Religion

[Specialist290]

If my understanding of Japanese history is correct, Christianity is supposed to arrive sometime around 1542 with the coming of the Portuguese traders.

My question is, in-game, how is religion handled? Do any provinces automatically convert when the event hits, or is it random? (If the former, I think I can venture a guess as to which.) Also, can Jesuit Priests actively convert other provinces, or are they simply special emissaries for Christian daimyo?

Sorry if my questions seem uninformed, but I haven't had as much time to play the game as I would have liked, and the manual doesn't give any real details on the aspects I want to know about.

[Martok]

Provines won't convert to Christianity until/unless you actually start building churches. As for the priests, I don't think they can convert provinces to Christianity. I can't be certain, however, as I've always remained Buddhist regardless of which clan I was playing.

[Derfasciti]

I've played as a Christian and it seems that yes, you definitely need a church for it to get started, and to slowly convert your people too. However, I don't believe priests can convert other provinces not under your control. I might be wrong in this regard though since I've not played the game in quite some time. My best advice is to experiment.

[Gregoshi]

I'll add to the confusion on this question by saying that I do believe the priest helps convert a province's population to Christianity when they are present in that province. This can help cause unrest if the owning clan is still Buddhist. Alas, my worthless STW strategy guide offers no such help in resolving this question.

[Drisos]

Priest do convert people to christianity in any region they are in. A priest or a church will slowly convert the people in the region it is in.
So, like Shinobi's, you can use a couple of them to create revolts in other Clan's territories. This will be buddist revolts, containing WM, so you can cause real trouble with it. But there's one problem, priest are very easily killed by ninja's. And there's no way to protect them in enemy territory.

IIRC - a Cathedral doesn't only convert in it's own region, but in all regions owned by the Clan that owns the Cathedral.

When I converted to christianity, I built a church in lots of regions, in the ones I didn't have one, I had a priest. After a couple of years I managed to convert the entire population.

I think a Buddist Temple in a region does work the other way around, if there are any christians in the region, they may be converted. But this goes automatically as well I believe. If there's no army, no buildings in a region, if there are any christians in it, they will turn back to Buddism.

But it never occurs the other way around, iirc.. people are never suddenly converted to christianity if the region is owned by buddism, there's no church or priests in it. However as soon as you accept the portugese offer slight parts of the population turn christian, following your example.

I've been involved in some situations regarding all this in the past, so I'm pretty sure of it. However not for the 100%, it's been quite a while ago I might not recall correctly what I experienced.

Gah! in the coming holidays I'm going to play some STW again, it's about time. been way too long ago since my last campaign.

[Specialist290]

Thanks for the explanations, Drisos (and everyone else). This should prove most helpful in my future games.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Cathedrals have the largest effect. A couple years after building one (or two) your provinces will be 100% christian and neighboring enemies provinces will be 60% or so.

If you convert while having buddhist temples you will almost certainly get revolts in those provinces so it's best to destroy the temples.