Cease and desist order from the Pope

I'm currently playing SS 3.2 on M2TW 1.2, and I've been in a conflict with the HRE as Sicily. Now, I have 9/10 crosses (sometimes 10/10) with the Pope, and relations are Perfect (dropped to Outstanding for a turn or so), gifting him 150 florins per turn (increased it from 100, will increase it later on). Now, he has sent me a cease and desist order...

I have 5 provinces, the HRE plenty more, I'm trying to kick them off Italy. Now, I don't want to damage my chances of getting a Pope when the current one croaks, nor do I wish to cripple my standing with the Pope. So here's my question: do I have to obtain an actual ceasefire with the HRE to complete the cease and desist mission, or do I just have to refrain from attacking any army/navy/settlement of the HRE during the duration of the mission, while still remaining 'at war'?

Just don't attack them or send armies into their territory.

Thanks. Darn it...just when they decided to blockade a port of mine.

Would they get the same mission, too?

It is beneficial, though...if I wait the mission out, and their leader dies (he's in Bologna...4 to 5 stars, about 54-56, while King Simon has only 2 command and in his mid 30s...), then when I can attack again I might have the advantage I didn't have before.

Cease and desist is weird. You can leave armies sieging enemy settlements and the pope doesn't bat an eyelid. What you can't do is actually attack. Settlement has 8 turns to go until sally, get 7 turn desist order, just sit there. Pope is happy, enemy forces are depleted, you sack city with 1 turn to go. Magic.

As for them getting the same mission they may well do. I have seen the Scots/French excommed when they attacked after the order was given to me as the English. Usually happens when they attack a city. So if you're feeling particularly evil, take all but one (peasants or some crap unit) of your forces out of a city and have them hide in the bushes near by. Sometimes the AI just can't help itself.

Edward: Hey, Edinburgh is defended by a bunch of scrawny peasants. Lets to it.
General: But the Pope!
Edward: Screw te' Pope! I want my city back.
*Pope excomms Edward*
*English attack from the forest*
Edward: Doh!

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Originally Posted by Kaidonni

Thanks. Darn it...just when they decided to blockade a port of mine.

Would they get the same mission, too?

It is beneficial, though...if I wait the mission out, and their leader dies (he's in Bologna...4 to 5 stars, about 54-56, while King Simon has only 2 command and in his mid 30s...), then when I can attack again I might have the advantage I didn't have before.

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In general if you get a "stop hostilities" mission the other faction gets it too so if they blockade/attack after you get the mission they usually get excommunicated.

If you have more than eight crosses you won't be excommunicated when you don't obey the pope. You will lose one cross for not obeying. Since you are giving the pope some tribute your standing with him will restore very soon. You can always give him some more money after you have captured the city.

Also, I think it's safe to attack the blockading fleet without papal repercussions. You can also attack Germans that are on your lands.

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Originally Posted by madchoochter

Cease and desist is weird. You can leave armies sieging enemy settlements and the pope doesn't bat an eyelid. What you can't do is actually attack. Settlement has 8 turns to go until sally, get 7 turn desist order, just sit there. Pope is happy, enemy forces are depleted, you sack city with 1 turn to go. Magic.

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It usually works this way, but not always. I was at war with Sicily, besieging two of their cities when I got the mission from the pope. I didn't lift the sieges because in the past the pope didn't react to ongoing sieges. Next turn I was excommunicated!

I was in the middle of a crusade, so I had to buy reconciliation so my generals can rejoin the crusade, otherwise my crusading armies would probably deserted. It cost me 20000 fL :furious3:

Another oddity regarding pope's missions: you don't get the "You're about to be excommunicated" warning when you blockade enemy's port with your army. You just fail the mission.

I don't know about you guys, but when the Pope starts to get bossy, I generally kill him. And then sack Rome.

If, as Sicily, you have trained lots of cardinals in N Africa or middle east, and can control the college of cardinals, it may be OK to get excommed if the pope is 59 or something and about to be replaced with a sicilian pope. in my sicily games, the papacy is exclusively sicilian because of the early jump they get training up cardinals.

Everything worked out...sort of. The HRE is now excommed :laugh4:.

Unfortunately, Venice has taken it upon themselves to land a small army next to the settlement in Bari...don't know why, I don't border them. They blockaded me for one turn previously, before 1100, I got a ceasefire and alliance...then they backstabbed me. Now they plan to break peace again. And this is all from naval invasions by them - I don't border them on land! :furious3:

I just don't need Venice doing this right now, because I have a nice army all ready to attack Bologna (which should give me a nice amount of income per turn), and my income, with 5 settlements (3 cities, 2 castles) is now only about 2,000 florins per turn... :dizzy2: I have to upgrade the walls at my capital to Large Stone Walls (8600 florins), and soon, on Sardinia, Stone Walls (5200 florins, but Prince Rolando has an Architect in his retinue, so -10% construction costs).

Plus I need to keep defending Sardinia because the Moors love it for a vacation destination, they just don't understand that their passports have been revoked. :smash:

I also have one of my cardinals as the Pope, in fact, most part of the game I had my own pope. But I haven't noticed any difference in relations compared to the other nationality pope.
He still interferes with his missions, I still have to bribe him to keep good relations, I even got excommunicated once.

I wonder is there any benefit from having a pope from your ranks?

Basically getting your own pope resets standings to somewhere around 'outstanding' and even 'perfect'. having your own pope at the exact right time can save some money; but in general it's just much less of a hassle to bribe him instead of killing him to have your own elected.

If you are told not to attack someone there are still few things for you to do:
Cause unrest and sabotage important buildings, skill up your spies so that next time you attack them, you get trough gates without building siege eguipment (so pope can´t tell you not to attack until 1 turn later when you took the place) Reinforce armies and so on blah blah blah. If enemies are at your lands or blockade your port, you may attack them without worrying about excommunication. Does HRE have better standing with pope than you? because usually he tells the stronger or less favored one to quit.

I do get this very often, what i found as the best solution is to assassinate enemy priests and cardinals etc. then when you get excommunicated just assassinate the pope, because you have by now, more priests and cardinals than the other factions the chances are high that you have multiple cardinals and thus have multiple votes in the college of cardinals. This will make it easy to create a puppet pope. When a pope dies you will be restored into the church. this will nullify all negative effects of being excommunicated. Dont put a cardinal of your own faction as a pope when you are still waging war. Do so once you are done warmongering and profit from a HUGE boost in relationship (pope of own faction results in the loss of a cardinal and thus vote, which makes it harder to get your chosen candidate on the seat). An average assassin has about 50/50 chance, you can repeat this as often as you like. It is a good way to basically do what you want without repercussions :)

NOTE, you might receive a relationship hit when the pope is allied with another faction, you can try to remedy this by voting for a preferati of that faction. (When you vote for the winning candidate you will always get a small boost in relationship).

Excuse me for my grammar and spelling, i am currently in a busy metro.