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Do you people train priests? Personally, I stopped doing it after the very first campaign. What's the use, anyway? They are supposed to keep up the zeal in a province. But who needs this zeal? Very often I have a province at 0 zeal but 150% (an even more) loyalty because of spies, armies and what not. So it doesn't rebel. And contrary, high zeal of the province does not keep it from rebellion if the loyalty is low. Or are loyalty and zeal connected somehow?
I think you've got it wrong: priests and bishops raise levels of their Christian faith. Provinces have differing levels of faith in the various religions, and these pieces are useful when you need to align newly-conquered regions to that of your leader; indirectly increasing happiness.
IIRC it's inquisitors and cardinals that raise zeal, at least until they start burning people. They can be used to get rid of generals with low piety. Zeal is what makes people join a crusade when it passes through. It might also affect the nature of an uprising, should a province have cause to rebel, ie. you get Christians revolting rather than just peasants.
Thus, priests/bishops prepare the ground before an invasion or help to integrate new territory. Inquisitors/cardinals can be used offensively to cause problems for the AI.
Priests, bishops, alims, cardinals, and imams all work to convert province populations to their respective religion, so they will have an effect on the religious percentages. The religious makeup of a province will affect the happiness. These agents can also be used to request alliances or ceasefires.
Zeal is increased by the presence of inquisitors, grand inquisitors, and imams. Zeal is important when preparing the way for crusades and jihads. The higher the zeal, the more recruits the marker will pickup while it sits in the province. Higher zeal also gives the inquisitors a better chance to try someone for heresy. If you play an Orthodox faction, zeal is fairly worthless and you probably want it as low as possible everywhere.
Religious percentages, zeal, and governor's piety are tied together to affect province happiness, but I don't know the exact formula. Of course, there is a problem if the faction religion isn't dominant within a province. There is also a penalty if the zeal of a province is high and the governor's piety is low, or vice-versa.
I generally don't play the game with a heavy focus on religion, but you do need at least the basic priests/bishops/alims running around converting newly conquered territories. If you want to use crusade/jihads heavily or hammer your Catholic rivals with the Inquisition, zeal becomes a lot more important.
Thus, summing it up, if you play catholic factions priest are pretty useless until the game is well advanced (i.e. until you are out of catholic lands and start conquering non-catholics). Am I right?
HiQuote:
Originally Posted by Gilrandir
I disagree. As a catholic faction priests:
1) are useful in all your own provinces as they contribute to happiness;
2) IIRC they are cheaper than spies but they (definitely) allow you to see what's in a province. And they are not 'taken out' by border forts;
3) they can contribute to formenting discontent in non-catholic provinces by changing the majority religion;
4) they have other 'emissary' functions as mentioned above.
Personally, I consider priests the single most useful agent. Given the paramount significance of religion in the period in question I think MTW very nicely simulates/captures this by making priests as useful as they are.
Best regards
Victor
Sapere aude
Horace
Both priests and cardinals also lower the success chance of inquisition trials in the province they are in, so if the other catholic factions are burning your generals they can help out some.