Inquisition mass kill?

[Heidrek]

While trying out Inquisitors the other day, I noticed that after toasting a few people I got a report saying my inquisitor had killed 5000+ people!!

there was a big army in the teritory so I though "Great, he's somehow killed their whole army!" but when I checked the same (or very similar) number of units was there?

does anyone know what this message is about? Does it have any in game impact?

[The Unknown Guy]

It affects zeal for sure (reduces it)

It might affect income, or so I´ve heard people tell.

[Peasant Phill]

Inquisitors increase zeal of the province they're in. Unfortunatly, if you leave them to long in one province they get bored and start burning inhabitants (no units) which reduces the zeal a lot.
So the key is not to let them linger in one place to long.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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They increase unrest and impact on tax income (burning taxpayers) in the province. So, it's a good and evil way of subterfuge against your enemies or overgrown allies/neighbours.

Never keep them in one of your own provinces for more than a couple of turns.
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[Ironside]

You can make all of them busy trialing the same person though, they'll rise the zeal, but not burn people. Using one and trail someone is enough as long it's successful, failure will cause burnings of the population though.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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They'd better be burning foreign kings and princes than buggering my own generals though. One could use them against unwanted heirs/generals but for them I have heroic frontal charges into an enemy spear horde all alone.



So, keep them in a province of yours for a turn or two in order to increase zeal preparing for a crusade, then send them abroad to burn individual multi-star generals or peasants.
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[macsen rufus]

Best use for Inquisitors is burning the Pope when you've just been excommunicated... just gotta love the irony

[Bothania]

Best use for Inquisitors is burning the Pope when you've just been excommunicated... just gotta love the irony

I'll agree with you there. Another great thing to do is to get an mp3. of Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch, so whenever I ask one of my inquisitors to burn someone, Micheal Palin says: "Nobody one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Lols abound, and the picture for an inquisition looks suspiciously like the characters from that sketch as well.

[Heidrek]

I've often found the pope difficult to convict of Heresy for some reason....not quite sure why......

Do normal Catholic bishops increase Zeal? The only reason I ask is because I want to launch a crusade, but the only privince I have thats capable of it has only 43% Zeal and I want an arsekicking crusade I don't have to supply much troops for. I want to see Knights Templar and Order Footsoldiers everywhere! I also want to march it through everyone elses terrirtory to get free troops for ages.

Can I leave it parked in Spain for a while or do I have to move it every turn if I can?

[Martok]

I've often found the pope difficult to convict of Heresy for some reason....not quite sure why......

Do normal Catholic bishops increase Zeal? The only reason I ask is because I want to launch a crusade, but the only privince I have thats capable of it has only 43% Zeal and I want an arsekicking crusade I don't have to supply much troops for. I want to see Knights Templar and Order Footsoldiers everywhere! I also want to march it through everyone elses terrirtory to get free troops for ages.

All Bishops (and Cardinals) do is increase the percentage of Catholics living in a province in which they're preaching; they don't increase zeal in any way. Inquisitors and Grand Inquisitors are the only agents who can increase Catholic zeal in a province.

Also note that Cardinals and/or large numbers of Bishops can neutralize the the zeal-raising effects of Inqs and GI's. You may find this to be useful information when you have another faction's inquisitor running around your territory trying to burn your generals for heresy.

Can I leave it parked in Spain for a while or do I have to move it every turn if I can?

You'll usually want to keep moving Crusades and Jihads forward when possible. Otherwise, they tend to lose men when remaining stationary in a province.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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You'll usually want to keep moving Crusades and Jihads forward when possible. Otherwise, they tend to lose men when remaining stationary in a province.

I believe that works two way. Have your crusade wait in a high zeal province for a turn or two and it will grow, as well as soaking the existing armies' units. Let it stay for too long, or even a turn in a low zeal/non-Cath province, and desertions begin.
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[Martok]

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I believe that works two way. Have your crusade wait in a high zeal province for a turn or two and it will grow, as well as soaking the existing armies' units. Let it stay for too long, or even a turn in a low zeal/non-Cath province, and desertions begin.
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Yeah, I know. Which is why I said "usually" instead of "always".

[sharpshooter]

I've lately formed the opinion that it's the Pope who starts the mass inquisitions as an indication of his attitude to events - primarily from an Aragon Late campaign with MTW VI. I have tried to initiate mass inquisitions in my own heretical provinces and those of enemy factions by plonking them down etc. without success.

