians and the HRE if they luck out from all the other factions tearing themselves apart against other factions.
