MTW - Not Getting Excommunicated

[Sir Garlon]

Hi all!

I've had MTW sitting on my shelf for literally years - could not get it to run. I took it off the shelf and thanks to this forum I solved my tech problems and am playing my first campaign. :)

I'm playing England in the early period (1087). My question is, how can I finish off France without getting excommunicated? I mean, the French won't accept me as their rightful sovreign, that's just not right, surely the Pope can understand the legitimacy of my claim... :)

Exactly what happened is I simultaneously invaded Toulouse and Flanders. I had to lay siege to the castles. While the siege was going on, the Pope asked me to cease hostilities. I figured, there's no way I am going to just pack up and go home when I've got two provinces on their knees. :-) So I stayed and captured both places.

Now I figure I am in hot water with the Pope - is there any way to finish the job without getting excommunicated? Is it just a matter of waiting 10 years, or do I have to do something diplomatic?

Thanks!

Sir Garlon

[phred]

The pope gives you two years to withdraw your troops. If you occupy the province and assault the castle before the the two year limit it up, you'll be OK.
Another way is to attack another Catholic faction. In your case let's say the Danes. You'll get warned by the pope, so you withdraw you troops from Denmark. Now you can attack any other Catholic faction without risking excommunication.

[Ciaran]

Since you´ve got your warning already (but aren´t excommunicated yet) I´d suggest you leave the French alone for ten turns and clobber someone else in the meantime. Since you´ve got the places, they´re officially yours as far as the pope is concerned. Just keep them fortified, so the French don´t try to take them back.
You mentioned diplomacy, so maybe I should say something about that. Now, you see, the pope is a very finicky fellow, one turn he might gift you a thousand florins, the next he can excommunicate you. You can be as good a Christian as they come, building churches, inquisiting Heretics (that´s only an option after the clock hit 1205), doing Crusades, whatever, he´ll always be breathing on your neck whenever you try something funny.
The good news is, he´s also incredibly lazy (or busy or so much caught up in his paperwork - parchment work, I should better say) and can track only one warning at a time, so if you got warned about the French any other Catholic faction is free game for ten years.

[matteus the inbred]

if he does excommunicate you, have him assassinated, as this voids all excommunications (or invade people if your faction leader is very old, as the excommunication ceases when he dies as well). there's a good thread on this somewhere in the Main Hall forum...

[Maeda Toshiie]

You will only get warned when you attack a catholic faction who is less than half the size of your faction. You will get instant excommunication when you refuse passage to a crusade or invade a Papal province (sally out of the castle is considered an invasion and hence will cause excommuncation as well).

Being at war with the Pope is unrelated with being excommunicated (note also that being at war with the Pope also means that you cannot launch crusades).

[marcusbrutus]

If you get a chance to attack and kill off the entire French line in one turn then all the remaining French teritories will become rebels and you will not get excommunicated - however allow one heir to the throne to escape and you will be punished