I love rebellion!!!

[Sturmmann]

I´m playing the germans, and I had my peace with The danes, Poles Hungarians and the Italiens...

So I pretty much knew where my front was going to be at
And the next year the Fensch attack and take 3 of my provinces... We fight a few years and the pope asks ME to stop hostillities..... ok I want no trouble and seize fighting.

Suddenly an old country of mine rebels and I regain the province. I´m threwn out of the catholic church because of my aggression... I had no choice Give me a break...

The best thing is....
The rebel forces Are:

Knights in shinning armour and fedual sergeants
Units I can´t even build yet
I´m handed over the strongest force know to Europe...
Hey I dont complain

[DeadRunner]

once happens to me the same thing ( i was excomugate for rebellion that i wast control)

[seeker]

You bring up a good point that the game designers put in I do not understand. I am attacked and I defend myself yet the pope wants to punish me sometimes for the other guys aggession. Other times with the same situation he lets me slaughter the other guy and says nothing.

I also try to create rebellions by putting spies in my provences and remove watch towers before I lose them to my enemy. Revenge is sweet

[Tony]

Not sure, but I think the game tracks your favour with the Pope separately - using what logic I don't know. But backstabing catholic allies counts against you, while spreading the catholic faith (building priests, churches, cathedrals) and going on crusades counts for you. I also think the influence of your king counts - not sure.

Anyway, if you are in the Pope's bad books, then sometimes you get the threat of excommunication even if you are on the defensive.

Anyone know how the Pope's favour mechanism really works?

[Oaty]

Well you can say this happening is a bit of historical accuracy as the pope wasnt always looking out for faith but was playing dirty politics

[Ironside]

If you attack a catolic country that is 50% smaller than you then you get the warning. All offensive actions are considered after the warning so if you attack a ship or sending a relif force to a besiged castle then you get excommunicated.
Hope this helps

[King John II]

You can complete the conquest of any provinces you have just invaded (by storming their castles) - as long as you do it in the year during which you receive the Pope's message.

But I don't think you can just stay there and continue a seige, or (as has been said) make any other act of aggression.

And thereafter you have the 10 years to wait out before you can attack again.

A good tip which one of the developers who post gave, is to point out that the Pope will turn a blind eye to an attack which you make on a different catholic country in the year that you get the warning. And I think that if you subsequently press home that attack you neither get excommunicated nor do you get a new warning.

So you could, subject to how cheesy you think exploiting this is, attack some insignificant catholic neighbour not caring that you will get warned and have to lay off them for 10 years, but take advantage of the Pope's blind eye during the year you get the warning to launch your attack on the catholic opponent who is your real target.

[HopAlongBunny]

Nice tip

Thank you King John II

[ShadesPanther]

its called RealPolitick in modern terms

[Glor13]

I find the best strategy to keeping the pope in line is to kill the pope with assassins. I have also found that taken rome off his hand and leaving him with the papal states is also effective. In my current game with me as the germans I have assains sitting around the papals states just waiting for him to misbahave. Currnetly he attacks me with his ragtag army, (20 knights some peasents, urban milita, etc, about 100 fools who will follow him) which i propeley defeat.

The trick with the pope is to not to destroy him, just leave him with a weak province that will basically neturalize him and kill him when nessascary.

[juststeve]

Quote[/b] (Glor13 @ Nov. 01 2003,16:25)]The trick with the pope is to not to destroy him, just leave him with a weak province that will basically neturalize him and kill him when nessascary.

I agree. If you find yourself getting into trouble with the Pop during the endgame, assassins are the best way to go. Wiping him out with your military is bad - at least for me. The Pope will soon re-appear with some excellent units backing him up - and he'll be looking for revenge

[Gregoshi]

Hello seeker. Thanks for joining the Org. I hope you've found what you seek.

With regards to your point about the Pope: I like to think that Tony is right in that there is a reason the Pope does what he does by tracking your naughty/nice actions. I also echo his question: does anyone know for sure how the Pope works?