Why bother going Protestant?

[josephmcmullin]

I've been reading how Protestant is the way to go however I've checked the differences in religions on my convert religion section and to be honest I don't see why.

Protestant:
Production Efficiency +10%
Tolerance of heratics: -1

Reformed:
Trade Efficiency +10%
Possible Advisors +1

Catholic:
Morale of Armies +5%

I've got 7 Cardinals and I gain 2 Merchantilism every 5yrs or so because I use my Papal Influence...so the question is why on earth do I want to go through all the hastle of converting when all I get is a small poduction improvement.

Oh and whats the deal with centres of faith? What do they do?

[SailaNamai]

This description is a little short tho. Protestants can supplement their faith with 3 more aspects. (2,5disc, 5%tax, settler increase...) There are really powerfull ones to be had. Reformed can use their fervor to increase parts of their country (trade, war etc) netting some more improvements. But yeah if i can i always stay catholic. Spending papal influence is just too good.

[King_0_Hell]

Originally posted by josephmcmullin:

I've been reading how Protestant is the way to go however I've checked the differences in religions on my convert religion section and to be honest I don't see why.

Protestant:
Production Efficiency +10%
Tolerance of heratics: -1

Reformed:
Trade Efficiency +10%
Possible Advisors +1

Catholic:
Morale of Armies +5%

I've got 7 Cardinals and I gain 2 Merchantilism every 5yrs or so because I use my Papal Influence...so the question is why on earth do I want to go through all the hastle of converting when all I get is a small poduction improvement.

Oh and whats the deal with centres of faith? What do they do?

http://www.eu4wiki.com/Religions_and_denominations

Everything you need to know is there :)

[Jorde]

You got the effects of the religions gone. This is directly from the wiki, stating what they truly give you.

Protestant[edit]


Protestant icon

Protestantism covers a wide range of religious traditions starting with the teachings of Martin Luther during the reformation. They react a number of the conventions that over time have developed in the Catholic church and the idea of a pope itself. In the game Protestantism cover mainly countries inspired by Luther's teachings and who have formed state churches.

Catholic provinces may begin to convert to Protestant once the global Reform Desire of Catholicism reaches a high enough level. The province that the initial Protestant Reformation event fires in will become a Center of Reformation, which will automatically convert neighboring non-Protestant Christian provinces to Protestant, much like a Missionary but with 5% extra conversion strength. Whenever a nation that does not already contain a Center of Reformation converts to Protestantism, a new Center of Reformation is created in a random province the nation owns that is not a neighbour of a Center of Reformation. Only three Protestant Centers of Reformation can exist in the world at any given time, and a Center of Reformation can only be removed by converting the province to a religion other than Protestantism.

All Protestant nations receive:[1]
National tax modifier.png+10% National tax modifier
Improve relations.png+15% Improve relations
No papal interaction.
Possible heresies include: Pentecostal, Puritan, and Congregationalist.

Church power[edit]

Common Sense.png Available only with the Common Sense DLC enabled.

With the Common Sense expansion active, Protestantism has church power. Church Power accumulates over time and can be used to buy aspects, which are permanent modifiers added to that country's particular version of Protestantism. Similar to idea group events, each aspect also seems to enable one or two events while active. A country can only have 3 aspects, after which Church Power can be used to trade in an existing aspect for a new one. Gaining an aspect or replacing one with another costs 100 church power.

Church power formula:
[Monthly church power gain] = [Base monarch power] * 0.10 * ([Religious unity] + [Other modifiers])

Base monarch power is amount of monarch power the country gains every month including all bonuses (ruler skills, advisors, power projection bonus).
Other modifiers is the sum of modifiers that also affect monthly church power gain; for example, being a lucky nation gives +25%.


Church power modifier.png

Traditions

Ideas

Bonuses

[Collapse] Policies

+10%

—
Religious idea 5: Devoutness
Danish idea 7: Religious Freedom is Atheism
Saxon idea 5: Corpus Evangelicorum
— —
+5%


Münster traditions
Wurzburgian traditions

Hessian idea 3: Welcome the Reformers
Teutonic idea 4: Assume Religious Authority
— —

Note: Religious unity and other modifiers are displayed as percentages in the game. To use them in the formula, convert them to a multiplier, i.e. divide the percentage by 100. (10% is 0.1 for example.)

Church aspects


Aspect

Effects

Organized through bishops: Development cost.png−5% Development cost
Priests may marry Stability cost modifier.png−10% Stability cost modifier
Adult baptism Missionary strength.png+1% Missionary strength
Holy sacraments Discipline.png+2.5% Discipline
Saints accept prayers Morale of armies.png+5% Morale of armies
Morale of navies.png+5% Morale of navies
Icons Prestige.png+0.50 Yearly prestige
Legalised divorces Legitimacy.png+0.25 Yearly legitimacy
Republican tradition.png+0.1 Yearly republican tradition
Devotion.png+0.25 Devotion
Horde unity+0.25 Horde unity
Heretics deported Global settler increase.png+15.00 Global settler increase
Parish registers Manpower recovery speed.png+10% Manpower recovery speed
Individual creeds Idea cost.png−5% Idea cost
Allow usury Production efficiency.png+10% Production efficiency
Translated bibles National unrest.png−1 National unrest

Reformed[edit]


Reformed icon

Reformed covers a wide range of religious traditions inspired by men such as John Calvin or John Knox. Generally appearing later than the religions classified as Protestant the Reformed religion also rejects papal authority and want to return to the rules of the scriptures but unlike the Protestants they embrace a number of perceived more hardline ideas such as predestination and iconoclasm and will not form state Churches.

