Conversion Mechanics

[Byzantium]

Just after a quick bit of info on religious conversion in provinces if anyone can spare a moment to explain how it works.

I played my last campaign as the Kievan Rus and noticed that in Kiev itself a Polish Priest with a much lower piety than my Bishop was forcing the number or Orthodox followers down considerably.Although Kiev only had a tier two church and one bishop (albeit higher piety) Catholicism was rising at an alarming rate.
Not a big problem obviously but im just wondering how it all actually works?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[Captain Irish]

Were the surrounding provinces largely orthodox as well? I've noticed that provinces adjacent to mine of a different religion will start to slowly gain points in my religion once my province is dominantly (90% +) my religion as well

[ryankaplan]

i believe there are two things that effect it, although i'm not sure of the exact formula.

1)The piety level of all priests in the region added together. The higher this number is, the faster the conversion will be. Eg, 2priests with 1 piety each will have the same effect as 1 priest with 2 piety level.

2)Bit harder to explain, but basicly, the less followers of the religion you're converting them to that there is, the faster the conversion process will be. As an example i will use islam. If you try to introduce islam to a province with 0% or very little muslim population, the conversion of people will be alot faster than a province which has already, say, 90% muslims. This is supposed to simulate the stubborness of the last group of people who refuse to change their religion (as it was in real history, take the conversion of jews conversion to christianity in iberia for example.) So therefore, in your situation, even though the catholic piety level may be lower, there are less or very little catholics in kiev, so the catholic priests piety level is multiplied by a percentage multiplier, making him more effective.

hope you understand, because now that i read what i've written, i certainly don't.

[delra]

I wish we were able to burn down enemy priests as heretics.

[Echad]

I wish we were able to burn down enemy priests as heretics.

Burning the Pope would be a better idea, as this f*ggot always tries to excommunicate me as soon as I begin to besiege the enemy Capital... =\

[delra]

That's why I like playing muslim and orthodox.

Anyway, try using catapults/trebuchets. You take cities in the first turn of the war and no pope can stop you.

Also, as it seems not everybody is aware of that, there are two types of ceasefire missions from the Pope. If he likes you, he will tell you to stop or your relations with him will drop. It's safe to ignore this one. If he dislikes you, he will give you the second type, when you can get an excommunication. This one is serious and it's much better to lay low in such case.

So either use catapults or bribe the Pope. Catapults are cheaper.

Now, what about real competition between religions? Is it possible to make all priests of one religion be treated as heretics by other religions?

[Echad]

That's why I like playing muslim and orthodox.

Anyway, try using catapults/trebuchets. You take cities in the first turn of the war and no pope can stop you.

Also, as it seems not everybody is aware of that, there are two types of ceasefire missions from the Pope. If he likes you, he will tell you to stop or your relations with him will drop. It's safe to ignore this one. If he dislikes you, he will give you the second type, when you can get an excommunication. This one is serious and it's much better to lay low in such case.

So either use catapults or bribe the Pope. Catapults are cheaper.

Now, what about real competition between religions? Is it possible to make all priests of one religion be treated as heretics by other religions?

In vanilla I had an excomunnication threat, if I don't stop a war with French (they were the aggressor)... I offered them a peace treaty, but they didn't even listen. They became excommunicated in the end.

[Byzantium]

Thanks a lot for the replies lads,always appreciated

I knew it had to be more than a 'My piety's higher than yours' scenario but some of that info never occured to me.
At least i know those meddling Polish priests arent leading the good citizens of Kiev astray with mathematical fiddles alone.