Religious Conversion

**Gavani** · July 06, 2011, 05:16 AM

If you already have a good economy do you execute populations of Non Catholic factions to prevent rebellion?

Does this increase the speed at which you can convert the population? I am not really sure how the conversion works. Is it that a priest converts a certain percentage each turn regardless of the population or is he going to convert a smaller population more quickly.

I get that religious buildings have a precentage conversion rate but if someone could explain this to me i would be greatful!

I think that you definately seem to get less rebellion if only because the leaders increase their dread.

Any thoughts?

**... where did it run?** · July 06, 2011, 05:31 AM

I never exterminate. Allways occupie. If you are about to take over a city with huge population, send priests to convert part of population to your religion before you invade.

**skofuz** · July 06, 2011, 06:45 AM

I exterminate non-catholic cities. Just don't overdo it, like exterminating 4 cities in a couple of turns. But doing it once in a while is allright. And having a King with high chivalry (+5 at least) should be a priority because it will boost your relations with other factions immensely.

About the priest conversion rate I really can't say. My question is why do you care? Just get whatever number of priests you can to the province you want to convert and wait.

**Gavani** · July 06, 2011, 06:59 AM

Originally Posted by skofuz

I exterminate non-catholic cities. Just don't overdo it, like exterminating 4 cities in a couple of turns. But doing it once in a while is allright. And having a King with high chivalry (+5 at least) should be a priority because it will boost your relations with other factions immensely.

About the priest conversion rate I really can't say. My question is why do you care? Just get whatever number of priests you can to the province you want to convert and wait.

The reason i brought it up is about efficiency. If i am at war with someone i want to advance and eliminate them as quickly as possible leaving the minimum amount of troops in the region.(Particularly if you have won a large battle as i don't want them to have a chance to increase army sizes significantly).

I don't want rebellion in the regions i have just taken using precious resources that would be better spent fighting the original enemy.

In the muslim regions particularly i find that you can have quite large stacks appear of advanced troops if you move too fast. This is why i was wondering whether it is more efficient or not just to kill most of them!

**_Elysium_** · July 06, 2011, 07:20 AM

Send a wave of priests into the lands you want to occupy before the invasion, and get a network of spies up in the enemy lands to give you plenty of warning of enemy stacks. Some trained assassins couldn't hurt either. Well, they're there to hurt, but ... you know what I mean.

I prefer to sack newly-taken settlements, detaching some militia troops from a column following the main force to act as garrison.

**skofuz** · July 06, 2011, 07:53 AM

Originally Posted by Gavani

The reason i brought it up is about efficiency. If i am at war with someone i want to advance and eliminate them as quickly as possible leaving the minimum amount of troops in the region.(Particularly if you have won a large battle as i don't want them to have a chance to increase army sizes significantly).

I don't want rebellion in the regions i have just taken using precious resources that would be better spent fighting the original enemy.

In the muslim regions particularly i find that you can have quite large stacks appear of advanced troops if you move too fast. This is why i was wondering whether it is more efficient or not just to kill most of them!

I see. Well what I do when I want to shut someone up is unleash two very professional armies on them and just blitz their cities and leave them there to rebel. The rebels will take the city with a full stack so the AI can't just stroll in and take it back. And exterminating a few of the cities will give you ample cash to spend on your economy and war efforts.

But mostly I just occupy a city and slowly convert them. Took me about 25 turns I think with 6 or 7 priests with a cathedral to convert Jerusalem to 90% catholics... So it's a lengthy process. And to be honest you wont make that much money from muslim settlements because you need to garrison them so much with troops to increase public order. If you want rich lands I suggest coastal cities in europe and timbuktu with its very rich resources you can put your merchants on. On average each turn my merchants make 4000 florins.

**Gavani** · July 06, 2011, 08:52 AM

Thanks for your thoughts people. I will put your suggestions into practice.

**FightInTheShade** · July 06, 2011, 10:20 AM

I exterminate Muslim and Orthodox (Byzantine) populations. The only cities I never exterminate are sacred Holy Lands such as Jerusalem, Constantinople, etc. etc.

**dannyalex** · July 06, 2011, 12:03 PM

Only Sack
Sacking decreases population ,less chance rebel vs u
and comes with major income...money money money

i exterminate only specific Factions,especially the Papal States,Venice,Hungary,Turkey and of course rebels

**spartan dude** · July 06, 2011, 12:18 PM

I only exterminate cities that will either prove to be rather rebellions, or cities that have rebelled against me (no mercy to traitors)

**Jianadaren** · July 06, 2011, 03:30 PM

You never need to exterminate. Sacking is a good idea sometimes, but you can occupy any settlement safely if you take the proper precautions.

As stated above you can:

-flood the region with religious agents immediately before the invasion
-use assassins or armies to destroy enemy religious agents

Once you have the settlement you should
-station high dread or high chivalry governor (popularity and law and order traits help too)
-set taxes low
-repair all public order buildings (including walls)
-build only religious buildings, and then build only public order buildings
-spam religious agents and militia

If you do all/most of this then you won't have to garrison your army there for very long (probably <5 turns)

**xcorps** · July 06, 2011, 07:07 PM

One quality army for attack, one militia army for occupation...

**PrestigeX** · July 07, 2011, 01:36 AM

Slow and Steady, across the land. I usually fill every province with a priest/imam and atleast the bare minimum of churches/mosques.

Sending characters to travel helps make them better - good for getting Cardinals later on. Kill heretics with, and also in a few places you want to build the bigger churches. You can easily make your faction have a larger share of Cardinals.
I also find that the Crusade , but ESPECIALLY Jihad is an awesome tool of this game , in early period much valued Mercs, but later on economic benefit of putting half your troops in free-upkeep, improves involved characters, new province - hopefully nice - and the chance of other Holy Warrior's Armies will kick some 'behind' against the target faction.

I would say that religion should spread evenly in your lands, where you expand - but sometimes it's good to hold a NEW settlement a while, bring a priest there but not in teh city - wait a few turns till its subdued then build church. (sometimes check by letting your Governor/Fam Member out of the place with some of the army for a 'pulse' )

**Gavani** · July 07, 2011, 04:55 AM

Interesting. Thank you all for your taking the time to give me advice. Overall it seems to me then from what you all say is that there is little point in exterminating them other than to gain dread or to be spiteful. (good a reason as any!).

I will use a combination of the tactics you have provided.

Take the fight to the enemy people!

**Aeratus** · July 07, 2011, 09:47 AM

I usually sack by default, and exterminate if there is a huge city with a hostile religion and keeping public order is impractical.

However, in my Americas campaign in Kingdoms, I exterminated 95% of the native settlements I captured as the Spanish, because the native buildings are unusable by the Spanish and plague would come in and wipe out the population even if they were not exterminated.

The Crusades campaign also requires some extermination, I'd say, because the population growth is modified and cities can easily have 30-40k population.

**Tidybeard** · July 07, 2011, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by Aeratus

I usually sack by default, and exterminate if there is a huge city with a hostile religion and keeping public order is impractical.

Exactly what I do. Sack it, baby!*

* - unless the population is so low it brings no money, either in the form of the one-off bonus, or future taxation. Sacking under those circumstances would just be silly.

**Aeratus** · July 07, 2011, 12:41 PM

Right. Sacking is pretty good for the mid and late game, because it gives you a lot of money AND reduces public disorder by just enough that it won't rebel. However, In the early game, I think it's prudent to occupy because you'll be able to get high chivalry generals to increase population growth, which is crucial at that stage. Better faction reputation also helps getting the trade rights early on.