So I've come back to my favorite game of all-time to try the Emperor update and I'm loving it. But I'm very curious about how the Protestant Reformation usually goes. I always play as Austria and so I do my very best to squash the centers of Reformation before they can do much damage. It's actually a very stressful part of the game that I don't enjoy that much but I'm wondering if I still understand how the AI deals with it. I'm curious if I can be a bit more patient and still be successful in keeping most of the Empire Catholic.
If I didn't intervene and destroy the centers that pop up in OPMs, would basically all of Germany become Protestant? Do any AI nations really fight back against becoming Protestant? Are there events later that guide some nations back to Catholicism?
From what I can see, if you don't crush the centers immediately, Protestantism grows like a weed. And the AI seems fairly indifferent to whether it's Catholic or Protestant, so once a majority of the provinces of a nation become Protestant, the ruler converts too.
Am I overreacting? Will some Catholic German nations remain even if I don't intervene from the very second the Reformation starts?
I'm asking because my efforts usually result in Protestantism being almost completely snuffed out by the late 1500s, and the religious war events of the early 1600s are a bit of a joke. The whole map of Europe is usually back to being Catholic by 1650 or so (once I can start enforcing religion as the emperor).
As a side note, do centers of Reformation ever pop up in England or Scandinavia? So far in my replays, I haven't seen any of those nations have significant Protestant activity.
If I didn't intervene and destroy the centers that pop up in OPMs, would basically all of Germany become Protestant? Do any AI nations really fight back against becoming Protestant? Are there events later that guide some nations back to Catholicism?
From what I can see, if you don't crush the centers immediately, Protestantism grows like a weed. And the AI seems fairly indifferent to whether it's Catholic or Protestant, so once a majority of the provinces of a nation become Protestant, the ruler converts too.
Am I overreacting? Will some Catholic German nations remain even if I don't intervene from the very second the Reformation starts?
I'm asking because my efforts usually result in Protestantism being almost completely snuffed out by the late 1500s, and the religious war events of the early 1600s are a bit of a joke. The whole map of Europe is usually back to being Catholic by 1650 or so (once I can start enforcing religion as the emperor).
As a side note, do centers of Reformation ever pop up in England or Scandinavia? So far in my replays, I haven't seen any of those nations have significant Protestant activity.