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I tried playing as Emir Sorkab(sp) in the charlemagne start and the Caliph revokes all my titles within months. I tried playing as some independent Satrap north of india, the Caliph declares war on me immediately. I tried playing as a sheikh vassal east of the abbasids, and get instantly steamrolled by the abbasids when i'm inches from independence.
The Karen in the Old Gods start are alright and north of them you have some turkish zoroastrians and while they are vassals the mere fact that they are nomads should help you.
I use Khudas of Bukhara in CM start and in ToG, custom kingdom enables you to hide under Caliph without much risk. In both cases you devour your lieges realm from within.
That being said, Yuighurs (Manichean) have better starting positions in both early starts.
The Mongols. Some provinces are still zoroastrian and you can convert by setting your capital there. That is the only way you are going to get an easy Zoroastrian start. Otherwise, sack up and do it as Karen.
To be honest, Karen is much better with Conclave as you can use "Overthrow liege" faction to set elective succession and then seize the crown. Talking about Khiva now of course.
You just need to spend time reigning in your council afterwards.
Depends how much you're willing to game the system. You could start as the Sunni Saffarids in 867, win your conquest of Persia against the Tahirids to your west (make sure to occupy as many counties as possible), then move your capital to Lut, and convert to local religion to become Zoroastrian (requires Rajas of India DLC). You'll be a king, you'll control a good chunk of the empire of Persia, you'll be militarily on par with the Abbasids, and you'll be able to holy war all your neighbors except Karen.
Just be wary of the fact that conquering Baghdad will trigger early Jihads. If you don't want to deal with that you can try to take all the land away from the Abbasids and force them to become landless, which will destroy the caliphate. No caliph, no jihad. If you do go for that, be aware that taking Jerusalem or Damascus will also trigger early Jihads.
One other warning, don't take any extra wives while still Sunni. After conversion your primary wife may no longer be your wife, but a concubine instead. You could go on a Hajj though and squeeze out some piety and perhaps even bonus health out of being Sunni.
Starting under the Abbasids as a Zoroastrian since Conclave is A LOT easier than it has been in the past. I think most of the people responding here haven't tried it since the Conclave update.
The reason is simple: Religious Title Revocation. The Caliph has to get to legalism 3 first and then pass the law. By the time he reaches legalism 3 he will have either suffered a decadence invasion or had a council power revolt or two meaning the council needs to approve the law, which they won't. Usually it takes about 30-40 years for the AI to reach legalism 3, by that point later, a weaker Caliph is on the throne usually.
In the past with the same start the Caliph would just revoke your titles within a couple of years.
I recently created the Persian Empire in a multiplayer game from the 769 start, I had to wait about 40-50 years for a successful decadence revolt to fire and the realm split up. After that I had mercenary units constantly raised to keep my troop numbers up to avoid being attacked and picked away at small targets and revolts with holy wars.
Starting under the Abbasids as a Zoroastrian since Conclave is A LOT easier than it has been in the past. I think most of the people responding here haven't tried it since the Conclave update.
This is true. However, I tend to prefer the Sogdian starts in CM since in those places, you are not immediately next to big blobs when you get your independence.
You are entirely dependent on the Nubians holding back the Fatimids, but you eventually have to go through them. Not to mention that once you exhaust your three claims against the Zagwes, your options for taking the throne of Abyssinia are either Holy Warring it, one two-county Duchy at a time, Fabricating Claims, which takes forever, or becoming a super-vassal and trying to usurp the throne.
You are entirely dependent on the Nubians holding back the Fatimids, but you eventually have to go through them. Not to mention that once you exhaust your three claims against the Zagwes, your options for taking the throne of Abyssinia are either Holy Warring it, one two-county Duchy at a time, Fabricating Claims, which takes forever, or becoming a super-vassal and trying to usurp the throne.
Taking forever isn't that big a deal, just keep an eye on your truces and be diligent about it. It's not as though it's essential to become king of Abyssinia as soon as possible, and if you really need a kingdom title you can just make a custom one. The Fatimids, as you say, are the real threat but you can get lucky if crusaders or Seljuks keep them occupied at the right moments.
Start as the Abbasid Caliph in 769, get 1000 prestige through easy title creation, get a Zoroastrian county in your demesne, pass the caliphate off to some OPM vassal of yours and county convert. Simple.
Also works for Nestorianism since the caliph starts with several Nestorian counties in his demesne.
