Oh, that's interesting, I sort of rather like that scripted event even more then. I actually was ok if I'd been excommunicated, I would have considered it harsh since it was merely a request to go after the Lombards, but then I could see the case being made a request from the Pope at this time was not really a request so much as an order that had to be obeyed. That's kind of cool they plowed through the brother's kingdom because it saves you the trouble of waiting for him to die (well, don't suppose you actually have to wait, but I did because I was busy up north). I'm glad I waited on him dying too, it gave me like four options, I forget them all, but I took the pay off those who wanted to unite the Kingdom under me and for 8k i was given 2/3's of his Kingdom and the rest stayed military alliance. No muss, no fuss. Pretty cool.

I like what you've got going on though as well, because it's probably fairly tense, what you've got going on is why I sort of just sat tight at the outset and fought minor wars folks in the North and North-East. I still had some in the south and southwest who were taking provinces from me as well, made for an interesting two front war, not something I tend to want happen in a TW campaign, but here it was more or less inevitable.

I've liked this one quite a lot. Btw, on several occasions, no doubt due to my own incompetence, I nearly had generals and/or governors rebel on me, and my power was so low I often looked to be about to have the whole thing go off a cliff and I took serious penalties for it pretty much the entire campaign. Fortunately I fixed up the provinces well enough that they generated more than enough money for me to grease the wheels whenever needed. I still don't think I've got the hang of this family tree business, but I do love it's there to fiddle with, gives me something else that pulls me into the campaign.