I like Italian Catholic so I have a lot of influence in the College of Cardinals and the Pope gives me everything I want.
Most Desireable Culture and Religion
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Oh yeah. I started a Meshchera game for that very reason. So far, it's doing all right:
And yes, one of the fun things about the Meshchera is that they start off with Moscow. It's not a particularly valuable province in the early starts, but it's something.
depends on what you want to do.
religions:
as a ruler, for your warfare you want aztec reformed with unyielding, invaders and haruscripcy
for commanders of armies reformed germanic with astrology and autonomous or maybe cathar or bogomilist for those +cavalry leadership bloodlines, havent done the calculations to to discover which one is better
for peace time sunni to tax your realm into prosperity (and invest that money into custom mercenaries)
cultures:
han for leaders of armies because they have a Chance to get Chinese leadership trait or culture that allows for special tactics, dont know which oone are good at the moment or bear
duck for siege leaders
tangut if you want access to chinese imperialism
dragon for those who get increased income from its culture modifier
religions:
as a ruler, for your warfare you want aztec reformed with unyielding, invaders and haruscripcy
for commanders of armies reformed germanic with astrology and autonomous or maybe cathar or bogomilist for those +cavalry leadership bloodlines, havent done the calculations to to discover which one is better
for peace time sunni to tax your realm into prosperity (and invest that money into custom mercenaries)
cultures:
han for leaders of armies because they have a Chance to get Chinese leadership trait or culture that allows for special tactics, dont know which oone are good at the moment or bear
duck for siege leaders
tangut if you want access to chinese imperialism
dragon for those who get increased income from its culture modifier
if i wish to play as female rulership then i chooce basque culture mostly i choose persian. As religion i use nestorian or custom pagan romova
Which cultures have really good portraits?
That's basically it if I'm not intending to do something specific.
That's basically it if I'm not intending to do something specific.
Greeks and related cultures have the best portraits. Italians are pretty good. The Central/North European aren't bad, except for the fat heads that so many of them have.
Norse are ... challenging. The women are raw-faced and the men look like their battleaxes, but furry.
Byzantine ,English,Chinese,German,
Iberian and Iranian Men are great to.
Not Italian those are one of the worst.
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Sometimes Italian/Iberian characters have squinty eyes, similar to how sometimes English/French/German have fat heads.
I was, uh, being rhetorical, stating the question I ask myself when I'm playing randomly.
But yeah, generally the newer the portraits, the better they look. The only exception is the new Italian ones; I actually think they look pretty good EXCEPT that the spacing of the features is often weird. (I kind of think they'd make a good humanoid race in Stellaris.
)
I usually go for strange or otherwise rare combinations. Vikings are always my jumping-off point though. My first game of HF was Dyre the Stranger into Mali to test out the new gold mines and those Voodoo masks. I stayed Norse though for the contrast, so that one was Norse/African. I've done Rurik into Persia twice, once where I was Norse/Nestorian, another where I went Norse/Zoroastrian since I had never rebuilt their church. I've reformed Bon with Norseman, I've taken Dyre the Stranger into the Abbasid Heartlands where I took Mesopotamia, then converted to Nestorian (and later Messalian) and converted to Assyrian (which has a ton of neat localizations for the region.) Also renamed Basra to Soddom.
I've done quite a few others but those are some of the most notable, as well as more recent ones.
I've done quite a few others but those are some of the most notable, as well as more recent ones.
Playing as Norse and Reformed Germanic never gets old. Sufficiently undermine the authority of the Catholic Church early on and the world's your oyster.
Italian Catholics are great. Wheel and deal with the Papacy. Expand your merchant fleets. Field those spearmen.
Christian Heresy's and Central Europe have made for a fun powder keg now and then. My faith of choice is Waldensian. Take it up with Wittenberg or Geneva as your capital. Christmas came early...so to speak.
Italian Catholics are great. Wheel and deal with the Papacy. Expand your merchant fleets. Field those spearmen.
Christian Heresy's and Central Europe have made for a fun powder keg now and then. My faith of choice is Waldensian. Take it up with Wittenberg or Geneva as your capital. Christmas came early...so to speak.
German, English/Norman, French, and Greek are all great. Norse are the worst- HORRIBLE. What fat heads? You mean with double-chins and whatnot?
I guess that's what you get for asking questions in too general a way. Obviously I meant the cultures and religions that offer some sort of strategic benefit.
Unfortunately I find Islam rather boring as a concept, too bad it's so powerful. Especially for my current game (NK mode Spain) being able to hold two types of demesnes would have been great. Are there other, more interesting cultures or religions that help with NK mode campaigns? (No need to mention Egypt's and Seljuk's vassal mercs, I'm aware of them)
Unfortunately I find Islam rather boring as a concept, too bad it's so powerful. Especially for my current game (NK mode Spain) being able to hold two types of demesnes would have been great. Are there other, more interesting cultures or religions that help with NK mode campaigns? (No need to mention Egypt's and Seljuk's vassal mercs, I'm aware of them)
The most desirable cultures are all those with Portraits Packs released after (and including) the Greek one, because everybody before that looks awful and has terrible 3D model hair or whatever that's supposed to be.
Best religion is every pagan one, since with the new reformation you ca make it whatever you like.
Best religion is every pagan one, since with the new reformation you ca make it whatever you like.
Yep indeed they stary with Moscow both on Charly and Viking start. As in your case i think that Vladimir is the more obvious choice for a capital.
But man oh man those Meshecheras are poor. They make even the Sami and the Finns look rich in comparison.
The only people you can loot early on are other dirt poor tribes. Also in most of the cases they don't have the gold to ransom back their captured family members.
I think that the only Finno-Ugrich in worst possition are the Khanty (the Komi are at the same level probably).
Unless they've changed things, German, English/Norman, French, the Slavs and so on use the same portrait packs.
Portraits are built up of components, which starts with a featureless head. Some heads are "skinny", so you get dweeby-looking characters. Some heads are "fat", so you get characters with very wide faces and double chins (and it might take a few generations to "breed" to a slimmer face).
Yup, that's right. Heck, in this game, the only king title I afforded was Chernigov. Then, I used an Elective Gavelkind succession to create Vladimir, and the Rurikids created Novgorod, which i then subjugated.
One thing I started doing was raiding far from my borders. So what if I don't get the 0.85 gold for raiding the tribal holding? It's all about captives. Also, I keep captives around for future years when the tribes and nomads can afford to buy back one.