What is the best combination of:
Goverment type, religion, culture and succesion law and why?
Goverment type, religion, culture and succesion law and why?
what is the best?
- Thread starter alextarg
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The answer to all of those questions is Byzantine. Castration is the reason.
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Merchant Republic, Islam, Bedouin, and automatic Patrician Elective.
With Muslim can have 4 wives you don't need to worry about having no heir, and MR adult male don't suffer from decadence and don't need to rule land.
Bedouin provides one of the best retinue in game namely Camel Cavalry and MR can further increase the retinue limit.
And also Islam got multiple CB, you don't need to use City Conquest CB to take a county
With Muslim can have 4 wives you don't need to worry about having no heir, and MR adult male don't suffer from decadence and don't need to rule land.
Bedouin provides one of the best retinue in game namely Camel Cavalry and MR can further increase the retinue limit.
And also Islam got multiple CB, you don't need to use City Conquest CB to take a county
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Camel Cavalry was an excellent retinue in previous patches, but in 2.5 they halved all it's defensive values and it also triggers the new "disorganized harass" tactic, so it's become pretty terrible. If you want to use your culture to get a good retinue, pick Scottish instead.
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MR seems very OP from what I read. I've never played as a merchant republic. I should give it a try. I usualy stick with the feodal system in western europe or the ERE mostly because I don't like having names witch I can't prononce or just reading them gives me a headache. Thanks for the answers folks
An Islamic Horde also gets no decadence so that's pretty darn op.
Norse-anything is a good choice since you can always raid and your housecarls are a Top 10 retinue.
Altaic "Horde" cultures such as Mongol or Nahua that always have an invasion cb, then couple that with Buddhist or Jain is probably the most op in terms of stability. Then because of your culture you make up for the limited/no holy war cb.
Russian Zunist would be the last thing you would ever go up against on the defense, especially if you were in their territory fighting a Druzhina retinue. With the buffs from Zunism, they're just as strong as Schiltron on the defense.
Fraticelli-anything since you're a copy of the Catholics that can still holy war the Catholics. One better if you have a good retinue or you're a Merchant Republic.
Norse-anything is a good choice since you can always raid and your housecarls are a Top 10 retinue.
Russian Zunist would be the last thing you would ever go up against on the defense, especially if you were in their territory fighting a Druzhina retinue. With the buffs from Zunism, they're just as strong as Schiltron on the defense.
Fraticelli-anything since you're a copy of the Catholics that can still holy war the Catholics. One better if you have a good retinue or you're a Merchant Republic.
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Just a min-correction, unless it changed after Conclave "Jainghis Khan" only works with Mongol and Khitan, the other Altaic cultures lose invasion cb if not a pagan-group religion, though say Suomenusko Cumans would still have invasion.
Italian, Catholic, Feudal. Italian retinues are very nice, almost as good as Scottish pikes (if they haven't changed). Since you're Italian, you're gonna control Italy and form the Empire of Italia. This means you can now vassalize the Pope. Since Italians get extra starting funds for Cardinal positions, all the cardinals will be from your Empire and chances are some will be your relatives.
MR is quite OP if you have enough money because you can designate your heir (but you need to pay a lot to get him elected). Beside that jainism or buddhism because they can also designate a heir. Feudal elective works really good if you only have a small realm (like only a kingdom) because you can control all votes.
For culture either norse or a culture from the altaic culture group because they can always raid.
There isnt a real OP religion, every religion has its pros and cons.
For culture either norse or a culture from the altaic culture group because they can always raid.
There isnt a real OP religion, every religion has its pros and cons.
The downside of Norse culture is that Norse commanders can use the cultural tactic Berserker Charge, which is actually harmful (the increase in damage is not worth the reduced defense and the tactic is only beneficial for flanking).
The downside of merchant republics is that you can't revoke titles or imprison people without a reason to justify it.
I'd say "Genghis Jain" with a capital in Europe that allows you to field a pure heavy cavalry horde is probably the strongest. You can raid, you're super stable, you have a huge demense, an unbetable army, and you can still invade whole kingdoms and take single provinces from other nomands.
Personally I like Zoroastrian religion though. Concubinage + Divine Blood = eugenics heaven. They can also get the rare demonspawn event.
A powerful thing that's relatively easy to do is also to start as Byzantine empire, put a daughter on the throne, conquer a Shia duchy in holy war, move capital to that duchy, convert to Shia, move capital back to Constantinople, and marry a Sayyid. Keep your demesne christian so you collect extra taxes. Then conquer what you need to reform Roman Empire, convert Rome to Shia, convert to local religion of Constantinople (Orthodox), mend schism, restore Roman Empire, move capital to Rome (which is now Shia), convert back to Shia and create Shia Caliphate. Congratulations you are now Augustus, Sayyid, and Caliph. Your vassals love you and you have an amazing set of CBs to spread the empire to the far corners of the world. And because you mended the schism all of Europe is now Orthodox so you don't need to worry about crusades. Bonus points if you somehow manage to adopt Russian culture too (Russians have strongest levy and best HI retinue).
