Getting back into the Church

[Comrade Maethor]

In my England playthrough I was kicked out of the church because... well I really don't know why, it was half an hour into the game, France declared war, I was given 7 turns to end the war or I'd get excommunicated, and without any offensive action from me (just one battle where the French attacked ME), two turns later not seven I'm all the sudden an outcast for seemingly no reason. Is there a way to get back in the Church or am I just a heretic now

[HazardHawk]

When the pope dies the excommunication is lifted or when your faction leader dies. Easy way is to suicide your faction leader or simply to take advantage of being excommunicated and taking all the territory you can.

[Comrade Maethor]

Originally posted by HazardHawk:

When the pope dies the excommunication is lifted or when your faction leader dies. Easy way is to suicide your faction leader or simply to take advantage of being excommunicated and taking all the territory you can.

Do you think it could be viable to destroy the Papal State, or is it too important to destroy?

[Gunther von Rittersburg]

Originally posted by The One Who Knocks:

Originally posted by HazardHawk:

When the pope dies the excommunication is lifted or when your faction leader dies. Easy way is to suicide your faction leader or simply to take advantage of being excommunicated and taking all the territory you can.

Do you think it could be viable to destroy the Papal State, or is it too important to destroy?

You can never destroy the Papal States. And all that does is ensure your never again apart of the Church, and the Pope will call Crusades on you, bringing endless wars across Catholic Europe.

[Comrade Maethor]

Originally posted by Jack Skellington:

Originally posted by The One Who Knocks:

Do you think it could be viable to destroy the Papal State, or is it too important to destroy?

You can never destroy the Papal States. And all that does is ensure your never again apart of the Church, and the Pope will call Crusades on you, bringing endless wars across Catholic Europe.

Well it's no use now because France is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ me to the point where I can just hope and pray to the god I don't have anymore. I love how it's so early in the game, so I really ONLY have Spear Militia as my ONLY unit, maybe some proper spear units here and there, but other than that, my General in Europe is dead because he disobeyed orders and didn't move into safety when I told him too, I lost Caen to a force that seems like it should have been created on Turn 100 than Turn 22, and I have NO allies at all...

[Gunther von Rittersburg]

Originally posted by The One Who Knocks:

Originally posted by Jack Skellington:

You can never destroy the Papal States. And all that does is ensure your never again apart of the Church, and the Pope will call Crusades on you, bringing endless wars across Catholic Europe.

Well it's no use now because France is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ me to the point where I can just hope and pray to the god I don't have anymore. I love how it's so early in the game, so I really ONLY have Spear Militia as my ONLY unit, maybe some proper spear units here and there, but other than that, my General in Europe is dead because he disobeyed orders and didn't move into safety when I told him too, I lost Caen to a force that seems like it should have been created on Turn 100 than Turn 22, and I have NO allies at all...

Thats how it goes. Be sure you have a ton of towns/cities for good taxes, so you can upgrade your units and buildings inside your castles.

[Comrade Maethor]

Originally posted by Jack Skellington:

Originally posted by The One Who Knocks:

Well it's no use now because France is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ me to the point where I can just hope and pray to the god I don't have anymore. I love how it's so early in the game, so I really ONLY have Spear Militia as my ONLY unit, maybe some proper spear units here and there, but other than that, my General in Europe is dead because he disobeyed orders and didn't move into safety when I told him too, I lost Caen to a force that seems like it should have been created on Turn 100 than Turn 22, and I have NO allies at all...

Thats how it goes. Be sure you have a ton of towns/cities for good taxes, so you can upgrade your units and buildings inside your castles.

pretty soon there won't be any towns/citites to upgrade... seriously though, don't tell me that a France Hell bent on my destruction and a Church that hates for no reason 20 turns into the game isn't just a little bit bullschise

[the smoking mค็็็็็n]

the french and english are railroaded to be at each others throat,with the first pope having very french leanings
you can change all that with some good gameplay though

[HazardHawk]

Originally posted by Jack Skellington:

Originally posted by The One Who Knocks:

Do you think it could be viable to destroy the Papal State, or is it too important to destroy?

You can never destroy the Papal States. And all that does is ensure your never again apart of the Church, and the Pope will call Crusades on you, bringing endless wars across Catholic Europe.

