Inquisitors - problems & solutions (was Crusading when I meet inquisitor)

[ZombieFriedNuts]

I was on a crusade to Jerusalem happily going through France when a met an over zealous inquisition, I thought o I should be alright I’m on a crusade, but no the inquisitor burns my faction hair at the stake leaving my crusading army to desert completely when they have no one to guide them to the holy land.

[Fondor_Yards]

And that is why it's good to be a muslim or eastern orthodox faction :P.

But wow inquisitions seem to be a major pain. Another reason to keep a few spys ahead of your crusader armies so you can avoid problems like that.

[Comrade Alexeo]

Ahahahahahahaha!

Perhaps the Inquisitor deemed that your faction heir was unworthy of leading a crusade?

[Bob the Insane]

With so many reports this has to be some kind of issue, but it is funny though...

Maybe he thought you where not pious enough to lead such an endevour...

Or may fovourite is that he was under order from the Pope to ensure your faction did not win the Crusade!!

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Exactly the same thing happened to me. It's pretty ridiculous, especially since it's not your fault that the inquisitor is in the territories you're passing through.

[Ignoramus]

This is concerning. It sounds like inquisitors are just low-born cutthroats. It is just beyond reason. The Pope says if you go on a Crusade you are absolved from all sin, but then this inquisitor comes along and burns you at the stake for being a "heretic".

[Sheogorath]

Ive gotten inquisitors in my land just from happening to be NEXT to another faction which was misbehaving, they burned three generals and a faction heir before I gave up and simply moved all my generals back to England.
This requires fixing! I prefered the original MTW where the inquisitors only burned the population :P

[Hatchet]

Why are the assasins so inneficient?

[Zoltan]

Saves them the effort of doing an "assassination succes" video.

I think they wanted avoid the game getting a mature rating for that video too, but taking out the assasins altogether would anger the fanboys, so they settled on making them always fail instead.

[Hatchet]

I'm not sure you understood what I said, what I meant was do these assasins how low chances of assasinating someone? Have you tried with a high powered assassin? I mean CA bragged about the ability to kill the Pope/Cardinals, but how can you do that when you cant even kill an Inquisitor?

[AlJabberwock]

THEY don't have a COMFY PILLOW!!!!!!!!

[Zoltan]

Hey hatchet,

Sorry, I quite understood, what you said, just making a joke. Well, half-joke actually because I have yet to see an assassin kill anything despite about a dozen attempts. I guess I should train them on my own diplomats before sending them on a real mission. I have a couple of guys whose dismal attemps at diplomacy has taken their value well into the negatives. Should be good practice for a fledgling cutthroat.

Or I could do what I used to do in MTW before trying to take out the pope : build a few dozens assasin, then make them kill each other util only the few strongest remain. Radical.

[Subedei]

I think the assasin system works better then most round here think.

1. Assasins get away more often after a failed attempt compared to other TW games .
2. I don´t have one yet, but I guess the a assasin-guild [there is one, right?] in one of your towns should increase kill ratio.
3. I think it is fun to hunt inquisitors with your best assasin....or merchants...or generals...well, i use them quiet often in this game.Yesterday I broke a tabu: killed a princess with a snake...I felt bad.....

[Daveybaby]

He burned your factions hair? So are all of your soldiers bald now?

[Zoltan]

Duh, I just read you can't have your own people assassinated. Bah. Guess total war has lost some of it's old totalitarian feel. Maybe they'll make up for it in the next episode : Democratic Popular Republic : Total War. With re-education camps for failed spies and diplomats, and princess cloning labs.

Anyway, I'll see if I can get that assassin's guild by churning out a lot of assasins in one of my towns.

[46852]

I think the assasin system works better then most round here think.

1. Assasins get away more often after a failed attempt compared to other TW games .
2. I don´t have one yet, but I guess the a assasin-guild [there is one, right?] in one of your towns should increase kill ratio.
3. I think it is fun to hunt inquisitors with your best assasin....or merchants...or generals...well, i use them quiet often in this game.Yesterday I broke a tabu: killed a princess with a snake...I felt bad.....

I think the assassin system ain't too shabby either. If the percentages were higher, the map would be void of any interesting opposition: inquisitors, heretics, witches, foreign generals etc.

I'm quite sure the Thieve's Guild doesn't increase spies' and assassin's chances to execute missions, it only increases the chances of recruiting a more skilled assassin in the city where the guild is located. Not 100% guaranteed on this, but I think that's the way it works (I've had the game for a week now, but not tested it enough to be sure).

