Your advice about diplomacy please

[IRONxMortlock]

I'm currently playing as Spain at turn 107 or so (M/VH settings - Gold Edition (with latest patch).

I have a fairly large empire spanning all of Iberia and N.Africa (to Tunis), Southern France and Northern Italy as well as Sicily. To get it, I have been fairly ruthless and I've done some fairly devious backstabing so that my reputation is now at "despicable". Sacking, assassinating and executing prisoners was pretty much the norm.

15 turns ago a HRE assassin was executed after a botched assassination attempt which brought our countries to war. I gave them a spanking and took Bern (after offering ceasefires several times). I have the forces to annihilate the HRE if need be but the whole game I've been trying to be a good Spaniard and stay in the graces of the pope.

The pope has ordered a ceasefire but I'm damned if I can get one. I could crush them easily but they won't accept a ceasefire even when I offer 10,000 florins and the offer reads "very generous". Currently relations with HRE are at very poor.

How can I get a ceasefire from these guys?

Currently it's looking much more appealing to ignore the pope and invade and execute everyone I come across. It's like the game encourages you to be a fiend.

Thanks,

M

[glyphz]

I doubt you'll get them to accept a ceasefire in your current situation. When you're reputation has gone that low (Reputation: Despicable <--petty much irrepairable) the AI treats your 'word' as worthless, far less value than say, camel dung... in the desert sun.
Anyway...
that means any proposals you make will be likely refused. Any ceasefire will be made, only if the faction your at war with offers a ceasefire themselves (very unlikely, despite how many times you humiliate them on the battlefield/campaign map), they lose all their settlements in a turn, or if all of their generals gradually becomes extinct. (yes, u know what i'm getting at)
If you can blitz all their cities in a turn, I believe you would've done that. So the next possible solution is to concentrate your assassin network (cooperating with your spy network) on that faction, HUnting down all their family members (yes, even princesses). IT can be very tricky, and at worst you might be forced to reload... (if their faction heir/leader is a very good one, even your best assassin might only have a success rate of in the 20s, plus if accompanied by spies, forget it, less you get to kill the spies first)
If that won't do, just get excommed, crush your enem(y)ies then assassinate the pope, and get reconciled That works too!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I play in a similar way, attacking the enemy when the opportunity arises, developing assassins, open to extermination when needed, despite preferring chivalry and adhering to crusades and multitude of priests. Yep, it does not take long before i'm branded as despicable in all of my campaigns. Always looking for the next target of expansion...)
At the moment playing Stainless Steel 4.1 as the Portugese.
1191 AD - Rushed Leon-Castille and the Crown of Aragon, while conquering the Moors and allying with the French. When crusade for Jerusalem came I sent most of my military to continually be on the offensive against the Fatimids. Meanwhile, I develop a lot of priests and assassins. When I got at least 1 good assassin I hunt down nearby cardinals when I got a candidate ready for 1 of the 13 seats. Once I got at least 4 cardinals, I concentrate assassins on a target faction. 1st it was my French allies. That failed when I can't find their king (hidden somewhere in some forest - how lucky). I moved to the Milan/Genoa. That almost failed too until I spotted a family member from a failed crusade stationed beside Constantinople. Once the last general fell I swooped in from the sea and took most of their holdings (Didn't bother with Metz, the Venetians unexpectedly landed an army beside Bologna and took it before me, but not before losing Venice to me due to 'civil riot'. Hmm their holdings look very tasty. "Men! Meet me in my chamber! I found ourselves our next prey"

[TheLastPrivate]

When the pope wants you to stop the violence, u don't need a ceasefire. Just stop any and all offensive military actions/assassinations and you'll be good to go. But it's easiesr to just throw some florins at the pope.

[IRONxMortlock]

Thanks for the responses

with this reputation, can I basically kiss alliances goodbye too? I haven't much success getting any of them either.

[TheLastPrivate]

GL getting any alliances with despicable. If you played a rush game of murderous conquest, you probably don't need them either, save for the one with the pope.

[glyphz]

Indeed. You're pretty much on your own.
The only solution i can think up of is very sketchy though, + plus it doesn't save your current campaign.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

First is to make all alliances/deals before you declare war on your 1st target.
If you need to strike early, before your diplomat can make all the alliance you plan, the only way around this is to use the character_reset "(name) repeatedly on your princess/diplomat. It is a cheat, though... (thus i put it under spoilers)

[TheLastPrivate]

That's why I turtle so much. I ally with everyone, and whoever breaks it gets my business end and gets eliminated from history in 10 turns. Build up and crusade and enjoy the peaceful prosperty, and sooner or later some fool will blockade me, and THEN eliminate them. You can finish the campaign while staying immaculate this way.