Holy Kebab Empire: Part 01: 1444-1458: Constantinople is well worth a massDue to laptop hardware problems I had to put some more ambitious projects on hold, and I'm going for an easy game of Fun and Balance instead. By easy I mean restoring the Roman Empire in its full imperial borders as Orthodox Ottomans, with capital in Constantinople, restoring Pentarchy, unifying HRE, crushing Miaphysite heresy, westernizing, and doing such fun casual stuff.In the olden days - by which I mean EU3 - the best day zero move was 5 separate DoWs on every Turkish minor holding my cores. That got unfortunately removed in EU4. Second best way was to start those wars as soon as possible, before Turkish minors get any allies, as you couldn't make allies during war, and you couldn't call in anybody except during first 60 days. That is unfortunately also gone, and anybody can ally anybody they want at any time and jump into any war many years into it.
For defensive wars there's not even any real penalty for that.So instead, it's going to be fairly slow recovery of my cores.
Contents General InformationThe faction has some unique characteristics: it is led by the, giving it considerable influence over Catholic factions. The Papal States can never truly be destroyed unless the entire map has been conquered; this is because it simply requests a new homeland territory from one of the Catholic factions every time they lose their region. This request is rarely turned down as it gives significant favour from the Pope, and rejection often causes a negative relationship with the papacy to follow. If a faction turns the Pope down he simply asks another faction.The Papal States have considerable influence during a campaign by launching against non-catholic factions, calling and also causing problems during wars between two catholic factions. Requests to cease hostilities with a certain faction are common; failing to heed these results in decreased favour with the Papal States. A war with the Papal States is very costly as the Papal States can quickly bring large numbers of Catholic factions to its aid.
The leader of the hostile faction, if Catholic, also becomes, causing considerable internal dissent and loyalty problems.Players can have a member of their faction elected as the Pope, making a former cardinal of their faction the faction leader of the papacy. This can make gaining trade rights, alliances and so forth considerably easier as well as making requests to crusade more likely to succeed. The same principle occurs if a good relationship is gained with the current pope.
Increasing relations with the papal state faction also leads to a direct increase in standings with the pope.Militarily, the Papal States are usually weak, but no faction in the game can afford a negative papal relationship early on. For Islamic nations, a good diplomatic relationship with the pope can turn crusades away from their settlements. Their military forces are comprised of units very similar to Italian city states such as Milan and Venice with a few powerful special papal units, overall they seem to rarely deploy sufficient cavalry forces and their infantry can be beaten with standard tactical maneuvers such as flanking and hit and run attacks if an infantry melee is not desired or advisable.
They also have a lack of generals to lead their forces meaning assassination is ideal for weakening the faction.Their general power can be magnified by a player however, if a crusading player lacked the funds to hold onto the taken territories, they can be gifted to the papacy. A territory that is far away from a faction's territory, usually means, that it is likely to be attacked by other factions. In this case, it is very likely that Turkey and Egypt will attack the crusading faction if the Holy lands have being taken. Gifting lands to the Pope can have considerable benefits, as crusades to the East are common, meaning crusading factions are going to send armies on a Crusade, and thus, leaving their home lands more vulnerable to attacks, as well as potentially taking the papacy directly out of Europe if Rome is taken. Conversely an Islamic faction particularly in the initial stages of a campaign is vulnerable to crusades, and maintaining positive relations with the Papacy will reduce this risk even if a possibility that, at some point, a Crusade will be called.
Eu4 Form Italy As Papal State
Eu4 Papal States Strategy 2018
To be noted that the papacy nearly never accompanies the crusading forces however.More than any other factions, and the have to keep a very close watch on the Papal States. They begin with territories very close to them and the Papal States can launch attacks on their settlements. Their position in central Italy also prevents these factions from totally securing the peninsula. Newer players often believe the Papal States will never begin a war. However, this is not true. They behave like any other faction.
Eu4 Battle Pope
Their expansionist nature is just usually restrained until a players faction is close to them. The factions mentioned must also launch wars against Catholics making them even more susceptible to papal attacks.