Possible loopholes to "invincible" Papal States?

[Comrade Alexeo]

I'm not sure if this should be in here or one of the modding subfora...



As we all know, CA has told us that the Papal States can NEVER BE ELIMINATED. If they lose their last city, then they horde and "receive" a city from another Catholic faction.

But what happens when there are NO Catholic factions?

Imagine I'm playing as the Turks or Byzantines (both non-Catholic factions). Let's say that during the course of my campaign, I wipe out EVERY SINGLE CATHOLIC FACTION. And then I take the Papal States' last city.

From where does the Papacy get their new city?

Do they get a rebel city? What if there are no rebel cities?

A random non-Catholic city? What if I've conquered the entire map?

Well, if they don't get a city, they horde, right? What if I beat and destroy the horde?

Or what happens if I wipe out all the other Catholic factions, and then I assassinate the Pope and ALL of the Cardinals, and the Generals for good measure. And any priests, so they can't get new Cardinals - and remember, there are no other potential Cardinals from other factions, because I've eliminated them. Who leads the Papal States?

Can they really be destroyed via any of these methods? Or will they exist in quasi-factional state: no cities, no armies, no agents, no generals, no leaders, but are still somehow "in" the game?

Anyone?

[FactionHeir]

They'll still exist from what I heard other people trying your method posted elsewhere.

[Bob the Insane]

Well if you wipe all the Catholic factions off the map including the Papacy they I would not worry too much about whether or not they are techicially destroyed or not...

[IPoseTheQuestionYouReturnTheAnswer]

If there were no catholic factions, the pope would still wander around himself.

For example. I took Rome, the Papacy' only province, 100 turns or so ago while playing the Turks. Since then, NO catholic faction has given him a new province to call home. The catholics are too busy waging war against me and the Moors and I suppose they don't want to help the pope out.

So what happens then? Basically, when the pope's entire military is destroyed and all his provinces taken, he still exists himself. After the pope died of old age, a new one appeared on the ground around Rome and started walking around. I killed him. The next turn, a new pope popped up. Killed him. A new one popped up...etc. Now, I just have a Hashashim death squad of 5 units sitting in the trees around Rome, executing the pope every turn when he respawns.

So even when all catholics are either dead or completely unresponsive to the pope's need for a new home, the pope himself will still respawn after death. Between electing a new pope every turn and my assassinating all the cardinals in the college, I have no idea where they are GETTING all these new popes from, but the point is they will never run out. The papacy will always have a stack of just the pope himself wandering around. If you kill him, a new one is named.

Basically, the papacy is like the Timurids: when you take their last city, they horde up, and just wander around till they take a new city. Since the pope will never take a city with just a single unit of general's bodyguard, he just wanders around alone in eternal exile.

[Heinrich VI]

what a sad story!

btw has anyone ever seen one of the catholic factions giving the pope a province after he lost rome? in all my games so far ive seen the popes horde linger around in the strangest places but never getting a new home unless i gave it to him.