Zoroastrian strategies

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So my strategy as the Karen, has been to rush in and attack the people the Sassinids are attacking. This takes a lot of precision to get it to work right. Usually I win a battle in the nearest provice, assault their bases and then spread my forces out. If you pay attention you get the bonus of the Sassinids helping you in castle assaults. Usually I borrow money from the Jews. Bonus in this scenario is if Khiva or another weak arab lord rushes to help Tarbistan. Win a couple battles against them and then you get two to three more provinces. This also usually slows the sassinids down.

After this it is usually a matter of luck and timing. Wait until Khiva goes to war with one of its neighbors or suffers some kind of internal revolt. The best revolts are the Zoroastrian ones, as they provide you with an ally after the war.

Graudally expand your empire, going for the kingdom of Khiva. One of the most valuable strategies is borrowing money from the Jews to pay for mercenaries in a defensive war, winning the war to get money, and then paying it back. Also, make sure you never border the Abbasids. Bordering them is trouble.

I am doing this right now in Ironman, so I will see how it goes.

 

[drunkmonk2]

The easiest strategy I've found for a Zoroastrian Persia is to start as a Zoroastrian king of Saffarid with a the character creator and then convert all of my vassal which is actually pretty easy.

 

[drunkmonk2]

"borrow money from the jews" lol

 

[Rubidium]

There's also what happened in my current game (I wanted to see how the new map changed Karen's starting position).
The Saminids, Tahirids and Saffarids all got hit with massive Zoroastrian/Peasant results basically within the first month, which wiped out their starting troops (and a good chunk of their land). The easiest Zoroastrian start I've ever seen (the hardest part was actually conquering the newly formed Zoroastrian states, since they can't be Holy Warred). Add in the random Norse adventurer who somehow took Antioch (I'm still not sure how that happened), and my starting ruler's grandson being the spawn of Ahriman, and it's certainly been the most unusual game of CK2 I've ever played.

 

[wickermoon]

Pledge allegiance to khiva -> faction for elective -> faction for pushing your new claim to the throne -> win warfor the throne easily -> force convert ex-king -> send chancellor to improve opinion -> wait until the saffarid attack india -> lend jewish money if necessary -> attack saffarid -> ??? -> profit :3

 

[darthfanta]

Start as the Saffarids. Conquer everywhere. Move your capital to a Zoroastrian area. Change religion to Zoroastrian as soon as you have 1000 piety. The Zoroastrians have won the game.

 

[Wakizashi]

Another strategy that I used for loads of money was having loads of priest class marzobans (counts) and satraps (dukes), and then put Temple Tax on maximum. Unfortunately, that seems no longer to work in a later patch, since when I try to land any more priest it says I'm already at around 500% or so of the maximum allowed number of landed priests :rofl: It does still bring me huge amounts of money though, since the priests that were landed before the patch banned the practice keep ruling and are constantly followed by new priests.
That way, I have the money pouring in with zero feudal taxes for my nobles to pay.

 

[GothicEmperor]

Start as the Saffarids. Conquer everywhere. Move your capital to a Zoroastrian area. Change religion to Zoroastrian as soon as you have 1000 piety. The Zoroastrians have won the game.

Your capital is already Zoroastrian at the start of the game. So, the only obstacle is getting the required amount of piety, which shouldn't be too hard as a Muslim.

 

[Ragnar_Darkmane]

Playing Karen is too oldschool and converting as Saffarids is for losers. Real men play Ironman, convert to Zoroastianism and invade the Samanids and Saffarids as Harald Fairhair, slowly restoring the Norse Persian empire !

 

[Chyll]

Your capital is already Zoroastrian at the start of the game. So, the only obstacle is getting the required amount of piety, which shouldn't be too hard as a Muslim.

Yeah, this works, and the conversion through the realm in my most recent run goes pretty smoothly.

But then the Abbasids get mighty testy...

 

[Damarrocarion]

But then the Abbasids get mighty testy...

Until Abbasids have whole Arabia, there is no way they can match Zoroastrian Saffarids.

 

[Thrasophius]

My strategy is continuous war. Play as karen get your forces on the samnid border and wait for them to war dec the Indian state next door to them. Take over Khiva and keep it all for yourself then immediately declare war for syr darya. Then take zhetysu, break truce and take the rest of Turkestan and form the kingdom. Around this time the Saffirids should be declaring war on you to take dihistan. Cause as much damage to the Saffirid army as possible (to kill off their event troops) but keep a reserve force to deal with the saminid counter war. Lose dihistan to gain a 10 year truce. Fight off the samnids if they attack to bankrupt them and use the gained money to hire mercs break truce and take samarkand.

