Medieval Total War Excommunication

Excommunication is one of the most annoying features of MTW2, as the Pope stops you from expanding your empire into Christian realms if you are running a Christian country. Appart from converting to a different faith, what can you do to stop it? This video shows you how. It also shows you how to get some diplomatic solutions to work despite the problems with diplomacy in this game.
Note: I failed to mention that it is essential to keep an eye on the Popeometer, as when that reaches zero you are excommunicated. When that happens because, for instance, you attacked a Catholic city, you may receive no notice of the excommunication and just suddenly find that all your crusading armies are about to desert. You can put the Popeometer back to the maximum level using the method shown in this video - the higher in the Pope's regard you stay, the longer you can beat up Catholic states. You also increase your status with the Pope by employing priests, building churches, and converting heathens BUT ALSO by improving your diplomatic status with the Pope.

[@MrFriendlyCsgoContent]

just to add, if you're playing stainless steel and you have popemeter full, you can still get excommunicated if you have the mission "don't attack x faction for this many turns"

[@IceniTotalWar]

Yep make sure no armies/fleets are already moving against their settlements and break sieges/port blockades.

[@user-cq5sn5hq4m]

Awesome bro.

[@dominikpesut7498]

Getting a ceasefire doesn't count as ceasing hostilities. You must not have any combat (sieges, battles) with that faction during the duration of the pope's request.
You should employ another tactic, and that is waiting for your enemy to attack you a couple of times, so they get excommunicated. After that they are free game.
In general, in my games I tend to attack the excommunicated factions I am surrounded with and just build up my empire in the meantime (get the economy going through buildings and merchants). It's good to serve as an ally of the pope and clean up "bad" Catholics.
As far as I remember, if you attack enemy armies in your own territory, that's okay with the pope. You could leave a badly defended settlement and try to lure the AI to attack you a couple of times and mop them up when they do. Eventually they would get excommunicated and then you can go on the offensive.

[@christopherwebber3804]

Yeah that also really annoys me, that having your own pope doesn't stop it. There seems very little point to having your own pope, except for getting a high score on the popometer. The pope's death removes an excommunication but doesn't reset the popometer necessarily. You still have to strive to keep the pope happy and keep the pope score high. You basically have to organise invasions so that you pounce on a lot of cities/castles at the same time and capture them - preferably winning the war in two turns but at least getting any attacks out of the way. I think a siege is OK if it's already started, I forget. Otherwise it's attack a bunch of towns, then sue for peace, get the popometer up again, and repeat

[@IceniTotalWar]

Placing units next to their cities or fleets all around but Not blockading their ports usually gets them too attack you and triggers them being Excommunicated 😁😁😁

[@Parfumlestink778xby]

Me personally i won’t avoid excommunication, if they wanna fight me for expanding my territories so be it

[@IceniTotalWar]

I've been a really bad boy in Med 2 and Excommunicated soooooooo... many times, surely i'm doomed for all Eternity 🤔

[@sligacheese6470]

Same

[@forickgrimaldus8301]

Not really Excommunication is sometimes a Better alternative than not it depends on the situation,
The best way to get reconciled is usually to let your faction leader die or hold out long enough that the Pope Dies instead,
If its so bad the best exit if it becomes too much as in it gets in the way of your objectives you can ask the Pope for Reconciliation but you need to pay a lot of cash,
In my Teutonic Campaign I had to give up Prague so I can expand to meet my Objectives as I found while Excommunication is managable, it stops you from completing your Objectives in time as in the Ayybids wining it all. (Teutons IMO suffers the Worst from Excommunication if its not managed properly as in being a Weasle and using the exploits above.)

[@Zafersan]

this is why I like playing the Crusader States. i get to play a western faction but unload on islam with no negative

[@davidpecalevski3012]

I have problem , AI Diplomat come to my city , there is animation that he want to talk about something but nothing happens , and every turn is the same bug ...what to do ??

[@christopherwebber3804]

Don't know, maybe send a leader or diplomat to meet him? Assassinate him?

[@christianflores3437]

@@christopherwebber3804 it means they want to break truce or attack or ally. the ai does get stuck

[@sligacheese6470]

I play in excommunication most of the time lol lol.I play English until I unlock the other factions 🎉

[@campionpesate4647]

You can unlock the other factions by editing a text file in the game folder. at least it worked in the vanilla version

[@CentreSwift]

Nice little trick. Would this work in vanilla too?

[@christopherwebber3804]

I suppose so, although I don't remember having so much of a problem with excommunication in the vanilla game. The pope gives you seven turns in which to get a ceasefire and two turns in which to attack before he interferes. So you don't attack a country unless you are ready to take all its cities within two turns - if you destroy the faction, then the war is also over.

[@somewont9619]

@@christopherwebber3804 What if, in vanilla, I've already been excommunicated. How will I save myself? Can I be communicated with again? If so, how?

[@christopherwebber3804]

​@@somewont9619 if the pope dies (e.g. you assassinate him) then you go back to normal relations. Also the better the relations you have with the pope, the more bad things you can do to Catholic monarchs (but doing bad things to them reduces your standing with the pope). You can improve relations by building churches, killing/conquering/converting heathens, hiring priests, and through improving diplomatic relations with the pope and his allies. Meanwhile you may find that being excommunicated is a bit liberating, you can do what you like... until the pope declares a crusade on you!

[@felipedimperio4464]

@@christopherwebber3804 thanks mate

[@RamanShrikant]

how are you so good at this game?

[@christopherwebber3804]

I used to play the table top rules the battles are based on. I read all the comments on the forums. I played it for a year of real time. I don't accept the results of many of the random events as they are not representative of the odds. For instance, if you are about to use a spy, save the game. if the spy fails (like it usually does even at 90% success), reload the game and save it. Then try again.Saving the game resets the spy encounter.