The location of the Pope during the Twilight War

[Legbreaker]

It wouldn't interfere significantly on the military prep, but it would on the Politicians.
If/when the church was to throw in their two cents, any politician who wanted to stay in government would have to listen and act accordingly. The religious vote is powerful - take the US bible belt for example. What percentage of the population there is going to be listening to the Pope and other religious figures in preference to the politicians and Generals.
Once the ball was rolling though I doubt the church would have a lot of influence, but they'd be major factors in the time leading up to the decision to deploy. They might even have influence over the timeframes and manpower involved in the deployment.

[dragoon500ly]

It wouldn't interfere significantly on the military prep, but it would on the Politicians.
If/when the church was to throw in their two cents, any politician who wanted to stay in government would have to listen and act accordingly. The religious vote is powerful - take the US bible belt for example. What percentage of the population there is going to be listening to the Pope and other religious figures in preference to the politicians and Generals.
Once the ball was rolling though I doubt the church would have a lot of influence, but they'd be major factors in the time leading up to the decision to deploy. They might even have influence over the timeframes and manpower involved in the deployment.

The Bible Belt in the US is mostly Southern Baptist with sizable groups of Methodist and Pentatcostal (I know, my spelling sucks). The large Catholic areas are Louisiana, southern Mississippi, southern Alabama and Florida. This area has several military bases, as well as arsenals and ammunition plants. Its more likely that the area would go for MilGov or CivGov rather than PopeGov...

[Legbreaker]

Meh, whatever, but I'm sure you get my point. Religion (not just the Pope and the Catholic church) has influence to varying degrees all over the world. Might not directly impact on military matters, but it's going to be heavily intertwined in the political (despite what the US consitution may say).

[helbent4]

Meh, whatever, but I'm sure you get my point. Religion (not just the Pope and the Catholic church) has influence to varying degrees all over the world. Might not directly impact on military matters, but it's going to be heavily intertwined in the political (despite what the US consitution may say).

Leg,

I see what you're getting at. I don't see a separate religious government, the Catholic Church doesn't really work that way (any more) except perhaps where there is literally no government at all. Most of the time they would simply support whatever government was in place. Pushing for social or political justice isn't completely foreign to the Church (although that tends to be a lower-level thing) but it's not like they haven't cooperated or supported with military juntas or other corrupt regimes in the past.

Tony

[pmulcahy11b]

(Remembering the picture in Ogre Miniatures where an Ogre Mk V is wearing the insignia of the Vatican.)

What are the capabilities of the Swiss Guards

[Raellus]

I could see religious/military orders of marshal clergy popping up after the balloon goes up. Some conspiracy theorists see conservative blocs in the RCC like Opus Dei as capable of setting up such a thing. Perhaps you would even have armed factions within the Catholic fold- left-leaning liberation theologist backed groups and right-leaning Opus Dei backed groups. IN-fighting could be a real possibility.

I had one PC in my PbP (Brother Switek played by Snakeyes) who was a former monk turned CIA-backed partisan leader and an NPC, called the Bishop (so named for the chess piece), who was a former Polish Para before joining a monastic order before the war only to later become Gora-Kalwaria's militia commander in '98 or so.

[Legbreaker]

I don't see a separate religious government...

I'm not in any way advocating that there would be any type of religious government. All I am saying is that religion, both individuals and organisations, will apply political pressure on the various governments to act in a certain way.
This pressure will be more or less effective depending on where in the world it's going on - for example, Islam is going to have a MASSIVE input on policy and actions in Iran while Christianity, specifically Roman Catholism will be behind many of the decisions made in Italy. Over in the Far east, Buddism will shape events while up in the backwoods you might find a cult or three exerting influence on the local authorities.

Industry will also have similar clout with some governments - take the various lobby groups in the US for example. Note that just having money might be enough to exert influence in some countries, provided it's spread around and fills a few otherwise empty pockets.

[pmulcahy11b]

I could see religious/military orders of marshal clergy popping up after the balloon goes up. Some conspiracy theorists see conservative blocs in the RCC like Opus Dei as capable of setting up such a thing. Perhaps you would even have armed factions within the Catholic fold- left-leaning liberation theologist backed groups and right-leaning Opus Dei backed groups. IN-fighting could be a real possibility.

We could get real weird and have the Illuminati revive as an order, determined to preserve knowledge and rebuild civilization -- their image of civilization, of course.

[Legbreaker]

I just had a thought - the 10th Crusade with the Church armed with nukes!

A thousand years later and they're back.
If Christianity can't have the holy land, then nobody will!

Sounds like a really bad movie promo....
Lets get Mel Gibson to play the leading role.

[dragoon500ly]

(Remembering the picture in Ogre Miniatures where an Ogre Mk V is wearing the insignia of the Vatican.)

What are the capabilities of the Swiss Guards

They fulill two roles, they are the bodyguards of the Pope and the ceremonial guard of the Vatican.

They are never seen without the Michaelangelo-designed uniforms and halbreds/swords. But there is a lot of speculation about what is behind the scenes. Some of the requirements is that the Swiss Guard have served in the military, they must be Catholic and they swear an oath directly to the Pope.

During the shooting of the Pope, several Guardsmen were observed with pistols/smgs...

[dragoon500ly]

I just had a thought - the 10th Crusade with the Church armed with nukes!

A thousand years later and they're back.
If Christianity can't have the holy land, then nobody will!

Sounds like a really bad movie promo....
Lets get Mel Gibson to play the leading role.

Sort of Mad Max/We were Soldiers meets the Passion...weird and scary!!!

[Raellus]

During the shooting of the Pope, several Guardsmen were observed with pistols/smgs...

I wonder what kind of firearms they use... Italian, Swiss, or other

This discussion has been really interesting. There is a lot of food here for a pretty kick-ass module. Let's start with the factions...

The Pope and his loyal circle (including the Swiss guards)
Anti-papal members of the clergy
A shadowy Catholic secret society (Illuminati Opus Dei Other) with unclear motives
Anti-church Italian military (leftists)
Pro-church Italian military
The French (DGSE, FFL commandos)
Soviets (KGB, GRU, Spetznaz)

You could throw in some Austrians, Jugolsavs, U.S. pro-CivGov forces in Jugoslavia... I'm sure there's even more.

[Trooper]

They fulill two roles, they are the bodyguards of the Pope and the ceremonial guard of the Vatican.

They are never seen without the Michaelangelo-designed uniforms and halbreds/swords. But there is a lot of speculation about what is behind the scenes. Some of the requirements is that the Swiss Guard have served in the military, they must be Catholic and they swear an oath directly to the Pope.

During the shooting of the Pope, several Guardsmen were observed with pistols/smgs...

Guardsmen are usually catholic german speaking young men from swiss countryside. They have normal swiss military training (conscription). Guardsmen are real soldiers even if they have lots of seremonial guarding duties. They use those fancy uniforms only on seremonial duties (armed with halberd and pepper spray). Yes they do have modern weapons, uniforms and equipment they just wont like to show them.

Life in switzerland is very boring and most people are very conservative. Joining swiss guard can be very vise choice if you dont want live very dull life in swiss farm or if you dont want boring customer service job from the nearest town or city.

You can meet swiss volunteers nearly anywhere in this planet. Swiss army is purely defensive force for defending Switzerland and its impossible to serve abroad.

[Targan]

Sort of Mad Max/We were Soldiers meets the Passion...weird and scary!!!

"We were clergy once, and mad"

[Legbreaker]

A cross in one hand and grenade launcher in the other, he's "THE CONVERTER"!
Don't let the robes fool you...