Tips from playing as the Papal States

While playing with the Papal States I've come up with a sort of starters guide.

1)Since you cant marry you may only adopt heirs therefore you'll have a small pool of generals. Because of this, a defensive stratedgy might be the dominant factor for the campaign.

2)Capture Florence and make it into a castle, this will hopefully stop any over zealous factions from marching on Rome since the AI usually attacks the first city it runs into.

3)Money!! Build up your trade with anyone/everyone you can find. Although you can make Rome into a castle I believe, you'll benefit much more in the long run with making it into a city.

4)Try to conslidate your power in Italy, take Corsica and Sardina and if possible turn them into cities, from what I've seen the AI will almost never attack these islands so they can instantly generate wealth for you.

5)Use the inquisition to eliminate any enemies you may have, do it enough and eventually you'll be able to kill off faction heirs or even leaders with ease. The game automatically recruits these men so when one dies, another will spawn somewhere else later.

6)The Pope is some what "expendable" since whenever one dies, another is elected. But, its good to have cardinals to influence the elections and put a man of your choice in otherwise your enemy might be your next faction leader! (You still control him but him being your enemy, the AI might automatically pardon its faction or do other unwanted acts)

7)Try to make alliances with your neighbors, at least two of the three, Millian, Sicilly, HRE, though don't expect these to last long, but at least try to stay on the good side of one of these factions untill your armies are ready to go on an offensive.

Ahhh....wrong board! Can a moderator move/delete my post?

There you go. Hope I guessed the right forum.

the papal states control the inquisitors? I didn't know that.. Sounds fun.

The only problem w/ playing as them seems that it would be too easy.

Crusade first turn and take jerusalum

you can't call crusades, or its hard to do it... i know its weird, you'd think since you control the pope you could call them against anywhere whenever but you can't.

The papal states don't have a "pope-o-meter" for themselves.

That's because the Papal States, like the Timurids, Mongols, and Aztecs, were never intended to be playable. So there's going to be some incomplete contradictions lurking about.

You can play the papal States (through modding):inquisitive: ??? I didn't know that was possible. Is it a lot like the Senate in Rome where you couldn't play because it was heavily scripted? Or are there no problems with it? (other than not being able to call crusades?)

EDIT: My 100th post! This calls for dancing elephants!:elephant: :elephant: :elephant: :whip:

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Originally Posted by CaesarAgustus

You can play the papal States (through modding):inquisitive: ??? I didn't know that was possible. Is it a lot like the Senate in Rome where you couldn't play because it was heavily scripted? Or are there no problems with it? (other than not being able to call crusades?)

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You can call Crusades, but the Pope does not always accept your request eventhough you control him, its weird. Besides this, I have not really noticed any kind of "bugs" in some 100 turns so far in my campaign. :yes:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72520

Here is how to play with them.

Basically, anyone you attack will be excommunicated. You can't call crusades. You can send the pope on crusades though. I hear it's pretty easy to play as them considering the excommunication. You can't get married either so you have to adopt all of your generals which is a setback.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xaziv

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72520

Here is how to play with them.

Basically, anyone you attack will be excommunicated. You can't call crusades. You can send the pope on crusades though. I hear it's pretty easy to play as them considering the excommunication. You can't get married either so you have to adopt all of your generals which is a setback.

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Thanks................. this looks fun. They seem a bit overpowered though. I look forward to excommunicating one faction just to see all the others destroy it:beam: .

Yes, if a faction angers you, send a unit of suicidal peasants at them. The peasants will get butchered, but the faction that killed them will be excommunicated. At this point one could attack a preoccupied faction with a Blitzkreig and take all their land while they were "converting the heathens". A very diabolical strategy, yet keep in mind I haven't played the game yet.

The big advantage for the Papal States, imho, is their access to the Papal Guard in the early game. They're expensive, but they kick seven kinds of tail compared to the other infantry available to most factions at the beginning.