Stopping a crusade

**ciprianrusu** · 09-27-2006, 16:20

I have a question. If i get excommunicated by the pope ( he attacked me first, and when i retaliate he did that horrible deed

), and then a crusade is launched against me, if i kill the pope before the crusade reaches my lands it will stop (the crusade i mean)?

**Peasant Phill** · 09-27-2006, 16:32

No, unless it's the papacy that's launched the crusade (the unmodded papacy doesn't have that ability).

You can stop a crusade in a few different ways.
1) let it rot on your doorstep.
If you have a big enough force to stop the crusade before it reaches its objective (with or without battles), it will eventually dissolve due to desertion. This could however take a long time but it wont cost you anything apart from the training and upkeep costs of your deterrent force.

2) Destroy the crusade in battle. This can be very costly in men as crusades can have a lot of high tech men. Kill and capture them all and the crusade will be over. If a small number of men escape, the crusade could grow in numbers again in another province but also could dissolve in a number of years.

3) destroy the chapter house where the crusade started. This will immediatly dissolve the crusade but could be very difficult if it lays deep in unfriendly territory.

**antipope** · 09-28-2006, 01:18

YEAH, FRAG THAT CRUSADE!!!!

I too was set upon by the Pope-inator after defending my country from an English attack. Apparently, he doesn't like it when you rescue troops holed up in a castle. He promptly excomm'ed me and the Italians launched a crusade-parade in honor of the occasion. Luckily for me Tuscany wasn't exactly deep in enemy territory. Long story short, I got Tuscany, crusade immediately dissapeared. Then I wacked the pope with a rank 5 assassin before anybody else could launch a crusade again, and right away got religion again - excomm over. Recommunicated (if that's a word) even before another Pope was created.
The order of events there is the key, I think. Folks please correct me if I'm wrong on this, but if you wack the Pope ( a move that isn't required to kabosh a crusade), and the current crusade is still marching on you, then a new Pope is appointed, taking action against that crusade will incur another excommunication by the new Pope. Now I haven't seen that happen, but I'm guessing that would be the flow of events. Can anybody shine some light on that?
One thing I'm certain of, you squash that crusade and get recomm'ed, you'll see your king's influence rise a good deal. Being on the receiving end of a crusade was the best thing that happened to mine. He went from 5 to 8. That might also have something to do with taking two Italian provinces though.

**Martok** · 09-28-2006, 06:25

Originally Posted by antipope

YEAH, FRAG THAT CRUSADE!!!!

I too was set upon by the Pope-inator after defending my country from an English attack. Apparently, he doesn't like it when you rescue troops holed up in a castle. He promptly excomm'ed me and the Italians launched a crusade-parade in honor of the occasion. Luckily for me Tuscany wasn't exactly deep in enemy territory. Long story short, I got Tuscany, crusade immediately dissapeared. Then I wacked the pope with a rank 5 assassin before anybody else could launch a crusade again, and right away got religion again - excomm over. Recommunicated (if that's a word) even before another Pope was created.

Originally Posted by antipope

The order of events there is the key, I think. Folks please correct me if I'm wrong on this, but if you wack the Pope ( a move that isn't required to kabosh a crusade), and the current crusade is still marching on you, then a new Pope is appointed, taking action against that crusade will incur another excommunication by the new Pope. Now I haven't seen that happen, but I'm guessing that would be the flow of events. Can anybody shine some light on that?

It all depends. If (after a new Pope has been isntalled) you simply wait to crush the Crusade until it actually invades your territory, then you obviously won't have any problems. If you take offensive action and attack the province from which the Crusade originated, the key is whether or not El Pappy warns you to not attack that faction anymore. If he does warn you to back off, then yes there's a good chance you'd get excommed again. It all depends on what actions you take to stop the Crusade, and what kind of mood His Holiness is in.

Originally Posted by antipope

One thing I'm certain of, you squash that crusade and get recomm'ed, you'll see your king's influence rise a good deal. Being on the receiving end of a crusade was the best thing that happened to mine. He went from 5 to 8. That might also have something to do with taking two Italian provinces though.

Well taking two provinces=1 point of influence, and being "re-commed"=2 points of influence. So yeah, that would make sense.

**Arciel** · 09-28-2006, 06:56

Originally Posted by Martok

Well taking two provinces=1 point of influence, and being "re-commed"=2 points of influence. So yeah, that would make sense.

So that's it... Always wondered why my king didn't gain influence during times of peace, even after securing lots of alliances...

**ciprianrusu** · 09-28-2006, 08:41

The crusader army is standing in Corsica for about 5 turns now, but now my provinces start to rebel because i was excom. If i get recomunicated, this will stop my provinces from rebelling? Or i have to win the war against the country that launched The Crusade ( in this case the Castile - Leones)
And another thing, if the Pope would come to an untimely death

, and i get recomunicated, will i still be at war with the Papal States?

**Martok** · 09-29-2006, 01:44

(Begging your pardon, ciprianrusu, but I'm going to break up your post and answer each question separately. Hope you don't mind!)

Originally Posted by ciprianrusu

The crusader army is standing in Corsica for about 5 turns now, but now my provinces start to rebel because i was excom. If i get recomunicated, this will stop my provinces from rebelling?

Yes, your provinces will stop rebelling if you're "recommed".

Or i have to win the war against the country that launched The Crusade ( in this case the Castile - Leones)

Yes. Of course, if you simply manage to conquer the province from which the Crusade originated, you don't have wipe out the enemy faction completely.

And another thing, if the Pope would come to an untimely death

, and i get recomunicated, will i still be at war with the Papal States?

You can be re-commed, but only if you completely conquer the Papacy first. If you only capture and execute the current Pope without conquering all of his territory, you'll still be at war with his successor the very next turn. The only sure way is to comptely take over *all* the Pope's lands, execute him, and then wait for him to respawn.

Just bear in mind that even if you take out the Pope completely, any existing Crusades against you will continue, and will still need to be crushed.

**Martok** · 09-29-2006, 01:49

[stupid double post....]

**ciprianrusu** · 09-29-2006, 08:59

Thanks Martok. (Ok Pope, your time has come. Off with his head!)

**Ciaran** · 09-29-2006, 15:04

Originally Posted by Martok

You can be re-commed, but only if you completely conquer the Papacy first. If you only capture and execute the current Pope without conquering all of his territory, you'll still be at war with his successor the very next turn. The only sure way is to comptely take over *all* the Pope's lands, execute him, and then wait for him to respawn.

Keep in mind, "Pope" and "Papacy" are two somewhat different entities. The Pope is head of the Papacy faction, but he´s also, well, the Pope (like in XO of God on earth), which causes him to be schizophrenic at times. As Pope he might excom you, but as faction leader he might ally with you (I´ve seen it happen!). Dito the other way round, you might (with a new pope or own King) be welcomed back into the community of the Catholic Church, yet the faction leader of the Papacy still doesn´t like your continued existence the least. And one thing you should keep in mind: as a faction leader, the Pope can get one greedly, land-grabbing bastard who expands no matter the cost.