1. Does the Pope give florins for successful inquisitions?
Inquisitors and Grand Inquisitors are available straight away with Aragon Late. As is my habit, to get them started I fried a few of my low piety commoners. Three times in a row the Pope gave me 1000 florins for services to the church on the turn a heretic burned ... errr ... an immortal soul was saved. I started to wonder if he liked inquisitions. (Later, and following successful Aragonese crusades to North Africa, the Pope's assassins kept getting caught in Aragonese Border Forted Navarre. Besides the 1 unit TM garrison only a Spanish emissary sat there, trying to deter Aragonese aggression. I gained the impression that he was the assassination target. Was the Pope trying to help Aragon or to provoke war? I'd seen him refuse a Spanish offer of an alliance - the Spanish emissary had passed within Aragonese view).

2. Does the Pope try to deter aggression against catholic factions he favours?
A little later in the same campaign the emergent Burgundians attacked Aragonese Toulouse. The counter attack took Burgundy, and an English Inquisitor sitting in Toulouse started a mass inquisition. Rather than continuing to destroy the Burgundians, in Ile de France, Champagne and Flanders, I left a small garrison in Burgundy, and withdrew the army back to Toulouse. The mass inquisition stopped. (On the same turn the Polish accepted an alliance they'd previously refused, declaring that they were "glad diplomacy had prevailed").

Later again I moved a large army into Burgundy, intending now to remove the Burgundians. The mass inquisition started again in Toulouse, and, the Pope called for a crusade against the Egyptians. Curious, I moved the army back to Toulouse, and the same turn the mass inquisition stopped - i.e. there was only 1 turn of mass inquisition.

The same occurred when I prepared to attack the the English in Aquitaine, a Papal ally, but not when I attacked the remaining French in Anjou - not a Papal ally. I've noticed also that the Pope will regularly hold mass inquisitions in Naples if the Sicilians have taken it.

There's more anecdotal stuff, but this is enough for one post. I now believe the Pope uses mass inquisitions as an indication of his attitude to events.

Has anyone else noticed similar?

[seireikhaan]

1) No, the Pope doesn't give money for sucessful inquisitions. However, he does give money to Catholics every now and then, depending on several factors which I'm not totally aware of. I'm pretty sure it depends on the piety of the ruler, how many provinces you convert to Catholicism, and perhaps more. Also, he generally likes giving it to the smaller factions, in my experience, over larger ones. Not to say he won't support larger ones, just that he generally prefers to support the smaller ones. Again, this is just my own experience. Well, with one exception. One time, when I was playing as England, I spammed cardinals to the entire rest of the world's provinces, eventually converting over half of many foreing provinces to catholicism. He gave me 1k florins seven turns in a row at one point, and ten turns out of eleven. Oh, did I mention I was the only catholic nation left?

2) Yes, in a way. The Pope generally has no problem with small catholic nations attacking the really large ones. There's a certain ratio that's supposed to be achieved, but I'm sure a more knowledgeable member could provide that. This is why the Holy Roman Empire often has much difficulty, as the Pope often bars them from nearly any practical methods of self defense, especially when under attack by many different kingdoms, as the HRE usually is.

[Martok]

2) Yes, in a way. The Pope generally has no problem with small catholic nations attacking the really large ones. There's a certain ratio that's supposed to be achieved, but I'm sure a more knowledgeable member could provide that. This is why the Holy Roman Empire often has much difficulty, as the Pope often bars them from nearly any practical methods of self defense, especially when under attack by many different kingdoms, as the HRE usually is.

If a Catholic faction has at least twice as many provinces as another Catholic faction it's at war with, then the larger faction will receive a Papal warning, even if the smaller faction is the aggressor.

[sharpshooter]

Thanks for the info - I'm still wondering about the Pope starting mass inquisitions to show his attitude, though.

I was particularly struck by his call for a crusade against the Egyptians on the same turn as the mass inquisition started - I had a crusade prepared and sitting in Navarre. (Historically one of Pope Urban's reasons for calling for the crusade was to stop christian warlords fighting each other, and to unite them against a common foe). From watching this subsequently such calls often seem to coincide with catholic v catholic wars, especially my own. Again, I have the impression that launching a crusade immediately the Pope calls for it curries quite a few Papal brownie points.

I had picked up on the Pope liking conversions, and for this reason will often send bishops out to the pagan steppes in Early and High. Occasionally one of them seems to pick up 3* if he sits for 100 turns and converts the entire population - though I'm unable to reproduce this at will.

I must admit I've never had papal florins 7 turns in a row. That would be handy early in the game. The Pope does seem to give them for a number of reasons, especially early in the game when my faction is small. One reason seems to be simply not fighting other catholics - they florins dry up when I start a war.

So, I was wondering if inquisitions was another reason. The florins didn't come every time an inquisition was successful, but the coincidence was enough to set me wondering.