Has anything changed for West Africa?

[dreamer05]

Every new DLC/big patch I try out a West African game. I envision an entirely West African Europe. The culture and religion are very interesting to me. However, as I'm sure everyone knows, it's an extremely slow progressing game as you are usually blocked in by the Muslims. I just started out a new game there, and strangely it started with full council powers, which I didn't think happened previously. I've had some fun taking power and starting to gain full control over the council. I do have some questions:

1) Tribal still get a bonus for empty holdings correct?
2) Can West African change to regular Gavelkind, or are they stuck with elective Gavelkind?
3) Does elective Gavelkind still automatically create then distribute kingdom titles for you?

If anyone has any good tips I would appreciate it. In my current Brittany game the Empire of Francia has dug in pretty hard into Spain so I'm hoping the same happens in this game so the Muslims aren't as strong and I can chip away at them. Thanks!

 

[Tatterhood]

The answers to (1) and (3) are yes. I don't know about (2) in vanilla.

 

[RoverGrover]

I dunno about Africa, but you're lucky with the Muslims. In my game they nearly instantly created Hispania and are currently decimating a united francia despite my attempts to help them as Brittany/Ireland.

 

[Damarrocarion]

Answer to 2: Unreformed Tribal pagans are stuck with elective gavelkind. What you essentially want is to get a christian concubine (Muslim won't do due to succession law), then convert when you have reigned for 10 years, swap to regular gavelkind and then convert back or wait for your pagan kid to take over.

Perhaps at some stage they let unreformed tribals go gavelkind with high enough tribal authority. It would make more sense than changing religion for a day.

Area was changed in such regard that West Africans got "Ancestor worship" decision and can use "Summon devout warriors" when defending against holy war.

 

[dreamer05]

Answer to 2: Unreformed Tribal pagans are stuck with elective gavelkind. What you essentially want is to get a christian concubine (Muslim won't do due to succession law), then convert when you have reigned for 10 years, swap to regular gavelkind and then convert back or wait for your pagan kid to take over.

Perhaps at some stage they let unreformed tribals go gavelkind with high enough tribal authority. It would make more sense than changing religion for a day.

Area was changed in such regard that West Africans got "Ancestor worship" decision and can use "Summon devout warriors" when defending against holy war.

That's incredibly frustrating. Is that even historically accurate? I'm at the highest tribe organization and may just cheat and change the law since that doesn't even make sense to me.

 

[LeSingeAffame]

If you want to change your succession law, reform your religion

 

[Ogi-Nollox]

You

That's incredibly frustrating. Is that even historically accurate? I'm at the highest tribe organization and may just cheat and change the law since that doesn't even make sense to me.

You need to adopt feudalism to get out of gavelkind. And for that you need stone hill fort or castle +reformed religion.

 

[dreamer05]

I am working on reforming religion, but it's easier said that done. I have the 3 shrines, but no boats. Shipbuilding won't reach my coastal counties.

Another question: The kingdom of Africa is Christian for whatever reason, and directly above me. So I will raiding them give me the religious authority?

Also, why is it that I can have an army that is 2k+ more than the Christian African army, yet still get defeated. Should I be focusing on military research for certain troops rather than military organization?

 

[Sonmi]

I am working on reforming religion, but it's easier said that done. I have the 3 shrines, but no boats. Shipbuilding won't reach my coastal counties.

Another question: The kingdom of Africa is Christian for whatever reason, and directly above me. So I will raiding them give me the religious authority?

Also, why is it that I can have an army that is 2k+ more than the Christian African army, yet still get defeated. Should I be focusing on military research for certain troops rather than military organization?

You're still tribal, your troops are far inferior to whatever feudal Christians/Muslims can send against you.

 

[adriankowaty]

Another question: The kingdom of Africa is Christian for whatever reason, and directly above me. So I will raiding them give me the religious authority?

It should, due to bonuses for raiding other faith's temples...

 

[Damarrocarion]

Remember, you get defensive bonus/attrition in West African provinces if you can drag your enemies there.

 

[dreamer05]

Yea I've used the bonus defense attrition as much as possible.

I just raided one of the few Christian African temples I could find. I got it burning successfully but the African army got to me. There was no raise in religious authority.

Also, with raiding, silly question, but how do I get the money? Do they raiders need to get back to my capitol, or just my land?

 

[dreamer05]

Ah for infidel temples looted it gave me a measly 1%. And I'm at 34. Seems like West African is nearly impossible.

 

[Damarrocarion]

Get a shipyard and go burn Ireland. Meanwhile, fabricate claim on 4th holy site.

 

[dreamer05]

Get a shipyard and go burn Ireland. Meanwhile, fabricate claim on 4th holy site.

I don't have any shipyards. And even if I got a claim on the other holy sites, I couldn't beat Christian Africa to get them.

 

[LeSingeAffame]

Yea I've used the bonus defense attrition as much as possible.

I just raided one of the few Christian African temples I could find. I got it burning successfully but the African army got to me. There was no raise in religious authority.

Also, with raiding, silly question, but how do I get the money? Do they raiders need to get back to my capitol, or just my land?

Not just that, but you get huge bonus if you fight (maybe only while defending ?) in your own lands. So do it as much as possible.

The gold goes directly into your coffers, if you raid a province bordering one of your own

 

[dreamer05]

Not just that, but you get huge bonus if you fight (maybe only while defending ?) in your own lands. So do it as much as possible.

The gold goes directly into your coffers, if you raid a province bordering one of your own

What if you're raiding somewhere not next to your borders?

 

[LeSingeAffame]

Then you won't get the gold. Unless it's a coastal province and you have a fleet next to the county

 

[Ogi-Nollox]

Use tribal 500 prestige tribal army for raiding. Just stay in war all time or they will disband. There is a bug that sometimes forbids to raid with them, just split their unit in half then.

 

[dreamer05]

I've started dumping some tech points into light infantry, since that's the majority of my troops. I am able to fight off holy wars by Africa due to attrition and the holy army.
Does attrition only effect counties that are in fact West African religion?

I also have a surplus of money from beating off the holy wars. I've been upgrading some holdings, but what should I be doing with it? Upgrade holdings or build churches? I know that we get more levies by having empty land, so building churches doesn't seem correct.