Inquisitor, Schminquisitor

[CountMRVHS]

I'm doing well with my Early, Expert, GA French campaign (vanilla VI, 2.01). It's just shy of 1250 and I'm winning on points, and allied with the Pope -- usually as a Catholic faction I take it as a point of pride to ally with the holy father, unless I'm the HRE of course.

Although we're not whaling on each other with armies, and have been allied for much of the game, His Popeness has apparently decided to make my life miserable by sending a 6-star Inquisitor through my wealthiest territories and burning generals and governors there. My greatest frustration was when my 8-acumen governor of Flanders (who was no slouch on the Piety, either) was burned at the stake.

There's no stopping this 6-star nightmare (assassins are useless), but that's not really the point of this thread. I was wondering, is there any logic behind the AI's decision of who to go after with their inquisitors? Why does the Pope keep coming after me? Why not go after the uppity Spanish, who are about as big as I am? How do these targets get chosen?

[Papewaio]

My solution is to repay in kind.

Get your own inquistor and send him after... the Pope.

[Roark]

I don't specifically know about the game mechanics behind it, but sometimes it just seems like random vendettas.

I've never gotten victimised to the point where the cream of my commanders have all been slaughtered, because I'm so paranoid about avoiding big-shot Inquisitors who are on the warpath. I will literally micromanage my generals' movement until I can kill the guy with assassins.

Oh, and the tavern "string of buildings" is the first that I upgrade - largely for this reason. I HATE losing guys to Inquisitors.

[caravel]

It appears to be totally random. I've seen AI inquisitors on several occasions targetting their own generals, and very often generals with very good stats!

[OmarPacha]

A six star inquisitor is a bloody beast and the most honourable way is the escape;
he will burn your generals even they've got up to 5-6 level of piety, if he only choose 'em as target.

That's a fact you can test.
[If you manage to train an Inquisitor or Grand Inquisitor (2 stars for a GI should guarantee enough action), you will see that percentage of success depends not only by faith level
but also on V&V of the target.]

The sole counter - action available in game, in my experience, is to train a certain number of assassins and be careful to send them against the inquisitor only when he passes through your provinces; you could try in other provinces too, but not those guarded by border forts.

I usually monitor enemy inquisitors, to see on whose trail they are; if the target chosen is one of my generals, I begin to make him run, just trying to force the inquistor on a path where my killers can act.

Don't expect to have a chance to kill the 6 star beast with less than 10 (at least 2 stars each) assassins.

Cheers

[Empirate]

Another, rather obvious way to get rid of this nightmare is attacking and destroying the Papacy militarily. They will reemerge, but if you left Rome and the Papal States nicely burned (as should be done by any self-respecting christian), they'll be powerless for a while (leave the Italians as buffer if possible). Also, in being destroyed, they will lose all strategic units, including inquisitors. With Rome burned, this means that yonder reliquary that's been giving you so much trouble has been destroyed, too. Having masses of troops to support (the AI never disbands troops) and lands totally bare of infrastructure, the Papacy can't hope to build up anytime soon.

[rvg]

I'm doing well with my Early, Expert, GA French campaign (vanilla VI, 2.01). It's just shy of 1250 and I'm winning on points, and allied with the Pope -- usually as a Catholic faction I take it as a point of pride to ally with the holy father, unless I'm the HRE of course.

Although we're not whaling on each other with armies, and have been allied for much of the game, His Popeness has apparently decided to make my life miserable by sending a 6-star Inquisitor through my wealthiest territories and burning generals and governors there. My greatest frustration was when my 8-acumen governor of Flanders (who was no slouch on the Piety, either) was burned at the stake.

There's no stopping this 6-star nightmare (assassins are useless), but that's not really the point of this thread. I was wondering, is there any logic behind the AI's decision of who to go after with their inquisitors? Why does the Pope keep coming after me? Why not go after the uppity Spanish, who are about as big as I am? How do these targets get chosen?

Put half a dozen bishops/cardinals into every province you own.... the inquisitor won't be able to do jack.

[Martok]

Put half a dozen bishops/cardinals into every province you own.... the inquisitor won't be able to do jack.

That is about the only real defense against them (aside from assassinating them, of course). Problem is, it takes a *lot* of bishops & cardinals to neutralize the buggers--more than just a half a dozen in my exerpience (especially if it's an Inquisitor with a few stars or a Grand Inquisitor). Cardinals are pretty effective in neutralizing them; but their numbers are limited, due to only being able to train them in whichever province has your lone Cathedral.

I often end up creating a "crack anti-Inquisitor squad" (bonus points for anyone who knows the Monty Python reference ). It's usually composed of 3-4 Cardinals, and about 15-20 Bishops. Their sole task is to follow around any Inqusitor/GI that wanders into my territory, making sure he doesn't get out of hand.