Beware the Pope

[vaalen]

I am in the late game as Poland. I lead the game, both in legacy and Authority. I have conquered a lot of the Baltic area, and have four experienced armies of elite troops, who seem to be invincible. What could go wrong?

Well, the Pope excommunicated me. A crusade was declared against me. The Templars marched an enormous army into my territory, and nation after nation joined the crusade. One of my great armies revolted and several regions revolted as well. A civil war began. I lost eleven points of authority.

I was suprised to get excommunicated. I had a very pious nation, and the pope often gave me the chance to call a crusade, but I never did. This may have annoyed the pope. I also made peace routinely with distant Moslem nations who declared war on me, and never fought them. Or maybe one of my rivals convinced the pope to excommunicate me and call a crusade.

The very next turn, the pope lifted the excommunication and the crusaders just went home. However, the civil war continued. I moved one of three remaining great armies against the rebel army, under my best commander, and he spoke to the army before the battle, increasing its strength. What could go wrong? Well, my best commander got killed in the first round of the battle, which was a draw. The next two rounds were also draws, but the two armies were destroying the carefully preserved veteran troops that were the backbone of each, I lost the battle in the fourth round, losing all of my elite picked Baltic foot, but the enemy had lost most of theirs as well. Two elite armies destroyed each other. Something liek this occurred in real life in the seventeenth century, when a great magnate revolted and a great battle took place, where the best veteran troops of Poland destroyed each other. It was remarkable to see this in the game.

I finally got my other two armies to fight the remnants of the rebel army, and the mutual destruction continued. By the time the civil war ended, half of Polands veteran troops were gone. And a lot of nations are declaring war on me... Exciting stuff!

[Pocus]

Hi Vaalen,
Tense times indeed! Sorry for the somewhat illogical chain of events. What version have you been playing? Excommunication has been slightly changed recently to be more consistent.

If you have the turn before you were excommunicated, I can take a look and see if, under the new rule, you would still be seen as the black crow of the Church.

[vaalen]

Hi Pocus,

I am playing version 1.0.2.3.

Unfortunately, I do not have that save game any more. The situation was exciting, and I was responding to the challenge rather than thinking of saving the turn before the excommunication.

I do remember that I had declared war on another Catholic nation on the turn before the excommunication, a nation called Bihar that was located on territory that used to belong to Slovakia, a vassel of Hungary.

I recall that in Medival total war 2, the pope would excommunicate nations who attacked other Catholic nations after a warning, not all the time but some of the time, and this would be followed up by a crusade. That was actually a very interesting mechaniic, and challenging to deal with when it happened to the nation I was playing.

In retrospect, having the pope end the excommunication the turn after the crusade started is odd.

In the future, if I see something strange like that, I will save the turn before it happens and send it to you.

By the way, this game is even richer and more addictive than Empires.