Inquisitor, Schminquisitor

[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.

[CountMRVHS]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. Too bad that it seems so random, but I guess I'll just have to think of it as underhanded church politics that's hidden from my understanding.

I have been quite neglecting my Tavern buildings. I only have 2 1st-level taverns built in all my empire; mostly as I've been scraping together money for military/castle upgrades. The assassins will have to be the solution, though, as I'm playing a somewhat "strict" GA game, only conquering lands that are my own goals. I've been allowing myself attacks against other provinces with the sole purpose of destroying armies, though, (if I win, I vacate the province w/out a siege) so if I find myself un-allied to the Pope I suppose I could send an army that way by sea...

[Zild]

It's odd, I've been playing for years and rarely get concerned about Inquisitors. Sure, I've seen a few 'Your general got a wee bit singed' messages, but never really noticed anybody of importance getting killed off before the Inquisitor went to annoy somebody else.

Now that Legendary Geisha's a whole other story!

I've also not made proper use of Inquisitors (tried a few times when I first started but they always seemed to fail). Instead, I found that sending twenty at once into a province was a good way to force a MAJOR rebellion, after which I could just bribe the rebels! (It's such a cheap tactic I stopped doing it long ago...)

[Martok]

It's odd, I've been playing for years and rarely get concerned about Inquisitors. Sure, I've seen a few 'Your general got a wee bit singed' messages, but never really noticed anybody of importance getting killed off before the Inquisitor went to annoy somebody else.

My experiences have been mixed. If the Papacy or the Spanish become powerful (and the Spanish often do in my games), they often send Inquisitors running around my lands, frying anyone who's not already nailed to a cross. Of course, since I often play as the Spanish, this helps alleviate the problem. At other times, I hardly see any of these guys at all throughout the entire game.

I've also not made proper use of Inquisitors (tried a few times when I first started but they always seemed to fail). Instead, I found that sending twenty at once into a province was a good way to force a MAJOR rebellion, after which I could just bribe the rebels! (It's such a cheap tactic I stopped doing it long ago...)

Overusing Inquisitors is pretty cheap, period--especially when you're the Spanish! I discovered that early on when I first started playing the game. I used to have the monastary/requilary in Castille pump out 20-30 of those bad boys. As a result, I could fry pretty much anyone I darn well pleased, no matter who it was I tried for heresy.

Granted, I find it's still useful to have a couple high-valour Grand Inquisitors around to burn the Pope (or your king if he's incompetent), and maybe a handful of regular Inquisitors to take care of troublesome generals, but that's it. Nowadays I don't train more than half a dozen or so.

[CountMRVHS]

Really -- Inquisitors are that good at starting rebellions? With VI, even? I've never tried that. Any tips on how to get that to work? I find it's very hard to start rebellions with spies usually, and the few times I've tried using bishops to convert an orthodox or muslim province it hasn't really worked. I've never added inquisitors to the mix, though; and although it certainly could be overused, I'd like to have an easier way to incite rebellion...

[OmarPacha]

" Nobody was expecting the spanish inquisition" (John Hannah in Sliding Doors, 1998).
So, it is normal, especially in Early, not to have a swarm of assassins ready to strike.

Sometimes I found that placing an emissary in Rome is a helpful move;
among all tech levels built by Pope, if you see a monastery, then become to be worried.
It's only a matter of time, after some turn, the inquisitors will start to process someone.
The more success they have burning one faction's generals, the more they will keep on with same faction (at least I observed this thread).

Sure, reading all posts of this thread, I'm understanding I've had very unlucky campaigns

[Zild]

Really -- Inquisitors are that good at starting rebellions? With VI, even? I've never tried that. Any tips on how to get that to work? I find it's very hard to start rebellions with spies usually, and the few times I've tried using bishops to convert an orthodox or muslim province it hasn't really worked. I've never added inquisitors to the mix, though; and although it certainly could be overused, I'd like to have an easier way to incite rebellion...

Thinking about it, it might have been during my pre-VI days (as I said, it's cheap and I stopped doing it long ago!) but I really couldn't be sure. I think I was sending in somewhere between ten and twenty Inquisitors at the same time to get the desired effect. Not sure what actually caused it, but I do think that sending them all in one go seemed to be mcuh more effective than dribs and drabs.