The downside of merchant republics is that you can't revoke titles or imprison people without a reason to justify it.
I'd say "Genghis Jain" with a capital in Europe that allows you to field a pure heavy cavalry horde is probably the strongest. You can raid, you're super stable, you have a huge demense, an unbetable army, and you can still invade whole kingdoms and take single provinces from other nomands.
Personally I like Zoroastrian religion though. Concubinage + Divine Blood = eugenics heaven. They can also get the rare demonspawn event.
A powerful thing that's relatively easy to do is also to start as Byzantine empire, put a daughter on the throne, conquer a Shia duchy in holy war, move capital to that duchy, convert to Shia, move capital back to Constantinople, and marry a Sayyid. Keep your demesne christian so you collect extra taxes. Then conquer what you need to reform Roman Empire, convert Rome to Shia, convert to local religion of Constantinople (Orthodox), mend schism, restore Roman Empire, move capital to Rome (which is now Shia), convert back to Shia and create Shia Caliphate. Congratulations you are now Augustus, Sayyid, and Caliph. Your vassals love you and you have an amazing set of CBs to spread the empire to the far corners of the world. And because you mended the schism all of Europe is now Orthodox so you don't need to worry about crusades. Bonus points if you somehow manage to adopt Russian culture too (Russians have strongest levy and best HI retinue).
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What is the best?
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.
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They are since you get a +20% to the attack and defense of heavy infantry. At least if you already have a heavy infantry based retinue like Druzhina, that can make all the difference. In PeterKirby's retinue guide, he did the math and a Zunist Druzhina had a 93 or 94 % survivability rate and a high damage output, which puts it in the same league as your pike retinues as long as you're defending.
If I had to guess, it probably does work out to be similar but for a heavy infantry retinue specifically the optimal combination is supposed to be with Zunism as far as I know. Realistically though, I probably go with Reformed Slavic for the reason you just mentioned.
In that case,
Baltic cultures and Romuva or Fino-Ugric and Suomenusko is relatively the same as Slavic Russian.
Baltic Warriors got similar bonus with Druzhina, and since Romuva and Suomenusko both are defensive religion, they got the same +80% bonus in their religion provinces.
When I reformed the Romuva religion, even HRE next door and his Medieval-Wermacht consisting of HC retinues was no match for me. I start at 1066.
Baltic cultures and Romuva or Fino-Ugric and Suomenusko is relatively the same as Slavic Russian.
Baltic Warriors got similar bonus with Druzhina, and since Romuva and Suomenusko both are defensive religion, they got the same +80% bonus in their religion provinces.
When I reformed the Romuva religion, even HRE next door and his Medieval-Wermacht consisting of HC retinues was no match for me. I start at 1066.
Zunists have the best Heavy Infantry, but Slavs, Romuva and Soumensko are better at defending their homelands.
The bonus to attack and defence doesn't mean you get a bonus when attacking and a bonus when defending. The bonuses apply in all battles. Bonus attack simply means your troops kill enemies faster than normal. And bonus defence means your troops die slower than normal.
So overall Zunist HI is the best (bonus can be used both for defending your own territory and for conquering your neighbours), but specifically for defending Slavic/Romuva/Soumensko are unrivaled thanks to their huge 80% bonus when fighting in a province of their own religion.
Baltic Warriors are a little weaker than Druzhina. They get +30% defence and +10% morale while Druzhina gets +50% defense, +20% morale, and +10% attack. However, with all the other bonuses that get piled on top (technology, cultural building, combat tactcs) the difference isn't that big.
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Scottish Romuva Feudal.
Conquer Jerusalem somehow, let them come. Schitron Vult.
Conquer Jerusalem somehow, let them come. Schitron Vult.
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Goverment type Iqta
Religion Sunni
Culture Scottish
Succesion law Turkish or Nomination Primo/Ultimo
Iqta, you can have and inherit both castles and mosques.
Religion, invasion CB, revoke duchies, decadence mechanics, charity, overtaxing other religions.
Culture, OP retinues, cool names.
Succession control.
Religion Sunni
Culture Scottish
Succesion law Turkish or Nomination Primo/Ultimo
Iqta, you can have and inherit both castles and mosques.
Religion, invasion CB, revoke duchies, decadence mechanics, charity, overtaxing other religions.
Culture, OP retinues, cool names.
Succession control.
I did not know that.
I'm always running Tengri hordes, so I never bother with Islam in that situation (look, Tengri is +30% to light cavalry, so you can see why I stick with the old gods in this case).
Wait, if MRs don't have decadence, and hordes don't have decadence, then would it make sense to run a horde until it gets boring, then settle as a republic in, say, Constantinople and keep ignoring decadence?