Maybe some of you have noticed how strong the reformation has become lately. Certainly there are several threads here in the forum and on reddit covering the topic.
Apparently the AI handles conversion badly or late, which might have to do with the "religious zeal" debuff and the sometimes high "missionary maintenance". In most games I have played this usually ends with all of the Empire being protestant / reformed in addition to England and sometimes Scandinavia (which oddly enough often remains catholic in my games). Often the reformation then also swallows either Poland, France or Italy (I once had a reformed Papal State - with catholic mechanics still working). Players have suggested lowering the cost or shortening the debuff.
Just to make this clear: I am fully aware that it is easy for a player to stop the reformation if one desires to, but I am fed up either going through this (slightly abusive) process of declaring war on nations I otherwise don't give a damn about or being swamped in blue. I would like it to be a bit more interesting than that.
I would like to make a more interesting suggestion, because most of all the reformation and counter-reformation should be an interesting game mechanic in the power game of Europe. I would like to suggest to copy the Spanish Civil War mechanic from Hearts of Iron IV, where maybe catholic and evangelical nations can invest (e.g. money, monarch points, diplomats or missionaries) in the conversion of a province. Investment in the conversion of a nation can be increased, making certain provinces more contested than others. Naturally affected nations should still have all the power the counter or promote the reformation / counter-reformation as they always have, except that they should then have the choice to either support or oppose foreign influence.
The start of this mechanic should either be after the council of Trent starts or when the religious leagues form. Until then the reformation will have grown enough as to be a serious threat to catholic nations and the empire but will make it possible (with serious investment) to counter the reformation much earlier than at the start of the age of absolutism when centres of reformation stop spreading. From there I can see several intersting options:
- Highly contested provinces give the "loser" a CB - thus maybe triggering the league war
- Catholics or evngelicals who join the opposite side are immune from foreign influence (giving you a good reason to join the other side if you have none already)
- Vice versa league members on the "correct" side get a bonus on converting their provinces
- Curia controller can boost / finance counter-reformation attempts with money from treasury
- Contested provinces trigger events that might boost or slow conversion or might even offer options to exploit the reformation-process (let's sell indulgences again...)
- mechanic may be limited to catholic / evangelical great powers + curia controller, emperor and league leaders
- mechanic may be limited to those who join the counter-reformation or issue the statute of restraint of appeals, leaving you with the option to stay out of it all
- aggressive counter-reformation or reformation processes might make undecided nations more likely to join one side.
There you go, happy to hear your thoughts.
Apparently the AI handles conversion badly or late, which might have to do with the "religious zeal" debuff and the sometimes high "missionary maintenance". In most games I have played this usually ends with all of the Empire being protestant / reformed in addition to England and sometimes Scandinavia (which oddly enough often remains catholic in my games). Often the reformation then also swallows either Poland, France or Italy (I once had a reformed Papal State - with catholic mechanics still working). Players have suggested lowering the cost or shortening the debuff.
Just to make this clear: I am fully aware that it is easy for a player to stop the reformation if one desires to, but I am fed up either going through this (slightly abusive) process of declaring war on nations I otherwise don't give a damn about or being swamped in blue. I would like it to be a bit more interesting than that.
I would like to make a more interesting suggestion, because most of all the reformation and counter-reformation should be an interesting game mechanic in the power game of Europe. I would like to suggest to copy the Spanish Civil War mechanic from Hearts of Iron IV, where maybe catholic and evangelical nations can invest (e.g. money, monarch points, diplomats or missionaries) in the conversion of a province. Investment in the conversion of a nation can be increased, making certain provinces more contested than others. Naturally affected nations should still have all the power the counter or promote the reformation / counter-reformation as they always have, except that they should then have the choice to either support or oppose foreign influence.
The start of this mechanic should either be after the council of Trent starts or when the religious leagues form. Until then the reformation will have grown enough as to be a serious threat to catholic nations and the empire but will make it possible (with serious investment) to counter the reformation much earlier than at the start of the age of absolutism when centres of reformation stop spreading. From there I can see several intersting options:
- Highly contested provinces give the "loser" a CB - thus maybe triggering the league war
- Catholics or evngelicals who join the opposite side are immune from foreign influence (giving you a good reason to join the other side if you have none already)
- Vice versa league members on the "correct" side get a bonus on converting their provinces
- Curia controller can boost / finance counter-reformation attempts with money from treasury
- Contested provinces trigger events that might boost or slow conversion or might even offer options to exploit the reformation-process (let's sell indulgences again...)
- mechanic may be limited to catholic / evangelical great powers + curia controller, emperor and league leaders
- mechanic may be limited to those who join the counter-reformation or issue the statute of restraint of appeals, leaving you with the option to stay out of it all
- aggressive counter-reformation or reformation processes might make undecided nations more likely to join one side.
There you go, happy to hear your thoughts.
