What’s your preferred religion playing as the Romans? [Archive]

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Al: Total Gore

10-28-2005, 19:19

Pick your poison. I usually destroy the Pagan temples and go for Christianity since the emperor is already Christian... but sometimes I regret doing so after looking at the bonuses for Mithraism Temples.

Dutch_guy

10-28-2005, 19:23

I too go for christianity, for the exact same reason as you.

Otherwise you could get massive disloyalty and you don't want that to happen, especially in the early stages of the campaign.

:balloon2:

Antagonist

10-28-2005, 21:00

I've only played one Roman campaign (in BI) as the ERE, and I too chose Christianity because it seemed to have the advantage.

Saying that, though, there was still a lot of religious unrest and rebellion. Sorting out the whole religion issue seems to be a major headache for the Imperial factions whichever one you choose.

Whenever I get round to playing a campaign as the WRE I'll probably choose Paganism to see how that goes.

Antagonist

Haudegen

10-28-2005, 22:44

I prefer christianity too. What I like best about it (in the game ~;) is, that boosts population growth. It´s not so much the extra money the additional people bring. I just don´t like it when I can´t reach the 24.000 people limit in some settlements due to the poor farming land in certain regions.

Mithras-Temples are IMHO unneccessary. Usually you can find equivalent temples in newly conquered settlements. Take a turn or two to retrain your front troops in that town, before you replace the temple with a chruch.

After your main combat forces have been blessed that way, temples with Exp-bonusses are mostly obsolet.

Bastard Operator

ThatMaskedMan

10-29-2005, 03:32

I definitely prefer Christianity, for a couple reasons.

1. Your emperor starts Christian, so sticking with Christianity means you don't have to deal with the 10% public order penalty from the faction leader having a different religion in the first couple turns, which are definitely the critical ones for the Western Roman Empire.

2. Catholic Priests. The morale bonuses they give are simply awesome. They can really help stiffen your main battle line, especially your left over Limitanei from the early turns.

3. Ancillaries/Traits. Christianity gives access to a number of high quality ancillaries and traits, such as saints, abbesses, and bishops. There are also a lot of ancillaries and traits which give bonuses to Christian conversion, which makes pacifying cities that belong to other religions much easier.

Vulcano

10-31-2005, 05:36

Straight Christian for the East. For the West, I like to keep the area around Colonia Agrippina devoted to Mithras. There's four cities around there (including Vicus Franki and Vicus Alemanni) that have an easy time getting to large city level but a hard time getting to huge level because of low base farming. This is a good thing. The unrest problems are neglible, which allows you to train up Mithras bonused troops in mid game (to be upgraded with foundry forged gear at Avaricum or Ravenna, depending on where they are headed). They can rapidly combine in single turn, from 4 turns of recruiting you get a full stack, experienced, and morale boosted army. Another bonus in the area is keeping Vicus Saxones pagan and using the temple of Ull's bonus to train archers (the only way the Romans can get gold level attack). Whenever you have the odd Pagan family member show up, they go govern that region.

PseRamesses

10-31-2005, 11:44

Well I guess I´ve to go with C too. However I´m not fully informed about all of the differences between the two. Has anyone complied a doc/ list of all the differences between christianity and paganism? Furthermore, has anyone found a "templeguide" or thread on the topic like with RTW vanille? Appreciate all enlightenment.

Garvanko

10-31-2005, 12:22

Christianity in the centre, Paganism at the front.

That poll should have an option for using both, as you can use both.

Dutch_guy

10-31-2005, 16:06

The Stranger

10-31-2005, 19:01

Christianity adds law and exlsusive soldiers for some factions.
Paganism adds bonusses for armies

Viking

10-31-2005, 19:16

I always go with christianity no matter what faction I play(except from the Sassanids of course). It provides more of a challenge, and it`s simply fun to convert settlements.

Rodion Romanovich

10-31-2005, 22:41

Christianity, because it has more happiness bonus. But I'd love to play a campaign as an emperor going back to paganism everywhere once...

Somebody Else

11-02-2005, 01:14

econ21

11-02-2005, 03:12

I just go with the flow - whatever is the majority religion of a town, I consolidate that through the appropriate temples. I want to stabilise loyalty asap and then can't be bothered to convert thereafter (fighting barbarians is more fun). As WRE, that approach means that most places apart from Italy and African are pagan. I don't find the 10% loyalty hit a big problem.

I guess going for Christianity would add to the challenge, so maybe I'll try that next.

Al: Total Gore

11-02-2005, 19:40

Paganism - played two campaigns as WRE (I really like the Romans). Won both, of course. Had a lot less unrest, and fewer renegade generals (except when my emperor and his heir decided to turn traitor, along with my best frontline stack) as a Pagan. Plus, I honestly do think Christianity is one of the worst things to have happened to the Western world.

I'm thinking of starting a new campaign as the WRE and bring back paganism (I just have to make sure my heir is Pagan). My only gripe with Christianity is that if you view the Churches/Basilicas in the battlefield view screen, they don't match other Roman architecture at all. They look pretty awful compared to the pagan temples and out of place with all other buildings. I suppose it is a fairly accurate portrayal of a decline from the golden age of Roman architecture.