Total War: Three Kingdoms - Guide to the Papacy

Q: How to vote for Pope in Total War: Three Kingdoms?

The Pope is a powerful ally or enemy. Influence cardinals by voting for likely winners, maintain good relations through missions and gold, and use excommunication strategically. Crusades offer significant expansion opportunities for Catholic factions.

Q: How to get excommunicated in Total War: Three Kingdoms?

The Pope is a powerful ally or enemy. Influence cardinals by voting for likely winners, maintain good relations through missions and gold, and use excommunication strategically. Crusades offer significant expansion opportunities for Catholic factions.

Q: How to deal with excommunication in Total War: Three Kingdoms?

The Pope is a powerful ally or enemy. Influence cardinals by voting for likely winners, maintain good relations through missions and gold, and use excommunication strategically. Crusades offer significant expansion opportunities for Catholic factions.

Q: How to improve relations with the Pope in Total War: Three Kingdoms?

The Pope is a powerful ally or enemy. Influence cardinals by voting for likely winners, maintain good relations through missions and gold, and use excommunication strategically. Crusades offer significant expansion opportunities for Catholic factions.

Q: What are the benefits of Crusades in Total War: Three Kingdoms?

The Pope is a powerful ally or enemy. Influence cardinals by voting for likely winners, maintain good relations through missions and gold, and use excommunication strategically. Crusades offer significant expansion opportunities for Catholic factions.

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This guide covers the Papacy in Total War: Three Kingdoms, focusing on influencing cardinals, managing excommunication, and utilizing Crusades.

Walkthrough

1
Voting for Pope: All living cardinals vote for one of the three Preferati. Always vote for the candidate likely to win, even if not your own. AI cardinals vote for themselves and their countrymen.
2
Cardinal Behavior: Cardinals vote for countrymen first, allies second, and neutrals third. They will not vote for enemies. Ties are broken by piety, then eligibility.
3
Maintaining Papal Relations: Keep the Pope happy by completing missions, avoiding wars with their allies, and offering large sums of gold.
4
Dealing with Excommunication: If excommunicated, you can kill the Pope (less effective if you control Rome), endure the public order penalty (10-20%), or seek reconciliation by offering gold and ceasing the offending actions (usually killing non-excommunicated Catholics).
5
Strategic Excommunication: Becoming the sole Catholic faction can make the Papacy your puppet. Orthodox and Islamic factions should ally with the Papal States to weaken Catholic rivals.
6
Early Game Strategy: Focus on capturing rebel settlements, as the Pope generally approves. Problems arise when warring with other Catholic factions.
7
Faction Suitability: Eastern European factions like Hungary and Poland are well-suited to dealing with the Papacy due to eastward expansion opportunities.
8
Financial Reconciliation: If excommunicated and wealthy (150,000+ gold), send a diplomat to Rome to offer a large sum for forgiveness.

Tips

Ally with the Papal States to weaken their enemies through excommunication.
Warlike popes may tolerate wars against non-favored factions but not against those they favor.
Hungary should focus on the Byzantines; Poland should target Russia.
If rich and excommunicated, don't hesitate to bribe the Pope.
Crusades offer a powerful expansion engine for Catholic factions, allowing recruitment of full stacks for around 5000 florins.
Crusades can be used for early game land grabs against Orthodox and Islamic factions, or against the Mongols/Timurids in the mid-game.
Exploit excommunicated Catholic factions by conquering their land with cheap Crusade troops.

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Part 17