Good way to train an assassin is to sneak a spy into a city so you can see all the buildings built in there, and after that send an assassin to sabotage the easiest building in the city (I think success chances are around 20-33% for a level 0 assasssin). He gains agent skill by increasing his sabotage trait after a succesfull fireworks show. After he's gained a bit rank, go hunt rebel captains to increase your killer trait and when you feel confident enough go for the big fishes :)

In my English campaign, I was lucky to get Thieve's Guild in London quite fast, and immediately after that I trained a super assassin: Natural Born Killer and Dancer in retinue, level 5 agent right at the start!

[Zanderpants]

I was having alot of trouble with inquisitors early on in the game due to my low standing with the Pope, and nothing I was doing seemed to help raise my standing with him. So I just tried to stay under the radar, but inquisitors started flooding France and I found a good way of distracting them. I built a ton of priests. The inquisitors seem to put priority on them, as they were burning my priests every turn, but never got to my generals. Later on, I found out that simply giving the Papal States a ton of money raised my standing with the Pope by miles, and his inquisitors stopped coming after me. So distract the inquisitors with your priests, until you can bribe the pope.

On a side note, how many hours straight have you guys been playing? I hopped onto my computer at around 11, started playing, and next thing I knew it was 5:30! I've never had that sorta time-lapse with a game before. Best Total War yet.

[econ21]

TinCow and Zanderpants: what's the going rate to call off the inquisitors then? (how much did you pay and on what campaign difficulty?)

[Debe2233]

You can decide if this story is amuseing or just plain scary. Playing as Milan i had taken the islands to the west of Italy i was quite happy with my position, i had Venice under my control and the pope was quite happy with me.

Then Mr FlameHappy the inquisitor arrives burns two priests and my faction heir before i can run them away, unfortunately thanks to an assasin and a storm outside venice i only had my faction leader left, i decided the only way to survive was to join a crusade to get as far away from Mr FlameHappy as possible, my faction leader jumped onto a boat and swiftly sailed towards the holy lands (im putting the x2 travel modifier down to a desperate need to see the back of a particular individual).

I arrive in the holy land hop off the boat and who do i see standing not a few steps away... its like a scene from a Droopy Dog cartoon another damned inquisitor (well i assume its not Mr FlameHappy but to be honest i wouldnt be surprised)... now im playing as the Turks...

But... what the heck is an inquisitor doing all the way over there, i mean honestly... unless they're just toying with me... kinda scary *whimper*

[maestro]

I hope i can add a couple of useful bits of info here...


Firstly - yes I do think Inquisitors are a pai in the backide. They're impossible to get rid of when they arrive and they kill anything on sight. I find I get about a 1 to 4 or 1 to 5 innocent to guilty ratio of people tried - and I buiold every church building I can and have extremely hgh Catholic percentages in my regions (95%+). I'd love to know how to increase piety cause I can assure you that bulding every church and having priets in every region doesn't do squat for your generals or anybody who's born subsequently.

Secondly - I think one of two things needs to be done. You could either boost assassins / nerf inquisitors - but I personally don't like that idea. I think what would be much better woul be to have fewer of them or at least make the pope have a damn good reason for sending them to your region. I personally think it would be an idea to have "an inquisition". Either an era in which the current (mad) pope sends out loads of inquisitors and everyone gets a kicking or at least a message saying "the pope is not happy and is sending an inquisition [i]because of A,B or C" which gives you time to prepare.

Thirdly - ...and how do you prepare? Easy. I know things should be patched - but as a work-around for the moment, i have a way of dealing with inquisitors. Simply send loads of priests to hover around the inquisitors whilst they are in your lands. Not to preach, or to increase the Catholic faith / piety or anything, no no no, but to be a target. The inquisitors always go after priests first - at least in my experience. I've never had a general tried when there was a priest in the same region - the priest always gets tried first! Remember, though, that if a priest gets found innocent then he probably won't be tried again, so send him off to the far east to preach. And when your priests get burned - which they inevitably will, replace them! And quickly.

Hope this helps

[Biggus Diccus]

Posted in another thread here:

Locking in an inquisitor with eight militia units.

looks like this, and hes not going anywhere.
000
010
000

easy way to get rid of my raving mad english king, with the absense of rebels and scots.

seriously though, the fact that these guys cant move past your stacks might be a sollution to the problem, at least until it gets patched.
a spear militia on a bridge or mountain pass stops the inquisitor, and forces him to turn around. this might help in protecting that atheist super gouvenor.

It seems you can block inquisitors with military stacks, so save up on those depleted units. Useful only in your own territory of course, When you're crusading this isn't much use.

[professorspatula]

You can decide if this story is amuseing or just plain scary. Playing as Milan i had taken the islands to the west of Italy i was quite happy with my position, i had Venice under my control and the pope was quite happy with me.

