Getting excommed, boon or hindrance?

In my Genoese (XL) campaign, I'm keeping the pope as a tame poodle. Destroyed his faction once, waited for the re-emergence in Rome and Papal States, defended Rome (and kept it) and abandonned Papal states, which I had stripped of everything but the fort and 20% farmland (I have a "rule" to never destroy farmland, and leaving the fort was part of the cunning plan....). Second year after the re-emergence I attacked Papal States once more, ensuring the Pope survived with so few men they could fit into the fort. Kept him under siege til he had approx 200 men left, then abandonned the province. This gave me an auto ceasefire, and the Pope was left with a useless army that cost more in upkeep than his territory could supply in income. He can never build ANYTHING else ever again :laugh4: Not even a border fort, which means I can afford to leave a Grand Inquisitor and Assassin (now up to 6*) and spy on permanent duty in the Papal States. Any trouble with excommunication, well, I go off and do my Catholic bashing for a while and when it's convenient I knock off the Pope with my 6* killer and get re-commed and carry on Crusading as if nothing had happened.

You can't keep the Pope out, but you can keep him down :whip:

Very nice, macsen rufus. I confess I wouldn't have thought to permanently station a GI and/or assassin in his province like that. I'm more of a "blunt instrument" guy when it comes to the Pope--if he's annoying me, I just move in and invade. (Although I've discovered this last year that burning him at the stake for heresy can be quite fun as well.) ~D

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Originally Posted by macsen rufus

You can't keep the Pope out, but you can keep him down :whip:

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This wins. Period.

I find the pope sometimes doesn't grant you a ceasefire so readily, so perhaps you were lucky.

Luck or no, it looks worthy of trying.....and even if you don't get the auto ceasefire, with such a weakened papal army left, the "sledgehammer" option is always still available....as, of course, are the assassin and GI options....

I was skeptical about the autoceasefire thing at first, but I'd read in another thread someone else had had that result, so I tried it - and it worked :2thumbsup: I don't know if it's always the case, but I guess the process of abandonning the province whilst the stronghold is under siege breaks the contact between the factions. I imagine that if the defenders decide to sally though, it wouldn't work.

With the spy and GI on station it also ensures the loyalty in the Papal States stays below 100%, so even if he did think about taking his pathetic army rampaging, he'd face instant rebellion.

So long as you're not at war with the Pope still, you can continue Crusading when you're not ex-commed. If you are at war its possible to be re-commed but still have the Pope banning you from crusading :wall: The reason I prefer my current situation is that taking the sledgehammer route puts you back into war with the pope, and next time the ceasefire may not work, then no more crusading for the rest of the game, and of course each time you kill the faction there will be another re-emergence...