OK

up to speed again.

Played up to year 1200 (or thereabouts) as The Pope. Just to see what it was like from the inside so to speak.

Start with Rome (no surprises there then) and it's away we go - ahhggh. Pope has a very expensive army to maintain - we'd better go conquer places. quick or we'll end up with no settllements and no army.

Gather army, capture Florence. - (Florence was surely more than a village at this time wasn't it?) Turn 3 and I'm in the red already. Disband some damaged units (3 gold chevs all very well, but i need cheap garrison troops), gather up the forces to attack naples - no we have to capture Ajaccio first or else we don't get any sweeties. Stuff that - grabbed Naples (Sicily immediately excommunicated!) and with remaining troops got to Corsica in time to complete mission (having waited a couple of turns to be able to build a boat.

After which the Italian peninsular became something of a free-for-all, Venice took Bologna, Milan took Genoa, I took Durazzo (as per instructions of the council of nobles) and then we got stuck in to a long war of attrition.

Eventually grabbed Milan, Milan being busy elsewhere in France - eventually destroying said faction; and later I took Marseilles and Toulouse; His Popeyness also took Cagliari and Palermo giving him almost complete control of the peninsular when the venetians launched a deadly attack. Grabbed Florence - hopelessly underdefended and I held on to Rome by the skin of my teeth. (Actually quite easy as stone walls and militia troops proved adequate for the purposes.)

I noticed Venice had some advanced infantry - DCKs ? and so I reasoned they had to come from a big castle - which could only mean Ragusa had been built up quite quickly. And so it had - but (such dummies) with only a tiny garrison so I took some troops from naples plus a few from Durazzo and promptly bagged myself a facility to build some tasty troops.

Crusades - only been one (nothing to do with me - they happen automatically, the Pope don't get to say yay or nay.) Which failed despite the valiant attempts of Poles, Danes and French armies. I sent the Pope himself with an army to conquer Jerusalem (well I had to, to maintain my reputation with myself) but just as they were disembarking, the fool died and the army disbanded. Couldn't get another army ready in time to qualify.

haven't started any crusades yet - should do especially if I can get my allies England and HRE to do the donkey work. I don't think my allies the Moors, Egypt and Turkey would be interested though.

Being Pope means you get to control Inquisitors - well some of the time. They have "their" turn and then you get to control them. They appear out of nowhere and disappear as well. By the end of my stint there were no active Inquisitors. nb they get traits and retinue like other priests. (Talking of retinue -how come the first pope gets martin luther as retinue!!)

Obviously as the Pope isn't meant to be a playable faction you can get sillinesses:

at one point the Pope requested a donation from me - which the game sorted out automatically - I'd have had no idea how to give myself money!

Also if you vote for the wrong Pope (as the Pope is the faction leader then if you're dead how come you get to have a vote?) you can be very disappointed with your (former) self. Haven't worked out the tactics of voting -might be better to vote an enemy faction cardinal as Pope - takes one away from them and allows your others to roam around. But then it's be better if you knew their traits and retinues before voting for them.

Other than that the game much the same as any faction, you never seem to have enough money and the 3 gold chevey units tend to get dispersed over time.

Discover the venetians like building forts so I attacked one they had between Milan and Venice - oh dear, not a good idea to fill forts with troops if the attackers have bombards and catapults. Mucho carnage. 2 cats and a bombard killed over 50% of the defenders in 1 attack (although I tried to repeat the feat on another and they got clobbered by defenders ballistae and cat - had to rely on old-fashioned steel to win that one.)

Attacking settlements (and with my provisos from earlier posts) is fun - managed to take venice from a full-stack defending Venetian army - silenced the towers with my trusty siege train (now silver chevron units - all 3 of them) and then piled in with a motley crew of papal guards, cavalry, crossbows and anyone who could wield a sword. Took some casualties from
a tower I had trouble neutralising as the unit that controlled it was half hidden in back alley - and my cavalry couldn't attack them even when placed next to them. Luckily they unstuck themselves and were duly cut down and the tower ceased firing on me.

So playing Pope - fun and not as easy as it might seem. Some Pope functions (incl ex-comms) are partly out of the players control but there's enough there to make for an interesting game.

Anything else you might want to know?