Rome for sale?

[Anonymous II]

Hi everyone!

I was thinking of uniting Italy, and was wondering if it's possible to negotiate with the papacy to trade Rome in exchange for some other cities/regions?

If it's like five regions, that's fine with me!

Thanks in advance!
Anonymous II

[Jason X]

i haven't done this myself, but have read other posts claiming to have achieved it by
1) giving the pope a bunch of regions far away from rome (e.g. in levant)
2) pope then moves capital away from rome
3) you then buy rome from papal states in the normal manner (in order to consider selling a territory, any faction must be bigger than 3 provinces)

[DVX BELLORVM]

I don't think you can buy a city if it is a faction's capital. And the AI doesn't have a habit to change its capital.

[Grog]

I don't think you can buy a city if it is a faction's capital. And the AI doesn't have a habit to change its capital.

In my current HRE game, Poland changed it's capital from Krakow to Kiev after my ally Hungary isolated Krakow against my eastern border (after much military funding from me...). It helped that Poland had been one of the dominant early factions, and had spread strongly east into Russia/steppes before I funded Hungarys war against them...

Also, Jason X, you make an interesting point about the capital relocation by gifting a chunk of far-off provinces. I had been wondering how to 'evict' my pet pope from Rome to allow global victory, but my chivalry ruleset + alliance from turn 2 with pope was making this difficult. I'll have to give this a shot. I had already gifted the pope Yerevan just so I can crush the mongols on his doorstep, so looks like Tbsili/Jedda gift and maybe aquire trezibond for him should do the trick

[Sheogorath]

The AI does randomly change its capital sometimes.
One game I was playing as the Scotts and had just recently taken the Holy Land (Huzzaah for the Scottish Empire!), Egypt decided they didnt want me around, and when I pushed them back, their capital was in the Sinai for some reason. The Moors hadnt taken Egypt proper, and werent even advancing on it.
Wierd, eh?

[napoleon526]

An easier way is just to forment an uprising in the city. Make sure the Papacy has another province somewhere out of the way (like Rhodes or Corsica). Move a bunch of spies into the city to create unrest. Bring up a bunch of assassins to sabotage buildings that create order, like brothels, churches, militia barracks, city halls, etc. As long as the Papal States don't have a massive garrison in the city, eventually there will be an uprising. You can then move an army up and take the city.

Keep in mind that some of your spies and assassins will get caught, meaning that the Papacy will get pissed at you. Keep a diplomat nearby to give gifts to the Pope in order to stay on his good side. When you do take the city, you'll get a message from the Pope requesting that you return the city to the PS. If you do, then you'll "become one of the Pope's closest allies" and if you don't then your relations will suffer severely. Decline, but then give the PS 5000 or so florins to keep on their good side in order to forstall excommunicaton.