Use the 10 year truce to systematically take over all the samnid lands, save your cash for mercs and wait for the Saffarids to attack a big enemy like India. If you manage to win (you should be blitzing the provinces before their army can return) give enough time for their army to march back to the front line of their other enemy and break truce. Your goal is to take Merv, Zabulistan and Sistan from the Saffririds to split the realm down the middle. With the new attrition changes the saffirids will have to march their troops across your land to whatever war they are fighting so they continuously lose troops to attrition thus they are always in a weakened state. After that you have broken the Saffirids back and now I use them as a pet to buffer the lands between me and the Caliph.

 

[Specchief]

Since 2.1, keeping Zoroastrianism alive via the Karen dynasty has become all but impossible, since the map borders have been replaced with even more Sunni blobs, and the event troop numbers haven't increased any.


While I'm sure it's possible to do via mods or exploits, the only real way to suceed with Zoroastrianism now is to create a Zoroastrian ruler in a Muslim caliphate.

 

[utkubayrakk]

The North Korean mode was very useful to increase the power of Karen dynasty. But since the new update, it became impossible to have huge armies

 

[GothicEmperor]

While I'm sure it's possible to do via mods or exploits, the only real way to suceed with Zoroastrianism now is to create a Zoroastrian ruler in a Muslim caliphate.

Sultanate/realm, you mean? The Saffarids aren't caliphs; they'd wish they were.

 

[Tufto]

Is Gilan any easier?

People seem to have managed to do it in the Empire threads, so Karen seems doable, if much more difficult.

 

[Damarrocarion]

Since 2.1, keeping Zoroastrianism alive via the Karen dynasty has become all but impossible, since the map borders have been replaced with even more Sunni blobs, and the event troop numbers haven't increased any.

While I'm sure it's possible to do via mods or exploits, the only real way to suceed with Zoroastrianism now is to create a Zoroastrian ruler in a Muslim caliphate.

Oh please, it is not that hard. It's just bit slower than usual to expand. Steppe is wide open for taking and in fact only reason I have not done it is because I only recently secured a holy site and until that, county conversion is quite slow. And bear in mind, in this screenshot i'm actually doing fairly badly as my plan for swear fealty - elective actually went belly up due to religious revolts which turned Samarkand & Merv into independent realms and I did not get them immediately and had to nibble them from Saffarids at right times.

Is Gilan any easier?

People seem to have managed to do it in the Empire threads, so Karen seems doable, if much more difficult.

You can try the "Run away from Persia" tactic in Wiki.

Keeping your moral authority high should be priority for all budding Zoroastrians though. Otherwise county conversion takes way too long.

 

[Calahir]

Did someone try to play as any other zoroastrian ruler instead of Karen? I always start as a count to make my game harder and more interesting. The count who owns 2 provinces in Mazandaran seems to be quite easy start. Haven't tried it yet but I definitely must try to bring him glory.

 

[Damarrocarion]

Did someone try to play as any other zoroastrian ruler instead of Karen? I always start as a count to make my game harder and more interesting. The count who owns 2 provinces in Mazandaran seems to be quite easy start. Haven't tried it yet but I definitely must try to bring him glory.

That would Rostam Bavandid aka "The Last Sassanid". I think most people can agree that, if you wish to play without at some stage converting to Islam, it is one of the most challenging starts in the game. I have not taken the turkish count of Aral through Ironman but I figure he is quite an interesting option now that you can eat up Turkestan from within. Gilan is basicly like Bavandid but you get 2-3k free troops to help you push around a bit.

Before RoI, it was actually fairly easy to get Bavandids going as you could use Saffarid war against Tahirids to your advantage and take Khorasan. Something which is not really possible now. Bavandid could also do the "Swear fealty" to Khiva but right now it's not really possible. Add in fact that Saffarids can install medium crown law to Persia and Khivan shah could revoke your titles for free.

That being said, both leaders can convert at some stage and eat up surrounding Muslim realms before returning to proper religion.

 

[Nylaeth]

Since the recent patch, I've chosen to play as the Yagbuid dynasty in Turkestan. I converted to Zoroastrianism after I consolidated my hold on Turkestan and Khiva. This may not be ideal, as you are Turkish and Tengri in the beginning, but it would not be the first time a tribe of horsemen from the north laid claim to Persia. Plus, I like converting to Zoroastrianism from a pagan religion more than converting from Islam. It seems more plausible.