What would be the best Tribal norse, celtic or slavic start to create the best custom religion?

[luisedgm]

I wanna play a non-asian/african/indian (I am not familiar with that part of the map and its cultures/mechanics yet) warlord playthrough where the head of the dynasty is always the religious leader for maximum cheese, what would be a good start for this?

[Burt Reynolds]

I often go Norse, but as I have the Northern Lords DLC, some of these wont be available with only the base game.

There are plenty of people of different religions around Norway, Sweden and Denmark. (Catholic, Suomenusko, Slovianska Pravda, etc..) Executing them grants piety depending on their rank because the Asatru faith has the Gruesome Festivals tenet (50 for count, 100 for duke, 250 for king, 500 for emperor, 25 for anyone else). They also can embark for next to nothing, making capturing prisoners for executing much easier.

Holding a Grand Blót grants you piety as well depending on how much gold you spend on it.

Going on pilgrimages can also give several hundred piety depending on where you go.

Raising a runestone gives 100 piety without Northern Lords, and 250 with Northern Lords.

Combine all of that with the Learning Lifestyle, Theologian path and the Prophet perk (-50% Faith Creation and Reformation Cost), it will cost significantly less to create whatever religion you choose.

[R.T.]

Iceland, Iceland ducky, Northern Isle, Then you can have enough troops to conquer 3 holy site at England, Swede and Norway.
And riding the catholic city and church, you will have enough prisoner to exchange piety, Even you don't have theologian path, that's enough to change all the doctrines, about 6000-8000 piety, it's just about 100 prisoner or 60 prisoner & win some combats, 200 - 300 piety for win a combat.

[dwarfpcfan]

Prussia by far. very easily conquerable holy sites, can form kingdom of Lithuania and can easily add Poland and Novgorod on under their belt if you play cards right

[Viktor Von Groyper]

Originally posted by dwarfpcfan:

Prussia by far. very easily conquerable holy sites, can form kingdom of Lithuania and can easily add Poland and Novgorod on under their belt if you play cards right

I did a cool Prussia play thru. The religion is meh but by staying tribal and getting holy orders I had i think at 1 point 35K troops. HRE destroyed itself by attacking me so often

@OP

The issue you face is holy wars. Like you can go Zune in Afghanistan but then everyone surrounding you can attack. There are also Zoroastrian faiths around central asia/persia. Also some more esoteric Islamic religions around West Africa and Canaries. Going Slav is a bit tough IMO unless you know all the game mechanics. Youll also be surrounded on all sides by people who can holy war you. Depending on the year, Bulgaria was still pagan in CK2. But you have the Byzantines breathing down your neck constantly. But their religion used to allow the sacrifices and blots too and more fun than the Baltic ones. If you go way east there are a number of religions around Tibet. The geography can keep you safe from holy wars every 5 minutes.

If you arent experienced in the game, a good option would be to start as more established religion safe for the area. Rather than reforming, you can create an off shoot with what ever tenets you want. Then no one nearby can holy war you. They just consider you astray. So you could be bavarian and have divine marriages and sacrifices and everyone is cool with it.

If you go norse then the first holy site I would focus on are the ones in Saxony. Because of the location it can change hands often. Once some major power has it can be tough to impossible to acquire