Which is the best religion in the game?

[lucipher the malevol]

which religion is the best in the game? islam, catholic or orthodox because the catholic factions have to obey the pope, the orthodox factions don't have any real religious figure head or any ability to go on crusade and finally islam have no real religious figure head but do have the ability to go on jihad , so which is the best?:hmmm:

[Frodo52]

They all have their moments.

I lean towards Catholicism. If you coddle the pope and let your Catholic enemies get excommunicated you can order a cruscade against a nice wide swath of potential targets. Plus you can actually pick up semi-useful cruscade units. Jihad units tend to be, well, fodder or extra garrison units at best.

[Domnul Ceaşcă]

Their all good, if you know how to use religion as a tool.
Catholic - Go on crusades, win rep for catholic factions, the general who won the crusade gets some pretty usefull character boost, and then, you could also heavily influence the papal elections to your advantage.
Orthodox - You will not have any inquisitors spooking around your empire burning everyone who they consider "heretic" and if I remember well, the conversion rate of orthodoxism is much bigger as the rest.
Islam - You can launch jihads, from which your general\generals could benefit heavily, apparently you win rep, at least for the muslim factions, and (i don`t think this is true but so it seems) you have a better chance of having a solid alliance with other muslim factions, and apparently your lands will always be "Inquisitor free".

[vonKrysiak]

All have strong sides: orthodox is the easiest one but then it can get quite boring as you have no jihads no crusades or missions from pope but then you can attack anyone you want. Muslims have it hard because of the crusades rolling through their countries, and then catholic nations have to obey the pope or get excomunicated. So in the end it really depends on the type of game you like ;-)

[antaeus]

the catholics if you have a good rep with the pope.

i often acompany going to war with a diversionary crusade on my enemies.

islam has jihads but theres rarely more than 2 factions joining you.. but with a crusade you can have 5 or 6 factions join you.

[malcolm mcdowell]

islam has jihads but theres rarely more than 2 factions joining you..

not really surprising that... but i;ve seen a crusade which basically everyone joined in the end - there were like 12 different factions armies just milling around at the end after only one of them got it, and the rest didnt know what to do...

[Imperator_Maximus]

Non-Catholic factions are my fav. No pope to bug you if you try to attack factions of the same religon as you, which always hinders my Catholic empires.

[Mansa musa]

islam

[Wheelchair]

Personally, I try to stick to non-catholic Factions, Seeing as the pope pisses me off =P

My favorite Non-Catholic Faction would have to be the Byzantines, Their just wicked =)

[Captain Spanky]

Moorish Islam is just good fun. All alone, surrounded by Catholics and with Jihads that can be called rather regularly. What you have there is your ticket to control of the Iberian peninsula, as well as a great chance to make some good generals.

[antaeus]

i love the christian guard the moors have... they have some nice late era units. when i play as them i love to try to remake the caliphate, and head to egypt. this always involves religious conflict with sicily. and the pope loves to call crusades on tunis

[Surgeon]

Catholicism if you send a dilomat or princess to the Pope early enough in the game.

Diplomat: "Hi! My name's Jason! Let's be friends! Here's 50 bucks as a gift!"

Pope: "Why thanks you for the 50 bucks! +rep! You can attack anyone now and I'll call a crusade on them."

*Your faction promptly attacks another catholic faction*

Other faction: OMFG!!1!WTF??!

Pope: X-COMMED *****!!

[Emperor_Palpy]

Diplomat: "Hi! My name's Jason! Let's be friends! Here's 50 bucks as a gift!"

Pope: "Why thanks you for the 50 bucks! +rep! You can attack anyone now and I'll call a crusade on them."

*Your faction promptly attacks another catholic faction*

Other faction: OMFG!!1!WTF??!

Pope: X-COMMED *****!!

Its funny because its true!

(the pope is irritating to the extreme, but easy enough to manipulate. I find a level 10 assassin near Rome does wonders for keeping him in line. If not, I take Rome, then gift him a far-off city for exile. Exiled him to Jerusalem once, and gave him Acre for good measure. They were far out of my way, and if he wanted the Holy Land, he got it. The number of Jihads were ridiculous!)

I must say Catholism(Orthodox would be good, but they're constantly under attack by everybody)

[Sher Khan]

For heretic slaying, the Catholics can achieve cardinal status, which makes them immune to falling to heresy. Muslim imams, no matter their piety, are always at risk of falling to heresy, and I am not sure if Orthodox Bishops are equally at risk.


For conversion, it depends on your area. Anywhere in Europe is Catholic hegemony. If you send in a Catholic priest, you can be sure to see priests from so many other factions roaming around giving you a hand.

The Middle East is plainly Muslim territory, and although there are only two factions, you can expect plenty of imams to help out should you be Egypt or the Turks.

The Orthodox, although sandwiched or overwhelmed by Catholic/Muslim neighbors, have ikoner studios that greatly amplify their conversion rate.

[loquar]

As has been said all 3 have their benefits and detractions. It all depens on how you like to play.

Personally I dont like being pushed about by the pope but I do like to be able to crusade/jihad so for me its Islam.

[Ged]

The holy trinity of all three does it for me.

[TheJoker]

Catholicism, Makes diplomats and priests even more useful, imo.

[The Bronze boy]

No favs here, making Rome Orthidox or islam both brings equal satisfaction tho

[Evolution]

Islamic factions are the best to pay.

You can call Jihads (crusade)

There is no excommunications

There's no Pope.

[29 days later]

I've only played as Cathloic nations but I generally ingore what the Pope says and just get on with the job of conquering the world.