Playing as Rurik in 862: Convert to local religion or keep Norse?

[ikko]

I'm not sure what the 'best' unreformed pagan faith is or what the differences between them are, does anyone have cliff notes on whether norse, suomonnesko or slavic faith is the best for an early tribal start?

[Harris]

Originally posted by corisai:

strategic resource - iron

And I really think the game oversimplified the economical aspect as all wars were driven by the desire to get lands, resources, markets and the like, and the whole "holy" or "dynastial claim" nonsense was nothing more than the way to legitimize said wars.

As for the vikings, I always explained it with the fact their land and climate were not exactly prosperous, so they were driven by that "we do not sow" mentality, having to raid and capture what they needed instead of producing it.

Their focus on warfare in turn meant better advanced in metallurgy, weapon making and whole shebang. Like someone said in a thread about vikings OP, there's nothing too glorious for the people skilled in warfare to harrass some farmers and monks at the coast of England.

[corisai]

Originally posted by Harris:

So the way they have it right now in the game (King => Tsar) makes no sense.

Currently in game Tsar => Emperor.

[Harris]

Originally posted by corisai:

Currently in game Tsar => Emperor.

East Slavic

Ilmenian
Russian
Severian
Volhynian

Baron
Baroness

Count
Countess

Grand Prince
Grand Princess

King
Queen

Tsar
Tsaritsa

They have Tsar instead of Emperor for empire level and King for kingdom level, so there's that.

[Yaldabaoth]

First answer starts with the word "Historically". I laughed.

[Harris]

Meanwhile I thought of some benefits to actually reform Slovianskan instead of going Orthodoxy as Rurik / Russia.

1) You get to build a temple in Kiev as that's holy site for Slovianskan. Temple gives you good bonuses both county-wise and realm-wise - and really diverse ones, from more taxes to faster development to more faith and renown per month to knight effectiveness and so on.

Meaning if you're planning to focus your domain on earning gold the temple will really help you with that especially stacked with tax collectors. It's no diamond mines of Ellur, but it's something.

2) Probably the most powerful boon of reforming Slovianskan is you keep theocratic holdings yet no head of faith. In practise, that means you are encouraged to build temples everywhere throughout your empire as realm priest is your direct vassal. And you don't need his approval either - just imprison and banish him every once in a while to get from 10k to 50k gold he accumulated. Sounds very OP and broken. And there is no repercussions outside of losing a level of devotion which isn't really relevant outside of improving relations with the clergy which you don't need anyway. You'll have no patriarch so noone to excommunicate you.

3) Obviously - an opportunity to tailor your tenets/doctrines to suit your vision/playstyle instead of making do with what you've got.

4) You can do eat the Pope challenge.

Now let's compare this to what Orthodoxy brings to the table

1) Much easier to adopt, under some circumstances as little as 250 faith, so can be taken early so you advance in techs faster.

2) Gets you Byzantium as allies with 40k deathstacks to fight your wars. Theoretically at some point I can see them willing to marry your daughter matrilineally so you take over the whole Byzantium if you want.

3) Gets you the Patriarch who you're able to milk for gold as long as you've got some piety and he likes you.

4) Prevents Christians from declaring holy wars on you meaning tribals are gonna be pretty much your only concern for the most of the game.

So long story short, I still think Orthodoxy brings more to the table for Russia, even though reforming Slovianskan is also decent with its own benefits.