Avoiding Holy Wars?

[Baked Potato]

How do you deal with being surrounded by powerful neighbours who start holy wars against you? Is it worth it to change your faith to stop the holy wars?

[snuggleform]

I switch faiths. If you're bordering a faith, or you conquered a county with a particular faith, it costs a measly 250 piety to convert to it even if it's a different religious family (normally has a huge penalty to conversion cost).

Example: as Emir the muslim clan leader, I snipe a county in the Italian peninsula that is Orthodox, then switch to Orthodoxy. This means all the catholics in Europe like France and HRE for example can't launch holy wars on me (orthodoxy has ecumenism special doctrines). It does mean the other muslims can now holy war me, but they are much more manageable in Emir's starting position at least.

edit; Another tip: normal holy wars (not the great/directed/undirected ones) have to be immediately bordering you, so try not to border them. This is unlike say tribal/clan conquests which have a huge range and don't require adjacency. A tip for avoiding great holy wars is to avoid the holy sites of other faiths.

[sfbistimg]

Just take their lands no reason to convert to their religion.

I Varangian Adventure into Coast Line of France. Then Counquerd Brittany and while trying to take apart West Francia England started spamming Holy wars against me. So I took Cornwall, then I took Kingdom of Wales and then I took Kingdom of England.

After that the Holy wars from England were no more. Then Since I had most of the Empire I took Ireland and Scotland.