Having seen someone's suggestion of modifying the startpos file to set the Papacy to a major faction, I thought Great, I want that job.

This was ok until I discovered some serious drawbacks in being the Pope.

I expected that the unit mix was vanilla Catholic, but that's ok. I realized I wouldn't have a royal family to generate generals, but again that's ok.

However, the first gripe was that their are no Papal offices. You can build the buildings, such as a Chancellery, but you don't get a hat to hand out. This wasn't a biggy though. I could live with that.

Then the Pope died and a new Pope was elected - and this is where it hurts - the new Pope is your best general, with his unit type changed. So not only do you have a smaller pool of generals, but your best one is always selected for extermination by the grim reaper.

[and sod's law states that it happens just as I invade Aragon to kick Almohad butt, and find that my 4* general has been spirited away to the Vatican and replaced by a 0* one.]

Only game I've ever abandoned.