Lithuania's religious woes
There's quite a small number of countries in this game where the state religion is not the overwhelming majority province religion in 1444. Indian Sultanates are Muslim states with Hindu provinces, Ottomans are about 50/50 Sunni/Other, and Timurids have a substantial number of Shiite provinces. You'll notice that all of these get huge religious unity bonuses in their NIs so that they can cope. Then there's Lithuania, which has a clear majority of Orthodox provinces, but starts Catholic and gets no religious unity bonus. So right from the start, Lithuania is whacked with internal problems due to low religious unity.
Unfortunately, Lithuania's solution to the problem in terms of NIs is the worst option in the long term: heretic tolerance. (The best is to have missionary bonuses so that you can eradicate the heretics - short-term pain for long-term gain.) Tolerance would be OK, except that the 'religious leaders concerned' events that kick in at +2 heretic tolerance turn it into a poisoned chalice. Basically, Lithuania's default heretic tolerance is +2 with 100 legitimacy and Catholic religion, and if it converts to any other sect of Christianity (highly likely under the circumstances), it's at +2 with 50+ legitimacy. So Lithuania's missionaries have to play constant whack-a-mole if they want to get the country's religious unity up. Lithuania will probably take Religious ideas for the missionaries, but it can't afford to complete the group, as Ecumenism basically removes any hope of getting heretic tolerance down to a safe level.
The consequences when Lithuania is under AI control are all too predictable: if it survives to the Reformation, it becomes a jumble of different sects of Christianity, with the government and three factions of zealots constantly fighting for control, regardless of which sect the government favours (and the AI will often make poor choices here, reacting to religious shifts rather than trying to control them).
Now to be fair, the other Lithuanian NIs are OK (although Lithuanian Hussars is rather let down by the fact that cavalry is already in steep decline compared to infantry by the time Lithuania unlocks it). But the religious problems trump any advantages they might have. Either the ideas need to change, or the way tolerance and religious unity work needs a big rethink. (This also applies to decisions like Declaration of Indulgence - striving for a tolerant society simply doesn't work unless you have a big religious unity bonus, and only certain countries can get such a bonus.)
There's quite a small number of countries in this game where the state religion is not the overwhelming majority province religion in 1444. Indian Sultanates are Muslim states with Hindu provinces, Ottomans are about 50/50 Sunni/Other, and Timurids have a substantial number of Shiite provinces. You'll notice that all of these get huge religious unity bonuses in their NIs so that they can cope. Then there's Lithuania, which has a clear majority of Orthodox provinces, but starts Catholic and gets no religious unity bonus. So right from the start, Lithuania is whacked with internal problems due to low religious unity.
Unfortunately, Lithuania's solution to the problem in terms of NIs is the worst option in the long term: heretic tolerance. (The best is to have missionary bonuses so that you can eradicate the heretics - short-term pain for long-term gain.) Tolerance would be OK, except that the 'religious leaders concerned' events that kick in at +2 heretic tolerance turn it into a poisoned chalice. Basically, Lithuania's default heretic tolerance is +2 with 100 legitimacy and Catholic religion, and if it converts to any other sect of Christianity (highly likely under the circumstances), it's at +2 with 50+ legitimacy. So Lithuania's missionaries have to play constant whack-a-mole if they want to get the country's religious unity up. Lithuania will probably take Religious ideas for the missionaries, but it can't afford to complete the group, as Ecumenism basically removes any hope of getting heretic tolerance down to a safe level.
The consequences when Lithuania is under AI control are all too predictable: if it survives to the Reformation, it becomes a jumble of different sects of Christianity, with the government and three factions of zealots constantly fighting for control, regardless of which sect the government favours (and the AI will often make poor choices here, reacting to religious shifts rather than trying to control them).
Now to be fair, the other Lithuanian NIs are OK (although Lithuanian Hussars is rather let down by the fact that cavalry is already in steep decline compared to infantry by the time Lithuania unlocks it). But the religious problems trump any advantages they might have. Either the ideas need to change, or the way tolerance and religious unity work needs a big rethink. (This also applies to decisions like Declaration of Indulgence - striving for a tolerant society simply doesn't work unless you have a big religious unity bonus, and only certain countries can get such a bonus.)
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