Then Mr FlameHappy the inquisitor arrives burns two priests and my faction heir before i can run them away, unfortunately thanks to an assasin and a storm outside venice i only had my faction leader left, i decided the only way to survive was to join a crusade to get as far away from Mr FlameHappy as possible, my faction leader jumped onto a boat and swiftly sailed towards the holy lands (im putting the x2 travel modifier down to a desperate need to see the back of a particular individual).

I arrive in the holy land hop off the boat and who do i see standing not a few steps away... its like a scene from a Droopy Dog cartoon another damned inquisitor (well i assume its not Mr FlameHappy but to be honest i wouldnt be surprised)... now im playing as the Turks...

But... what the heck is an inquisitor doing all the way over there, i mean honestly... unless they're just toying with me... kinda scary *whimper*

These stories of popes coming after your family members and heirs and endlessly stalking you is like the plot to some medieval themed slasher/horror movie. Hilarious!

[Spendius]

NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.

[TinCow]

TinCow and Zanderpants: what\'s the going rate to call off the inquisitors then? (how much did you pay and on what campaign difficulty?)

My relations with the Pope have been rather complex and have certainly been a major factor in how this worked for me, so I will summarize the whole thing.

Playing England on H/VH

I was highly favored by the Pope, whom I had supported in the last election. The French were not liked at all, but not excommunicated. I picked off a few French settlements inbetween excommunication threats, but otherwise obeyed the rules and stayed in the Pope\'s good graces. When the Pope died, the French won the new position and I backed the loser. My standing with the Pope plummeted to 3 and the French nearly maxed out. On top of that, the Pope was only about 30 years old, meaning I was going to have to live with him for a LONG time.

Given that my only reasonable expansion possibilities were against France, I decided to just let myself be excommunicated. I attacked France, got excommunicated, and proceeded to conquer all French territories except one in Iberia. At this point, my cities were massively unhappy, I was being burned by Inquisitors left and right, I missed out on two Crusade calls (fortunately not against me), and I really needed a profitable peace badly. Given that my assassins had no chance at the Pope, I made sure my elderly King accidentally wandered into a large group of Welsh rebels.

I was instantly reconciled, but my standing with the Pope was still a horrid 2 and I was being burned. I sent a diplomat to the Vatican and offered a tribute of 1000 gold per turn for 10 turns. At the time, the Papal States showed Bankrupt in the diplomacy window. They gladly accepted and my standing instantly shot up to maximum. About 3-4 turns later, the Pope died. I had managed to stack the College with 4 English Cardinals (all of whom were promoted while I was excommunicated, interestingly) and the Pope became English.

Since the Papal States donation and the English Pope both occurred so close to one another, it is impossible for me to say how much of an effect the donation had on its own. As I said, I have not had a single trial for heresy since the donation, but it is likely a combination of the money and the English Pope. Also keep in mind, the massive standing jump I got probably had something to do with the Bankrupt status of the Papal States. I suspect that if they had been wealthy, I would not have risen quite as much.

[econ21]

... I sent a diplomat to the Vatican and offered a tribute of 1000 gold per turn for 10 turns...

Say no more - the cheque's in the post to the Vatican already.

Thanks for the rundown, TinCow.

[Djurre]

Could someone confirm my method? does it work for others?

[Zanderpants]

TinCow and Zanderpants: what's the going rate to call off the inquisitors then? (how much did you pay and on what campaign difficulty?)

I gave them a lump sum of 5,000, an additional 1,000 for trade rights, and built two cathedrals, and occasionally I'll have a priest burnt (once every 8 turns or so) , but they always have low piety. Now I'm all but one cross from the top. Also, I built a major guild of theology, so my priests come out with half full piety. This coupled with my high standing with the Pope, and some timely cardinal deaths, has practically given me control of the college. I've got 5 priests in the college now.
This was on Very hard.

[LordMorgan]

Due to the fact that the inquisitors are completely out of control I find it unable to play the game unless I am a Muslim Faction. How is that for conversion methods lol. But in all seriousness the Inquistiors have taken the fun out of the game. I have more churches than heaven itself my assassins are useless and the Inquisitors are wreaking more Havoc than the mongols on coke. PLEASE PLEASE CA patch this you guys got a great game here but even in RL too much religion is not healthy. Stop with the Inquisitors running amok please!!!! Beware the INquisition no one is safe I tell you lol.

[Horatius]

You my friends underestimate the effeciency of soft pillows and comfortable chairs.

[ZombieFriedNuts]

Ok that’s three times the name of this thread has been changed but any way I’ve had three more crusades since then (didn’t get close to the target dam England for being so far away) and for some reason the inquisitors don’t seem to be as enthusiastic as they once were they still swarm my land but don’t actually do any thing.
Also you would think they would burn heretics on site but they just seem to ignore them which is a bit odd when they happily burn a cardinal just because they can.