Not quite true. Make sure you have maximum number of priests every single round and if there is one available to recruit, recuit as many as you can. The more priests you have (made more by the number of teritories you have allows more and more the more you expand) the most chance you have of being elected pope from your faction priest. Keep this in mind for the whole game.

Take out the Papel states, use an assassin to kill the pope, gift the pope the most meaningless city on the map in return for alliance. Feed him 100 each turn in contribution, and you hold Rome with the papel states sucking at your big toe. If he gets out of line again, assassinate him again.

EDIT: Assassination can be repeated over and over again as needed...

[the smoking mค็็็็็n]

its not how many,but the quality of the preists that allow you to get your preists elected pope
how many preists you can recruit is dictated by how many,and size of church you have+ guild adds more.big churches+guild churns out only bishops,which is how you really want to recruit your preists
you can assas the current pope if you just want to move your cardinals higher up the preferati

[HazardHawk]

I want to laugh but I do not wish to offend you. It is how many and it is quality for the beginning but there is a tipping point once you own enough cities and castles and only numbers matter because there are not many other options the way I play. Christian factions that only have one province are limited in how may priest they have and it is possible to beat them into submition using excommunication against them. Then dont forget the traits you build also subdue other factions if you get them extreme enough. The population will love you because you are not taking them out if you do it right.

It is one of the best parts of the game that you can actually manipulate how other nations feel about you. Even excommunication is a tool if you maniplate the game in just the right way.

[CHE]

And these pages show you more details about how you can get higher level priests, to help them get into the college of cardinals for elections:

http://totalwar.honga.net/traits.php?v=m2tw&f=england&c=priest&encode=en
http://totalwar.honga.net/retinue.php?v=m2tw&f=england&c=priest&encode=en

[CHE]

Originally posted by The One Who Knocks:

Originally posted by Jack Skellington:

You can never destroy the Papal States. And all that does is ensure your never again apart of the Church, and the Pope will call Crusades on you, bringing endless wars across Catholic Europe.

Well it's no use now because France is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ me to the point where I can just hope and pray to the god I don't have anymore. I love how it's so early in the game, so I really ONLY have Spear Militia as my ONLY unit, maybe some proper spear units here and there, but other than that, my General in Europe is dead because he disobeyed orders and didn't move into safety when I told him too, I lost Caen to a force that seems like it should have been created on Turn 100 than Turn 22, and I have NO allies at all...

When you develop your Total War skills, you might find the game much easier, like I do, and you might actually welcome challenges like you mention above.

If you want more advice about diplomacy in the game, and especially about developing a powerful economy and a great value-for-money military, please let me know. I've written and saved some mini-guides about these topics.

Edit: I'm leaving this thread, so if you want the advice I offered, you'll need to write to me where I'll see it - eg. in a private message.

Peace.

[the smoking mค็็็็็n]

Originally posted by HazardHawk:

I want to laugh but I do not wish to offend you. It is how many and it is quality for the beginning but there is a tipping point once you own enough cities and castles and only numbers matter because there are not many other options the way I play. Christian factions that only have one province are limited in how may priest they have and it is possible to beat them into submition using excommunication against them. Then dont forget the traits you build also subdue other factions if you get them extreme enough. The population will love you because you are not taking them out if you do it right.

It is one of the best parts of the game that you can actually manipulate how other nations feel about you. Even excommunication is a tool if you maniplate the game in just the right way.

christ mate,you sound like CHE does sometimes,a little confused about what you read or are trying to say.
just what is it you are wanting to laugh at?

[Gigantus]

To be able to replace the pope (by whatever means) you require a priest with a minimum piety level. See descr_campagn_db:

<min_cardinal_piety uint="5"/>

Having as many cardinals as possible does obviously help to have a top preferati and get the job.
The number of possible priests regardless of level is governed by the agent_limit capabilites of the churches you have. As you can build only one church per settlement that logically means that you will require to own a good amount of regions to play the number game.

Note: other then resetting the relation ship to the pope's faction (includes reversal of excommunication) and maybe a cross or two (or three?) in the popularity meter you do not derive any benefits from loosing one of your most capable priests.

[the smoking mค็็็็็n]

...so by late game with nearly 50 regions its possible for me to only have about 15 preists,but still fill most if not all cardinal seats..by now,if there is a seat,the next preist i recruit will most likely instantly be cardinalized