This guide will attempt to provide strategies and tips for playing the second of the LS civ set II civs, the Papal States under Gregory XIII.

In Christianity's early years, it was illegal to practice openly and occured only in rooms set aside in stately abodes. After Constantine I made Christianity legal to practice, it was able to own land and property, the first major donation being The Lateran Palace. More donations followed, even branching as far as the Roman Empire, but it was as a private landholder, rather than a sovereign entity.

In the 5th century, under the control of the Ostragoths, the church bowed its head to the Ostragoth's sovereign power, but still held as the spiritual leader. By the 7th century, Byzantine influence had cut to a small sliver through Ravenna, and a number of the duties and powers the Byzantines could no longer project passed onto the Christian church. Though the popes remained Byzantine subject, and area roughly the size of modern day Lithuania became its own entity ruled by the Pope.

With its new-found power, the church defied Gregory II and excommunicated Leo III, though they still worked together with the Roman republic to allow for safety, generally through diplomatic avenues. In 751, Pepin the Younger was crowned in place of Childeric III after Ravenna fell. Pepin the Younger donated the territories constituting the exarchate of Ravenna to the Pope. In 781, Charlemagne extended the temporal powers of the Pope to a number of Italian cities as well as the Roman duchy.

Over the next centuries, the Pope and Emperor often came to odds as to where one's jurisdiction over the other began and ended. Emperors were alternatively crowned or hated, depending on the pope at the time. The Papal States, however, had no real effective power, and were more of a spiritual entity at the time. The Gregorian Reform proposed the independence of the Papal States, and was achieved in 1177.

Between 1305 and 1378, the Papal States suffered under an absent papacy. A number of small domains were added to the Papal States, but the despots ruling them maintained power by declaring themselves vicars, allowing their rule to continue. A number of conflicts broke out, and eventually a mercenary army of condotierri was maintained by the Pope in order to keep peace. Still, the Pope resided to far away (all the way in Avignon) to exercise the temporal power to keep true order.

During the Renaissance, the Papal States expanded drastically under Alexander VI and Julius II. Though considered a legal entity and diplomatic power, the Papal States still had intermediary princes who ruled the provinces, often to their own ends. During the Reformation, the Protestants brought unrest to the Roman lands, and as a result, the power of the Papal States increased as many people were galvanized towards or away from the church.

During the Napoleonic period, a number of wars were declared in succession on the Papal States, greatly shrinking its northern territories, including the Papal residence of Avignon. After the death of the emperor, however, the states were returned to their former size. However, in 1861 Italian nationalism unified the states, essentially desolving the sovereignty of the Papal States. They still wielded religious authority from Italy, only truly regaining a fraction of its former power in 1929 with the formation of the Vatican.

The first of the LS Civs that doesn't focus in war, the UA focuses on a steady approach to the game, and a lot of pressure relief. Its UB pushes towards a cultural victory, and paired with the UU, also points to a steady approach.

Ecumenism is defined as "the principle or aim of spreading christian views throughout the world" and the ability matches this fairly well:

• The Papal States may found a religion at any time.
  
• The Papal States may annex city states with faith.

Traditionally, the Christians were a little late to the party as compared to some other religions. In more applicable game terms, the higher the difficulty, the less likely one is to found a relgion. With this ability, that opportunity is never taken from you. Even in games with heavy religion players like The Celts, Ethiopia, and The Maya, you will found a relgion. If you take it to its extreme, it won't be a widespread religion, since all the others have had time to simmer and grow, but it does take off the urgency, allowing you to prioritize other buildings before religious buildings without ending up having them for no reason.

The second half of the ability supports a mid to late game expansion. The Papal States leans towards a wide style, in order to maximize the number of Basilicas and to max out faith generation. City states can get int he way of your expansion, but being able to purchase them with faith makes it so you can add them to your empire without great loss of life. Additonally, it allows you to deprive your enemies of city states, similar to Venice or Austria, but with a secondary resource that stockpiles up late-game.

