Possible bug, can't ceasefire or anything

[firedragom]

I am currently playing as spain and are around the year 1400, and pretty much I am excommunicated and hated by the world (lol)

Anyway, a crusade is called against one of my cities and most of the world are my enemies and at abysmal. I am kinda screwed though because I cannot even try to do a ceasefire with ANYONE.

Hungary a few moves ago tried to do a ceasefire, 6200 florins for 2 turns. I figured I could get it cheaper so I tried to make another offer. Ceasefire doesn't show up. I send a diplomat to Papal States, says nothing about reconciling. I keep getting hit with crusading armies, so I end up trying to assasinate the generals or go into battle just to kill him. I have tried increasing relations but when I do soon after they degrade again.

Anyway, I am stuck, and it is kinda losing its fun value when I can't even try to declare ceasefire or anything with anyone, so pretty much, I am under attack ALL THE TIME.

I could probably ward off attacks until the game ends, its not that it is hard, it is just getting boring, since I seem to be fighting a purely militaristic game, and diplomacy seems to be forgotten.

I don't know if it is a bug, or something I am missing, but help would be appreciated if it is the latter.

[John_Longarrow]

You won't be able to cease fire until you improve relations. What you will have to do is;

1) Give away lots of money until you can get relations with SOMEONE better than abysmal (preferably the Pope)
2) Start working on getting a cease fire with who ever you improved relations with.
3) In your cease fire negotiations, give away those provinces that are adjacent to enemies. This will improve your standings with them as well as giving you a land buffer with your enemies.
4) Start working on getting on a better footing with your other neighbors.

Above all, as a Catholic faction avoid fighting the Pope. This just pisses everyone off and gets crusades called on you.

The only other option is to let ATPG run your empire for a bit and DESTROY EVERYONE.

[GFX707]

I could probably ward off attacks until the game ends, its not that it is hard, it is just getting boring, since I seem to be fighting a purely militaristic game, and diplomacy seems to be forgotten.

Sounds harsh but get used to it, the TW series is always going to be like this. The diplomacy side of this game seems just to impress reviewers and potential customers. Just like RTW, diplomacy is a complete waste of time. Just pump out the best units and kill everyone. Sigh.

[firedragom]

Alright John, I will give it a try. It is just so frickin frustrating. How good of diplomacy do I have to get with the Papal States for then to reconcile me?

GFX, yeah, you are probably right. I read that for a more realistic game, try campaign difficulty on medium. I will try that after this game. (If I can stand finishing Spain, I keep hoping it'll get better and more fun, but until I get everyone off my back, it is gonna be kinda annoying.)

[sapi]

I might be wrong, but I seem to recall that it is impossible to get a ceasefire against a nation that is currently crusading against you...

[Durallan]

good point sapi. Once the crusade flounders you should be ok, but don't kill the pope in a battle, you need to be at peace with the pope and then need to asassinate the pope or kill your own king off, and then you may be able to get reconciled.

[Rhedd]

Diplomacy in M2TW doesn't suck.

Diplomacy on VH sucks.

The shifting diplomacy in my latest game as Russia has been a blast!

Unless you enjoy being EVERYONE'S punching bag, play it on M campaign next time.

[firedragom]

Where is the Pope normally? I guess you have to send a diplomat to him to get him to reconcile you? Yeah I was just messing around and I gave the Papal states about 25k and Tripoli, and got relations up to amiable, and still saw nothing about a ceasefire or reconciliation.

Yeah and it seems like I have been killing crusading generals for 15 turns now -.- they just keep coming. Thats why I was wishing to get reconciled from the pope so the crusade would just end!

I went thru the Italy area with 2 diplomats and didn't see the Pope, so I don't know where he is hiding.

You said make sure you don't kill the pope in battle? Is the pope like a general or what?

Thanks again for all the help :)

[sapi]

The pope can be a general; but if the papal states expansionist behaviour doesn't trigger (it shouldn't) you shouldn't have to fight him in battle.

The crusade armies should eventually stop coming; after ten turns no army can join the crusade, so there should only be cleaning up to do from there.

Once the crusade is over, you should be able to get reconciled and a ceasefire; if you're having trouble with that, getting your king killed off in battle usually triggers an auto-reconciliation.

[Per Ole]

Hehe the pope once took over all of europe in my game :P that was fun.

Btw, play on medium difficulty for a more "realistic" diplomacy feeling. you can still have harder battle difficulty

[John_Longarrow]

firedragom

Since you are up to amiable with his pointy hattedness, you will want to arrange for one very fun fight. Take your faction leader and start looking for a crusading army. See if you can use him to kill off their general before he gets killed.

