Question about weird cardinal situatrion

[lobo76]

conversion is the fastest way. I alway crank out 4-5 priests for each 0 catholics region i can easily send them to. once it reaches 50% or so, i move on. It is the way the conversion is calculated.

You convert x% of NON-catholics. if x=10 and there is 100 population, you can convert 10 on the first turn. On the second turn, you only convert 10% of 90 (since 10 are already converted), i.e 9 people only and so on...so you convert less and less people if you stay in the same region for too long. With less people converted, your priest rank up slower.

[tarbanrael]

I do not understand what the leaderless crusader army has to do with the fact the Pope does not like you? Take the intended target for the crusade and the Pope will love you dearly for at least a few turns, until you start fighting your fellow catholics again.
As was suggested earlier, pump up priests and send them to the south side of the med. You will get cardinals promoted (providing they have the minimum pity requirement) whenever other nations ones croak!

[Carl]

Also, You sem to be having problems with gifts. that littile christmas present box is the gift button, use that, not make an offer button to bribe him.

[Nyxator]

I do not understand what the leaderless crusader army has to do with the fact the Pope does not like you? Take the intended target for the crusade and the Pope will love you dearly for at least a few turns, until you start fighting your fellow catholics again.
As was suggested earlier, pump up priests and send them to the south side of the med. You will get cardinals promoted (providing they have the minimum pity requirement) whenever other nations ones croak!

He said that Sicily beat him to Jerusalem. I've also used the tactic of assassinating other factions cardinals to get mine in. I always max out the number of priests I can build.

I recently played a game as Scotland in which I pretty much spent the whole game with one or two points of favor with the pope, with the remaining time spent excommunicated. I did, however, have churches in all of my towns and and kept pumping out the priests. Eventually, despite being at war with everyone, I managed to get more than half of the College of Cardinals. I assassinated the Pope and voted in my guy on the Preferati, and bam, perfect papal relations.

[ReiseReise]

I don't think it matters if you are pumping out 5 piety priests, you will never have a cardinal if the pope hates you. Not trying to assassinate him would be a good start. Also if you are at war with the Pope's birth country it is much harder to get him to like you. If you want the pope to like you and promote your priests, you can't run around pillaging all of europe and ignoring everything he says. You can't have the benefits of being good and bad at the same time.
You can get away with a lot of stuff if he likes you in the first place, but trying to repair damage seems much harder. The key to both of these is to pay him off, not knock him off. Killing him probably won't do any good because you have no cardinals and the pope will probably be from someone you are at war with, and you will start with very low pope rating.

[gardibolt]

Carl's point is a key one. IME, you never get the "we cannot match this offer" if you're giving the bribe as a gift. Make sure you are clicking on the wrapped present, and the pope will almost always accept it and you move up a few notches in his estimation. I like to promise him 200 fl for 100 turns...that will really make you one of his favorites---I think he adds it up and thinks you're giving him 20,000 fl every turn. No one said math skillz were needed to wear the Hat of Rome.

And to get cardinals, make sure you're sending the priests off to pagan lands. No one ever made cardinal sitting in their parish. Send them in groups of 4 or 5 so they don't fall heretic, and you'll have a fistful of cardinals in no time. But I would knock off the popination. They don't much care for that.

[Grog]

I agree with a lot of the posters above, but thought I would share my 2 florins on developing a strong catholic nation.

I have recently started an 'uber chivalry' game as france (M/VH) with the emphasis on being a peaceful and respectable global power. My house rules are:
-only occupy settlements
-never chase routers (always end battle when option appears)
-always release prisoners
-only act aggressively vs rebels, unless attcked and reasonable ceasefire is non-negotiable
-never start a war or betray an alliance
-minimal spies mainly used as passive observers, no assassins.
-equal strength battles when possible.

Firstly I sent my starting diplomat to rome to gift a bit of cash/map info then grab an alliance. 2-3 turns of this achieved alliance and perfect relations. I don't build many priests until I have a level 2/3 church at least.

Now that my popeometer is maxed I call an early crusade on antioch (rebel), and run my prince down there, recruiting as I go. Antioch falls and I take aleppo and hold a while. I am still being chivalrous in europe, and have all settlements on low tax to max out growth.

I then call a second crusade as soon as possible, this time to baghdad, as it is still in rebel hands. Again I send a young prince from antioch and recuit a crusade army. Cash is a bit tight globally as every penny is going into development and keeping pope/neighbours happy. I gift the Pope 100/10turns usually but always renew it before it expires, and top up with map info/100 gift to keep faction maxed.

I am now on turn 70, have 'trustworthy' global rep, my third crusade I used on jerusalem after egypt betrayed my alliance and attacked antioch. I have now one priest prefenti and 60-70% of the college of cardinals. I have also built the master theoligans guild in antioch along with a cathedral so its pumping 5*+ cardinals out and I am poised to take acre/damascus soon and convert the lot .. 4th crusade is due refresh in next turn or so and I will use it one either milan if they continue to attack me and get excommed, or HRE as they have already been excommed. The mongols have also appeared north of baghdad, so hopefully they will join the jihad against baghdad thats running, and break on the walls. Hopefully the mongols will setlle somewhere north, giving me time to 'cannon up' a little in the holy land then crusade them to death

I have to say, I have really enjoyed playing the game this way. I thought the lack of aggressive expansionism/sacking/ransoms would really hurt the treasury, but have found the growth from high chiv generals plus the lack of funding multiple mass armies has meant I have a strong economic core empire, dominate the pope and catholic church (the next pope will be french in 5-10 turns) and have enough wars going on to keep the game fun

[Syr Giovanni]

Thanks for the info on the Uber-Chivalrous nation. It sounds like an interesting way to play. I think I'll give that a shot next cycle.