Cardinals - what's the point?

[Sinner]

Inquisitors boost zeal until an inquisition starts, then all hell breaks lose and your population get slightly upset with the idea.

The trigger for an inquisition seems to be more time based than an threshold value of zeal - the longer your inquisitor stays inquisiting (probably not a real word but I like it ~:p) in a particular region the greater the chance he'll start getting that urge to turn a few locals extra crispy - else it would be near impossible to get the occasional 90+% zeal.

If this is how inquisitors do work, then to get a high zeal without burning your population, just move the inquisitor every few years, perhaps moving him back and forth between the same two regions so you end up with two sources for well equipped crusades. I've read that there is a zeal cap based upon the piety of the King &/or governor, but since I prefer 0% zeal regions, that doesn't bother me - my Kings are always poor catholics which is appropriate since I play the English.

[BigC5]

So after all that are they worth the extra time and money or not?

[Procrustes]

So after all that are they worth the extra time and money or not?

Sure they are, but that's just my (humble?) opinion.... ;)

Seriously, they are probably more useful if you are playing one of the factions that can crusade, and if you are playing GA rather than world domination. I like them, but that's me.

[Procrustes]

...

The trigger for an inquisition seems to be more time based than an threshold value of zeal - the longer your inquisitor stays inquisiting (probably not a real word but I like it ~:p) in a particular region the greater the chance he'll start getting that urge to turn a few locals extra crispy - else it would be near impossible to get the occasional 90+% zeal.

....

I recently had a game where I (as the French) ended up with Rome after the Sicilians took it from the Pope and I helped him out with my first Crusade. Zeal in Rome was maxed out afterwards. The turn I created my first inquisitor there he started an inquisition immediately - before I even got a chance to move him! (The inquistion started as soon as he was spawned.) 1600 people burned at once - I felt awful. I've been very careful about moving my inquisitors around since, I keep them away from any of my own provinces that already have high zeal, and when they are "home" I keep them on the move every turn. It's a lot of micromanagement but it works.

(In the French game, the piety of my kings was always very high - I kept alliances w/ the pope, he kept sending me daughters, never got excommunicated, declared crusades as he requested, took the holy lands, etc. Perhaps if I'd been a little less pious this wouldn't have happened, but I like to role play the GA games so it was fun.)