The Reformed religion typically appears a decade or so after the Reformation begins, and has the same Centers of Reformation mechanic as the Protestant religion.

All Reformed nations receive:[1]
Advisor pool.png+1 Possible advisors
Tolerance heretic.png+2 Tolerance of heretics
No papal interaction.
Possible heresies include: Methodist, Baptist, and Quaker.

Fervor[edit]

Wealth of Nations.png Available only with the Wealth of Nations DLC enabled.

Reformed has the unique mechanic of Monthly fervor increase.png Fervor with the Wealth of Nations DLC active. Every month a Reformed.png Reformed religion nation generates a base amount of +1 Monthly fervor increase.png Fervor and gets bonuses from several sources:
Being at Peace: +1
Prestige.png High Prestige: +1 at 100
Icon stability.png Positive Stability: +1 per point of Icon stability.png Stability
Religious unity.png Religious Unity: +1 at 100%

In addition the Idea bonus.png Devoutness idea from the Religious idea group.png Religious Ideas group will give you a bonus +0.25 Monthly fervor increase.png Fervor a month. Having negative Prestige.png Prestige will cause you to lose Monthly fervor increase.png Fervor, −1 every month at -100 Prestige.png Prestige.

You can use Monthly fervor increase.png Fervor to "focus" your country; the three options are:


Fervent focus on

Effects


Stability

National unrest.png−2 National unrest
Diplomatic reputation.png+1 Diplomatic reputation


Trade

Trade power.png+10% Global trade power
Trade efficiency.png+10% Trade efficiency


War

Morale of armies.png+10% Morale of armies
Morale of navies.png+10% Morale of navies


You can activate any combination of these foci. Each one that is active drains you of 5 Monthly fervor increase.png Fervor a month. The maximum amount of Monthly fervor increase.png Fervor you can have stored is 95. If you go into negative Monthly fervor increase.png Fervor the foci will become inactive until you are accumulating positive Monthly fervor increase.png Fervor again. The foci will deactivate in the opposite order you implemented them.

[jonny]

common sense DLC will open up church power which is good

[Fellini_Fiend]

Protestantism is the best Christian religion in the game to play with. The ability to change the aspects whenever you have 100 saved up is so good.

[SailaNamai]

Originally posted by Fellini_Fiend87:

Protestantism is the best Christian religion in the game to play with. The ability to change the aspects whenever you have 100 saved up is so good.

I find catholic more usefull tbh. Stab+1 and the others are just so amazing.

[♥GamingSamurai♥]

Sometimes you are just force to change the country's faith due to the large amount of reformation centres in your country and you don't have to waste effort change the faith back to Catholic again

[IndirectHero]

If I have the Curia Controller, then Catholic is always better.

Diplomat.png +1 Diplomats
Prestige.png +1 Yearly prestige
Stability cost modifier.png −10% Stability cost modifier
Advisor pool.png +2 Possible advisors
Advisor cost.png −20% Advisor cost
Free leader pool.png +1 Leader(s) without upkeep
Aggressive expansion impact.png −20% Aggressive expansion impact
Technology cost.png −5% Technology cost

That is the bonuses just for being the Curia Controller. (Not to mention you can use Crusade and Excommunicate other nations).

If I am having a hard time to control the Curia, then I usually go with Protestant.

[Halcyon]

To answer the second half of the question, the first three nations to convert to one of the reformation religions (protestant, reformed) will generate a center of reformation in a random owned province. That center of reformation acts as an automatic missionary that spreads its affiliated religion to provinces within a certain range regardless of nationality or previous religion. They convert slower as time goes by, so the reformation will peter out over time and the centers eventually disappear.

[markdb92]

I seen one center convert another before.

[AccidentByDragon]

there are also some national choices that require you to change to protestantism or Calvinism(Reformed) for example forming Prussia.

[Halcyon]

Originally posted by DragonsDoodoo:

there are also some national choices that require you to change to protestantism or Calvinism(Reformed) for example forming Prussia.

mmm, good point. I forgot about those.

[Gonio]

Catholic has not so good modifiers, but what makes it good is if you can become and stay curiacontroller for their bonuses. That last is the major drawback since this is RNG. Missing that makes it way less appealing and the buying stuff from papal influence was added to make it a bit better. Useful strong bonuses, but a bit restricted to what is useable depending on situation. Also an big upside of Catholic is that much countries run with it, so that is a nice one when expanding.

On its own I find that the protestant and reformed have better on it's own modifiers vs Catholic. And for both the extra added bonuses have the upside that they are constantly present. Protestant has more but small bonuses, while reformed as big but less bonuses.

[Bllasae]

Look at its competition: Catholicism is useless. I'd rather have a less-useless one.

[Jorde]

Originally posted by Gonio:

Also an big upside of Catholic is that much countries run with it, so that is a nice one when expanding.

Part of the reason why it's always good to get religious ideas pretty early if you're planning to convert religions. If you're planning to stay Catholic, then you can get away with just taking the Counter-Reformation decision. It's also nice to have a permanent cassus belli on a decent amount of my neighbors in Europe.