Islam: Cash flowing out of your ears, lots of kids + control over succession and lots of powerful casus belli's.
That's my two cents anyway.
That's my two cents anyway.
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Which religion is best? - Discussion
- Thread starter AwesomeKeith
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The pentarchy is an interesting feature but I never really thought there was anything advantageous about it. It really just means that even if there are no autocephalous patriarchs there will still be multiple religious heads to manage.
North Africa has 2 cultures, and one of them covers 3/4 of the area, and nearly half of the continent as a whole. The Middle East also has two cultures, one of which holding provinces that are almost useless, but dominating as the dominant political culture.
Iran, Iberia, Persia, and the Steppes are all much more varied, with 5+ potential cultures each. The Middle East needs to be reworked culturally.
So, back on topic: in terms of mechanics, definitely Germanic. Attrition bonus, prepared invasions, blots, raiding, river-sailing, coastal conquest CB, and, if you're Norse, runestones.
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That's not vanilla, though. I'm hoping Pdox fixes it in the vanilla.
I even made a suggestion about it, and recently fixed the map for North African cultures. Still haven't updated the "Africa" section of the OP to match it, though.
If we're talking most OP, that would be any branch of Islam if you know that you can avoid decadence by never landing anybody or you're otherwise a Merchant Republic, Horde, or Tribal that gets zero decadence.
Second place is Fraticelli since you're basically Catholicism's clone but with the power to attack the Catholics or anything else.
Third is probably leveraging the Dharmic faiths depending on your situation, especially if you happen to be a nomad or "horde" culture such as Mongol or Nahua that will always have other casus belli to work with.
Fourth is probably good ol' Reformed Germanic since it's purely an offensive religion like Islam.
Second place is Fraticelli since you're basically Catholicism's clone but with the power to attack the Catholics or anything else.
Third is probably leveraging the Dharmic faiths depending on your situation, especially if you happen to be a nomad or "horde" culture such as Mongol or Nahua that will always have other casus belli to work with.
Fourth is probably good ol' Reformed Germanic since it's purely an offensive religion like Islam.
Under conclave? Jainism hands down IMO.
The vassal opinion buff makes it easy to keep the council abolished, combined with the +3 demesne bonus means you can have a demesne of 15+ without breaking a sweat. + another 30% if you want to go gavelkind with your designated successor nomination.
And your vassals will still love you with your kingdom sized demesne.
+1 health or +5 vassal opinion from the sects is nice too. Use family focus instead of hunting when you need to stay alive.
The lack of a holy war CB is a downside, but you still have the subjugation CB. Because you have no council having free religious title revocation makes it a breeze.
The vassal opinion buff makes it easy to keep the council abolished, combined with the +3 demesne bonus means you can have a demesne of 15+ without breaking a sweat. + another 30% if you want to go gavelkind with your designated successor nomination.
And your vassals will still love you with your kingdom sized demesne.
+1 health or +5 vassal opinion from the sects is nice too. Use family focus instead of hunting when you need to stay alive.
The lack of a holy war CB is a downside, but you still have the subjugation CB. Because you have no council having free religious title revocation makes it a breeze.
Catholicism! Holy orders for days, son! Vassal pope! Request money! Request claim! Woooo!
Are those vassal bonuses really keeping vassals from demanding increased council power on a regular basis? I've got vassals with +50 relations to me joining "increase council power" factions all the time when I don't have empowered council-war declaration committee.