Preists, where shall I put them?

[Sir_Hawkwood]

Evening all,
My second question for the day:

I have more Preists than the first two seasons of Father Ted, but where do I put them for best effect?


Is there a benefit to assign them to an army, or general?
When placed in a settlement, do they improve the populations happiness?
Is there any difference to them being directly next to a settlement, or are they just as effective when merely in the same region?

If the answer to all is negative, then I might as well put them around the countryside to act as low grade watch towers, or spam the Mongels with them...

Thanks in advance.
SJH

[A. Smith]

The location of the priest changes nothing to his convertion rate.

However, it is more useful to put them in low [your religion] provinces since it converts a percentage of the non-[your religion] into [your religion], not a percentage of the entire province's population. what this means is if a priest with a 5% convertion rate goes in a 50% Christian 50% muslim province and 10,000 inhabitants, it will convert 5% of 50% of 10,000 to christianity, which is 250, or 2.5%. On the same token, it means that an imam in your lands will do more damage to you with equal convertion ratio, because, since the christianity levels are higher, he will convert more people per turn then your priest will (there are not many muslims to convert...yet).

[Sir_Hawkwood]

Thanks for your reply, A Smith.

I'm less interested in the use of preists in terms of conversion rates, and more in terms of any other benefits.

All of my lands are converted to my religion at around 98-100% Catholic, and I'm using my mass of priests in opposing religions lands to either ease an invasion or to create a rebel buffer zone, but I'm wondering if they have any other use... Particularly if they increase moral to an army their attatched to or eventualy give a piety boost to a general their attatched to?

Thanks again
SJH

[Pahoo]

I've heard you can get a piety boost on a general if you attach a priest to a general led army, but I have not tried this myself. Personally, I use priests to make sure that my heresy rate is low in my own provinces first then send them out looking for more heretics(go away inquisitors.) Lastly, I use them to convert other religions.:whip:

[PaulTa]

I don't have any test results to back up my findings, but generally I've found that keeping multiple priests in one province is better than spreading them out.

I think that rate of conversion has something to do with certain trait lines, such as the unorthodoxy and enemy of heresy lines. For example, if your priest is in a territory with an Imam and you aren't converting a portion of the population each turn, you're more likely to get "open minded" in my experience. On the other hand, if a handful of priests squash a heretical uprising in a province in a short amount of time, you're more likely to get the "enemy of heresy" line.

It would be hard to test I think, but I do believe that these traits are based off of conversion rates.

[katank]

Also, in terms of results, it's best to have them running through heathen territory. Due to piety gain being a factor of how much conversion occurs, it's best to send priests in giant, mobile wolf packs through the Holy Lands or some such place. This way, they gain piety very quickly. It also amplifies problems for the faction holding the lands.

[JCoyote]

Send them to the dark corners of the map.

Honestly, I send a lot of priests out, not only to explore land for me but also to start converting in low religion territories. They do gain piety for spreading their religion in places where it is in minority.

So I just send a lot of priests straight out to far places. Before I know it, I have the majority of cardinals and the papacy is my puppet. Enemy priests make fine assassin training, I can pop out a rookie to nail a heretic easy enough. But every Catholic faction benefits from having Pope on a Rope.

[Rhyfelwyr]

From what I've seen, Priests who stay in a province which is largely their religion, get traits which increase Orthodoxy. If they stay in a province which is mostly not their religion, they get traits which reduce Orthodoxy. Priests do better in packs, as every Priest involved in converting a region gets just as big a bonus through traits if he converts a province quickly as part of a pack, rather than over a longer period on his own. All Priests in the pack get the bonus. Its best to work like this in regions which are mostly not your religion, as Priests often then get "Growing Faith" and "Enemy of Heresy" traits, which add significantly to their Piety.

[Musashi]

I generally flood a rival religion's territory with them. There's no point keeping them at home when you can just max out your churches to do the conversion there... I only keep one back in my own territory for dealing with the occasional heretic who pops up, but even that's fairly rare...

[Sir_Hawkwood]

Gents,
Thank you for all your replys.

Its spam time...

Picture the scene...
Saturday Afternoon, Aleppo, Mr and Mrs Mongel are sitting on the sofa after a large meal of curried goat and naan bread.

There is a soft knock on the front door which starts the dog barking

Mr Mongel rises from his seat, calms the dog down, opens the door, and recoils in shock from the vision before him.

Crowding around his porch, dressed smartly and clutching large quantitys of leaflets and magazines stand 3 Preists, 2 Bishops and a Cardinal (who looks suspiciously feminine)

**Oh yes, Mr Mongel, Feaw is a weapon**

[PaulTa]

I would go fetch my axe.

[dopp]

Everything counts in large amounts. Priests need at least a 10% conversion rate in their territory to avoid falling to heresy and to start picking up good traits. Concentrate your priests to maximise their effects.

Btw, any province that becomes 100% of any religion will take a drastic hit to public order if a governor of that religion moves in. I'm not sure why this is.

[Von Nanega]

Yes, at least three priests in an area to convert. The 10% conversion rates help the ancillarys and trait for them. Additionally, as I get a cardinal or two they go back home to deal with witches and heritics. I don't like my fresh out of seminary priests to fall into heresy themselves.

[knoddy]

im a priest spammer, i generally try to keep 1 in each province even when its 100% catholic just in case a nasty witch/heretic pops up. i also tend to spam priests into muslim lands, this helps get their piety up and allows them to become cardinals. In all my camps so far, ive either spammed them around a crusade province i took, or in case of the spanish just spammed them into northern africa.

Best way to get high piety priests imo is this forumla.

Theoligians HQ, Catheral (not huge just normal), tehrefore priests trained in that province start with, tehre usual 1,2,3 piety traits, + 1 for being a bishop, +1 for the local theo guild, +2 for having Theo HQ leaving u with 5-7 piety priests comin fresh outta church school :P ive sucessfully done this in my 3 catholic camps so far although in scottish i didnt get HQ, Pope beat me :(

hope that all helps :D

Cheers Knoddy

[gardibolt]

I send packs of four priests by boat to Africa, where they sit in a province till it's about 40% Catholic, then move them to the next province.:smash:

I also send packs of four priests overland to the Byzantines, doing the same thing.:smash:

As the priests turn into cardinals, I send them back to Europe or my own lands elsewhere to become heretic destroying machines, replacing them with new priests to fuel the engines of religious domination.:juggle2:

Right now, I have controlled every pope except the first one in the game, and I hold every single seat on the College of Cardinals. :laugh4:

I still get slaughtered by Inquisitors, though.:dizzy2: :furious3: :skull:

[IvarrWolfsong]

I send them into low religion areas to gain piety so I can begin my Pope making Factory, The Ivarr Pope-o-matic 5000.