Stacking Simultaneous Preachers

[Lickmajora]

Is there any benefit to have many priests simultaneously preach in the SAMEprovince with a temple?

[meglobob1]

Yes, if they can raise your candle dominion anymore.

I use cheap massed P1's or better to maintain my dominion, especially at my bordors. They come in useful when you invade as well, to quickly change enemy dominion to your own dominion.

[Catowl]

Originally posted by meglobob1:

Yes, if they can raise your candle dominion anymore.

I use cheap massed P1's or better to maintain my dominion, especially at my bordors. They come in useful when you invade as well, to quickly change enemy dominion to your own dominion.

Though i think you have to be careful where you use them for that, because even 1 million H1 priests wont change 6 black candles (im not sure at which point they become powerless exactly... is it 4+ candles that they have 0 chance of success?)

[meglobob1]

Originally posted by Renen:

Originally posted by meglobob1:

Yes, if they can raise your candle dominion anymore.

I use cheap massed P1's or better to maintain my dominion, especially at my bordors. They come in useful when you invade as well, to quickly change enemy dominion to your own dominion.

Though i think you have to be careful where you use them for that, because even 1 million H1 priests wont change 6 black candles (im not sure at which point they become powerless exactly... is it 4+ candles that they have 0 chance of success?)

Oh wasn't aware of that.

I have used the tactic before in several games and worked well.

I had a huge dominion war with LA Ulm once, with, no kidding around 20+ H1's in my border provinces keeping my white candlles burning so he could not invade me with his immortal vampire hordes.

Yeah it is 6 black candles where a H1 as 0% chance. 5% at 5 black candles.

[Mormacil]

So how do you beat 8 black candles?

[Red_Rob]

Originally posted by Mormacil:

So how do you beat 8 black candles?

Well, Temple checks can reduce any enemy Dominion whatever the candles. It's best if you think of Dominion as constantly radiating out from your Temples and other sources of Temple checks (God & Prophet mainly, however Blood Sacrifice also creates Temple checks), and pushing against enemy Dominion it finds. Stronger Dominion will push back weaker Dominion slowly but surely.

Priests on the other hand can quickly alter the Dominion level in a specific province. If you need to alter the Dominion in a province now you can use Priests to raise or lower it, up to a point. This can be helpful to get rid of nasty Dominion effects, surprise Immortal units that are attacking you, or to create a "wall" of your Dominion to prevent that enemy Dominion radiating from their temples from washing over your lands.

[Mormacil]

I meant specifically how do you remove 8 candles if low level priests stop being effective and he's holed up in a fort+temple. Dom powered globals make invasion hard at times.

[DasaKamov]

From the Manual:

Originally posted by Manual Pg 112:

Preaching the Word of God: This is an order available to priests which enables them to raise the dominion level in their province only. The base chance of this occurring is 30% multiplied by the priest level. If the priest is preaching in a province with an enemy dominion already present, this base chance is reduced by 5% multiplied by the enemy dominion level.

If there is a temple in that province, the priest is treated as though he were one ­half-level higher than his current priest level. Thus, a level 2 priest be treated as a level 2.5 priest. This is for purposes of preaching and maximum dominion increase.

So, using your (Mormacil's) scenario, a Level 1 priest preaching in a province with a temple has a 45% chance of raising Dominion in that province: Base 30% chance x Priest 1.5 (Temple raising Level 1 priest by an additional 0.5) .

This 45% chance of raising Friendly Dominion reduced by 40% (8 Hostile Dominion candles in Mormacil's province).

Therefore, a preaching Level 1 Priest in a temple has a 5% non-cumulative chance each turn to lower the hostile dominion by 1. Note that this gets easier as enemy dominion fades (at 7 "black candles" the Level 1 priest's chance to lower hostile Dominion is 10%; at 6 candles it's 15%, and so on).

Keep in mind that Friendly Dominion also automatically spreads from friendly temples via Temple Checks:

Originally posted by Manual:

If the province contains enemy dominion, the chance for you to reduce it by one is 50% plus (your maximum dominion strength times 5%) minus (current enemy dominion in the province times 5%).

So, every turn, your Temple has a chance of 50% + (your max Dominion x 5%) - 40% (8 Hostile dominion in the province x 5%) of removing one "black candle" from that province.

From what I understand, the Temple check is in ADDITION to the Preaching check. So, although it'll take some time, it is completely possible to lower 8 hostile dominion with a Level 1 priest.

[Mormacil]

Yeah no I missed te temple part.

[Gregstrom]

Or use H2+ priests if you can get them. In high hostile dominion, the lower number you need to get the same results as H1 priests more than justifies the higher cost per unit.

[Mormacil]

Originally posted by Mormacil:

Sadly my H2 is cap only STR so H1's it is.

[Gregstrom]

In that case, spend the money and weep.

Edit: you may find more temples a better option than more preachers.

[Mormacil]

Yeah I rather use my H2 mages for other stuff like using their 6 points of other magic paths to further my cause. I got several temples down but nothing in the direct ring, however it seems I got him down to 6 candles this turn so that's nice.

[Nebulosa]

A random question: priests besieging a castle have "Preach" as a possible order. Do they and their units still count toward the besieging strength while doing so?

This is especially relevant to the Agarthas, who have mage-priests with significant leadership, and to anyone who prophetizes their initial commander.

[Mormacil]

I don't think they do, at least I've been treating it like that for ages.

[Catowl]

You just stick all troops under command of one dude, and have everyone else preach.