Value of excommunication and alliances?

[DensterNY]

Actually reading another ongoing thread indirectly answered my question and that is... Civil War.

Getting excommunicated not only puts a neat bullseye sign on your chest but it also reduces your influence substantially as most Catholic nations cancel their alliances with you. Your reduced influence and prestige may lead some generals or upstart Princes to have thoughts of ruling themselves. Suddenly my thousand men stacks of armies that have been expanding and defending the empire don't seem so assuring.

Damn, I love this game so many different dynamics involved... It not only requires you to understand the Art of War but also Machiavellan principles of political intrigue. Since I cannot just attack my neighbors with impunity I am going to have to resort to encouraging revolts, bribery and tempting them to attack my rich, underdefended provinces so that they'll get ex-commed and I can attack or launch a crusade against them...

[dgfred]

Nice post Denster , the prestige and influence part is a big problem.

[Roark]

@ Advosan: That's a pretty sound summary, but I've seen some phenomenal examples of exceptions to the rule.

As the English, for example, I had an early stoush with the French (basically just taking Flanders). Afterwards, we had a brief ceasfire period before becoming allies. They were almost sycophantic to me throughout the whole Early period, and remained my staunchest allies, even after we both became powerful forces in the world at large. Even the pop-up messages became more "friendly"... It was weird.

[Babij]

Even the pop-up messages became more "friendly"... It was weird.

Yep, that happens depending on various conditions. You can check the text in the game folder.

[Roark]

Yeah...

"We remain your staunchest allies, even though you've been undergarrisoning your provinces on our common borders, egging us into conflicts, and killing our agents and princesses at the dinner table. Can we have a kiss and a cuddle now?"

[Martok]

Yeah...

"We remain your staunchest allies, even though you've been undergarrisoning your provinces on our common borders, egging us into conflicts, and killing our agents and princesses at the dinner table. Can we have a kiss and a cuddle now?"

Gee Roark, *that* didn't sound bitter at all.....

[Russ Mitchell]

Excommunication is great if used correctly, because it tends to commite the AI of the Cath factions to serious border fights. Which means that if you play a "calculated attrition" game, and are sensitive to which provinces have real strategic value *cough*Silesia*cough*, you can often tempt the opponent to invade, only to have to monkeystomp them with six stacks they didn't think would be available. If you've read your map correctly, you should be able to consolidate and completely pillage some other territory in order to deny reserves to his invasion force (on normal, this is a very reliable way of snapping up his heirs) -- thus setting up the next domino in the chain.