With a wide empire, a there are two major problems: culture and defense. While a wide empire can create many units, the number of units required to protect an area becomes an effort in guessing who's gonna back-stab you first. But the Swiss Guard remedies both of those matters in one go.

The first ability the Swiss Guard has is that it produces +1 culture/turn while garrisoned in a city. So, while there is no war ongoing, stationing these units in cities is a great option, since it is essentially a double liberty. Even a city under seige will produce the culture, since the unit is within.

The second ability they have is +6 defense while garrisoned in a city. This puts them as several points stronger than a Swordsman, and a point above Longswordsman. Of course, this only works while they're garrisoned, so the second they leave the walls, they are as weak as a normal pikeman. Unlike some lance unit replacements, it retains the bonus vs. mounted units, so it forms a powerful defensive backbone, though it should still be supported by other units to help back them up.

Unfortunately, none of these abilities keep on upgrade, so you'll want to build Lancers, rather than upgrade from Swiss Guards. Since the Swiss Guards keep their ability regardless of the time, keeping the old ones in cities can provide a stable source of culture, though by upgrading them you lose a little culture but get better units for your maintainence cost.

The basilica replaces the Temple, and gives an additional point of faith as well as having an artist slot. The benefit of this can best be seen through expansion. If every city has a basilica, then 8 cities would produce 24 faith, as opposed to the 16 faith temples would produce. With the piety tree, not only will they produce 2x as much as a non-piety temple, they can increase the gold output of a city, which can be useful for wide empires.
The second part of the ability is to have the ability to produce Artists. Providing even more culture, the slot is affected by the Aesthetics tree, so The Papal States can produce them faster than a number of other civs, since they have the extra slot that can stack points with Artist's guilds and such. Since Museums need to be filled with art, and it can be hard to fill the museums quickly enough before transitioning through the eras, the extra points can fit an extra few great works into an era.

As opposed to other religious civs, the early game scramble is a little less hectic. Though you should still hurry for the best beliefs, you have to worry less about lacking a religion, since you can always found on. Particularly useful, if you take Piety, is the "Evangelism" belief. Since you'll likely found a religion late, corroding existing religion's pressures helps you squeeze into the populace. Additionally, when paired with Interfaith Dialogue, your late start can even be beneficial, since there's more cities that will yield science. Back onto the subject of buildings however, the lack of need to get the early pantheon means that you can put off the shrine until later until the build order, opening room for other buildings, like circuses. Grabbing land is important, as the faith you need to produce will be largely dependent on the cities you'll own.

Mid-game, the majority of warmongers will be making hostile advances, particularly on potential faith and culture players. Your Swiss Guard will uphold your papal power in the face of the heavens, netting you additional culture. Once a critical mass of cities is reached, building up to basilicas is a priority for the extra faith and pressure from the Grand Temple. Early on, using prophets to make holy sites would be a good idea in order to stock up on faith. After a decent faith production is built, swapping to missionaries after Evangelism is a powerful strategy. Alternatively, buying city states with faith is also a decent strategy, since they'll add to your collective producers, but the mid-game happiness slump can put a stop in the number of cities that can be held. That being said, the dual bonuses of Notre Dame can mend that.

Late-game, stacking museums will be the ticket to cultural victories. With the extra artist slot in the basilica, your generation of great artists will be slightly ahead of the competition. With the Aesthetics finisher, the museums will give double tourism, and with your religion's ability to corrode others, you'll soon begin getting the tourism benefits that major religions enjoy. Though it might be tough, getting World Religion passed will help greatly, making your religion even harder to fight off.

As per usual, I'd like to give a thanks to the various parties:

• Zigzagzigal, for his inspiring guides.
  
• LastSword for making the civs
  
• And you for reading!

If you feel like leaving a rating, it's appreciated, but if not, I hope you join me next time for the Sioux!

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