Use ONLY your faction leader.

This will be a very fun win/win situation for you. You either kill their general (and have a chance at killing off an entire ARMY with your general and his bodyguard) OR you lose him and you should get reconciled.

NOTE: I've never been on the receiving end of a crusade as a Catholic nation, so I'm not sure how the crusade will factor in to the cease fire.

Once you are not excommunicated you should be fine.

To get past the crusade you can always pull your troops out of the target, let someone else take it, then take it right back. If you pull out on this turn (letting some happless stooge finish the crusade for you) then take it the next turn AND get your faction leader killed off, you should be in the clear from the Pope and you should be able to get out of this "Everyone is attacking me" situation.

It can suck, but that is why trying to keep in people's good graces on VH is soo hard.

[joe4iz]

My only advice to you is to "Crush your enemies, have them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women".

Most of the Crusade stacks will be full of inexperienced units that the AI keeps sending until all of them are gone. I seldom see a good experienced unit stack coming at me. I played as the Moors and encountered your problem.

Plenty of slaughter as they bring lots of pilgrims. I fought three seperate Crusader armies in one battle in a mountain pass in between Spain and France. I thought I would get slaughtered but ended up with a Heroic victory.

Assasinating their general will only have the game respawn one for his stack so don't waste your time.

[icek]

no its not a bug, you play as slayer so others take you for slayer and want to stop you by all costs.

[firedragom]

Alrighty, thanks for all the tips guys. I will definitely try that out next time I play. Yeah I assasinated a lot of the crusading generals, I did not know that they would just respawn another. Thats annoying.

Well thanks again for all the help guys. Ill update how it works out.

[phonicsmonkey]

Sounds like your problem is the Pope

arrange for him to be assassinated, then you should have a better chance of reconciliation

better if you can get your relations with the papal states up a bit first

[Budwise]

I might be wrong, but I seem to recall that it is impossible to get a ceasefire against a nation that is currently crusading against you...

I am not 100% sure but I think its only like that for a while. I had, playing as the Timurids (Custom Campaign mod but the crusade code is hardcoded) and I had Jerusalem. Nobody could get Jerusalem so the crusade stayed active for YEARS AND YEARS. Well, England failed to take Jerusalem the first time so I opted for a ceasefire and they accepted, ALTHOUGH THEY STILL HAD THEIR CRUSADE (what was left anyways) OUTSIDE MY GATES.

[firedragom]

Well Phonics, the problem is, I CAN'T FIND THE FRICKIN POPE TO ASSASINATE! Well, on second thought, I have been looking for priests, apparently he is a general.

I will look around for him as a general unit.

Dumb excommunication :)

[ReiseReise]

Yes the Pope is a General, he is the faction leader of the papal states. He rides a horse into battle just like your own king.
A lot of time (if Rome is the Papal States' only city) he hides out in the forest north of Rome right by the mountain pass to Bologna.
I think your best bet though is to send your King on a suicide mission.

I have seen the AI declare ceasefire with itself while it is besieging the Crusade target. It was lucky for me because my army got there one turn after theirs.

The game does not "respawn one for the stack" when a general gets assassinated. Maybe you are thinking of captains. If you assassinate a crusade general i believe the crusade disbands unless there is another general in the army. The only "respawning" generals occur when any faction (including the players) has less than 3 family members - on the next turn they will adopt a new one, but I believe adoptions always start out in a city.

[firedragom]

Meh, I give up trying to be diplomatic. I was on reasonable or amiable relations with the pope earlier and my king died, no reconciliation. Shortly thereafter, the pope died. Still no reconciliation. A while later, I tried killing my new king off, no good, and yet still another pople died. So pretty much I give up.

I have decided to conquer as much of the known world as possible before the turns run out. Currently on my way to America (first time ever going there wohoo) and am just building stacks upon stacks to take stupid Milan, and England. Think I will skip over to the Italian peninsula and take out the pope's armies and cities too, for revenge.

DIE POPE

(hope that does damn me to hell or anything

[Galain_Ironhide]

I'm only new to MTW2, but have played all the other TW games, I think it is silly of the game developer to make the Hard Setting of the game to diplomatically impossible. I love killing everything in my sight and having the chalenge of neighbours that don't like me, just like the next guy, but to have to go to a medium difficulty game just to get that satisfaction is a right @#$%#$% off. Because then there are other aspects that just make conquering the map all too easy and the AI becomes a big pussy cat.

Hmmm.... what am I talking about? KILL THEM ALL!!!!!!