Strongest Religion in a Vacuum

[TheMeInTeam]

Protestant is the best. It's more adaptable than Hindu, which used to be the clear winner

Clear winner? Haha no. Hindu isn't even top 5. Catholic, Reformed, Protestant, Sunni, Shia, Ibadi, Orthodox, and Coptic are all better.

Why are they better? They have more triggered modifiers for missionaries and access to DotF, to go with numerous powerful decisions or piety + temporary decisions. Even today, Shia can trivially pick up 20% morale with piety + DotF. Hindu can, if it sacrifices other advantages, get 5% discipline by comparison while converting much more slowly. Hindu only wins out on nations that can get more +heathen tolerance so they don't have to convert.

Most pagan faiths are also a joke for that reason. When you have intolerance, every province in the wrong religion gets penalties in addition to handing you more rebels, and these faiths can't possibly keep up converting with conquest rate unless you're slow.

Thinking on it, a Hindu republic probably provides the widest and most flexible array of bonuses (also, one of the only religions to reduce coring costs).

And yet a Catholic one can just buy stability and diprep using PI and outstrip the bonuses even if it doesn't control the Curia a single day.

Edit: Though -1 diprep is painful, Buddhism was pulled out of the trash can with the flip to Karma penalties and access to 4 missionaries with religious + 2 triggered modifier provinces (it is the only non-Abrahamic that gets 2). I no longer rate it as true trash tier like it was in 1.13, it's much more middle-of-pack now.

 

[BarrosRodrigues]

Clear winner? Haha no. Hindu isn't even top 5. Catholic, Reformed, Protestant, Sunni, Shia, Ibadi, Orthodox, and Coptic are all better.

Why are they better? They have more triggered modifiers for missionaries and access to DotF, to go with numerous powerful decisions or piety + temporary decisions. Even today, Shia can trivially pick up 20% morale with piety + DotF. Hindu can, if it sacrifices other advantages, get 5% discipline by comparison while converting much more slowly. Hindu only wins out on nations that can get more +heathen tolerance so they don't have to convert.

Most pagan faiths are also a joke for that reason. When you have intolerance, every province in the wrong religion gets penalties in addition to handing you more rebels, and these faiths can't possibly keep up converting with conquest rate unless you're slow.



And yet a Catholic one can just buy stability and diprep using PI and outstrip the bonuses even if it doesn't control the Curia a single day.

To each his own. I think you value missionary strength too much which would be fine if Humanist did not allow us to ignore conversion as a Hindu. Giving up on DoTF and morale it is not a big deal if you plan accordingly (overwhelm enemies with numbers, only attack when they are weak, ideas, etc.). What is a big deal is the -10% core creation cost/time provided by Shiva (especially in 1.14) unless ofc one only does vassal feeding

Btw Pagans can unlock +4 missionary strength by decision at adm tech 8 (requires switching pagan religion to unlock both +2 decisions) so that at least helps a bit.

 

[zsImmortal]

Definitely Catholic. So ridiculously strong with decisions, Curia and Pope points. Protestantism is probably a close second.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

To each his own. I think you value missionary strength too much which would be fine if Humanist did not allow us to ignore conversion as a Hindu. Giving up on DoTF and morale it is not a big deal if you plan accordingly (overwhelm enemies with numbers, only attack when they are weak, ideas, etc.). What is a big deal is the -10% core creation cost/time provided by Shiva (especially in 1.14) unless ofc one only does vassal feeding

Btw Pagans can unlock +4 missionary strength by decision at adm tech 8 (requires switching pagan religion to unlock both +2 decisions) so that at least helps a bit.

You lose your reforms if you do that as a reforming pagan, and the other types might very well lose access to doing so (Kongo often goes Catholic very fast for example). DotF has the ticking -WE on it too which is very nice for constant war. I admit the -10% core cost and time is attractive via Shiva but now that overseas coring is gimped it's hard to justify doing heavy coring en masse' early on unless you've a good NI for it or maybe as a horde.

Speaking of core time, diplomatic reputation is exactly that when it comes to annexing vassals, and while Hindu has access to that, so do Catholic and Reformed (and Buddhist, though more likely you'll be at -1 rather than +1).

The real problem for Hindu is that you wind up having to take humanist. While that's not bad in a vacuum, it hurts when you also want deus vult (even more important with the changes to peace deal cap at -999 and no more 0 cost full annexation) and adaptability. So if you want that -10% core cost, you have to cut one of those other two until your 5th idea group.

The one thing I haven't tested yet is how having Varinasi be the triggered modifier rather than Rome impacts the scenario. Hindu gets its 3 missionaries much faster now, and that might be enough to cover you until you take humanist 5th because pre admin-efficiency out-expanding 3 missionaries with >10% strength isn't so much that you'll tank unity horribly. So for first 5 you could in theory cut a mil or dip group, use ADM/Religious, and pick up humanist later when you can't keep up any more.

 

[McSeamus]

In a vacuum? Clearly Buddhism....

http://www.kosei-shuppan.co.jp/english/text/mag/2009/09_456_11.html

Thank you, I will be here all week. Try the veal!

 

[StatikShocker]

I like Orthodox... Max PA and Religious Ideas (-Unrest and +Tolerance of The True Faith) means you basically can't have revolts once you convert a province, which is going to be under a year no matter what (+Missionary Strength and a ton of Missionaries). To the point where you can frequently have more than -10 local unrest, meaning you can lower autonomy for "free".