Voting in a new pope?

I dont quite understand the whole "voting a pope in" process. It happend for the first time about 10 turns ago. I voted for the spanish which ended up with 5 votes total, and the Hungarians got it with 5 votes total (it was a tie). Not sure why he got it, but now I'm on the pope's bad list because I voted for the spanish one. How do you ever get your cardinal elected as pope? Good deplomasy? More than one cardinal or your own in the papel? Isn't the papel state rome? Wouldn't they just win every time because thats where the pope resides?

Also, when it asked me to vote for the cardinal it asked if I wanted to do diplomasy with any of the runner up factions. I took a look at the options but didnt see anything relavent. How does "map information" or "Trade rights" have anything to do with getting electoral votes?

When a cardinal dies, the replacement is taken from the highest piety priests in the game - so get lots of high piety priests by sending them to preach abroad in non-catholic countries.

When the pope dies, the successor is chosen from 3 of the highest piety cardinals. The more cardinals you have, the better your chances of getting your man in.

My latest campaign I have managed to stay in the pope's good books all the way though, so I currently have 11 cardinals out of the 13. Any time a cardinal dies one of my priests gets voted in.

I dont think its just piety however, I think its some combination of piety and your standing with the pope but i'm not entirely sure, milan seem to have a few high ranking pirests but their standing with the pope is bad and its still always my priests who get voted in.

The 3 highest piety cardinals are the preferati, but it seems you can only have 1 preferati from each faction, even if 2 have high piety it will stil be the highest piety from another faction who is preferati. Its the preferati who will be voted on in the next election (you can see it on the college of cardinals screen)

Each cardinal gets 1 vote (including the preferati themselves) and countries ALWAYS vote for their own cardinal if they have one.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think countries without a preferati will vote for the faction that they have the best standing with, so you could say donate a chunk of cash or some other gift to a faction (to improve your relations with them) just before the vote so they will vote for you, although if you have the majority vote they always vote with you (tested with a reload after a papal election where I had 7 cardinals).

Getting your own cardinal in as pope didnt seem to give anything special, didnt give the ability to control the papal states or anything. I actually found it was better to vote for the papal states cardinal as I already had perfect relations with them and that way I didnt lose my highest piety cardinal (and he then voted one of my priests in to replace his cardinal position).

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Originally Posted by Finn

The 3 highest piety cardinals are the preferati, but it seems you can only have 1 preferati from each faction, even if 2 have high piety it will stil be the highest piety from another faction who is preferati.

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I have seen 2 hungarian preferati. I believe depends who became a cardinal first.

Also, I had "priests" and then "bishops": any specific difference ? Do you get a bishop for each cathedral you build ?

Are they any good to prevent assassinations ? ;)

Bishop: OK, Devious, don't move!
Devious: The bishop!

Bishop seems to be a trait, +1 Piety to priests recruited in a city with a cathedral (i'm not sure if its the first or all of them)
I think there is another one, for huge cathedral which gives +2 piety.

It seems to me it's more important to pick the winner than getting your own Cardinal elected.

having ur own pope does give advantages, your own priests are more likely to get promoted to cardinals, and the pope will often look the other way while u beat up other catholic factions although not always, it requires good standing with the pope and the other faction to have bad standing.

as far as i can tell bishop is no different from a priest, except a bishop has enough piety to be elected to cardinal, if a seat opens in the colledge, i could be wrong on this one, but so far ALL my bishops have 5 piety which is enough to be elected.

Cheers Knoddy


oh and u cant have 2 preferati from the same faction, i currently have 11/13 seats on the colledge, yet when a papal vote comes up, the only candidates are my highest piety cardinal and sicily's (they have the other 2 spots atm).

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Originally Posted by knoddy

oh and u cant have 2 preferati from the same faction, i currently have 11/13 seats on the colledge, yet when a papal vote comes up, the only candidates are my highest piety cardinal and sicily's (they have the other 2 spots atm).

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So how come Sicilly get those 2?

I think he means the other 2/13

Well i'm guessing that the player cant have 2 preferati, however the other factions dont have the same limit.

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Originally Posted by Finn

Well i'm guessing that the player cant have 2 preferati, however the other factions dont have the same limit.

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He meant the other two of thirteen seats.

Only one Preferati per faction for Pope.

My HRE campaign, I have, uh... all three cardinals. All three preferati are mine too. Funny that. And the Pope is a German.

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Originally Posted by MadKow

It seems to me it's more important to pick the winner than getting your own Cardinal elected.

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If you buy enough votes they can be one and the same. :deal2:

In my English campagin I own the Papacy. I have 7 Cardinals. And the last 2 Popes were of my house. ~:thumb: I also bough every available vote to ensure English Cardinals become Pope. Lots of cash that takes, 30k each vote. All who oppose me shal be excemunicated, or crusaded against. :evilgrin:

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Originally Posted by lars573

I also bough every available vote to ensure English Cardinals become Pope.

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Sounds fun but what good does being pope do for you? Can't you call a crusade whenever you want against whoever you want?

The Pope is more inclined to see things your way if he comes from your faction. You get more leeway in attacking catholics, the others get less in attacing you.

I thought I read in the previews that you could also ask the pope for favours in diplomacy, like ask for a crusade to a certain place. If your pope gets elected, do you get full standing with the pope?

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Originally Posted by Myrddraal

I thought I read in the previews that you could also ask the pope for favours in diplomacy, like ask for a crusade to a certain place. If your pope gets elected, do you get full standing with the pope?

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I thought so too. And yes, the Hungarians just got their Cardinal elected to pope and they have full standing with him.

the only exception to the pope rule seems to be that if you are caught trying to assassinate the pope, and your new cardinal gets elected he might not like you because you were caught trying to kill the last pope!

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Originally Posted by Myrddraal

I thought I read in the previews that you could also ask the pope for favours in diplomacy, like ask for a crusade to a certain place. If your pope gets elected, do you get full standing with the pope?

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Yes you do get full standing. And anyone your at war with takes a dve. But crusades are a button next to the Popes pictuers in the Pope scroll. And there is a cool down period of something like 10 turns between crusades.