Priest Influence Options

[Adriddae]

Is it worth it to use these? Or does it cause too many followers to abandon the faith to outweigh the benefits? I would think that if you use it in regions where your religion is in total dominance, then it wouldn't matter how many followers you lose because they would just get converted back anyway. Otherwise other religions could come and take them up.

[Fleugs]

Is it worth it to use these? Or does it cause too many followers to abandon the faith to outweigh the benefits? I would think that if you use it in regions where your religion is in total dominance, then it wouldn't matter how many followers you lose because they would just get converted back anyway. Otherwise other religions could come and take them up.

They're very much worth it. It's a standard strategy for Ibladesh to use the influence options to maintain regions and/or spread hatred and/or prepare for a (religious) take over. The most easy regions to do this is where the region lord is a follower of the faith (in Ibladesh, that are all regions). The amount of followers quickly restores to the highest possible for that region.

I do believe though that a higher Oratory skill will give better results. And yes, sometimes you loose a lot of followers. Sometimes you don't. It's like preaching, really.

[Bedwyr]

Depends on your skill.  The higher your Oratory skill the fewer followers you lose and the better results tend to be.

[egamma]

I'd say you should use the ability sparingly, and in regions where you don't have problems staying above 90%.

[Telrunya]

Especially the scare, calm and cause unrest options can be very effective with only small losses. For badmouthing / praising you also have the Ambassador.

[Chenier]

Is it worth it to use these? Or does it cause too many followers to abandon the faith to outweigh the benefits? I would think that if you use it in regions where your religion is in total dominance, then it wouldn't matter how many followers you lose because they would just get converted back anyway. Otherwise other religions could come and take them up.

Depends on the context and your available resources. I've used calm, scare, and incite unrest to great effect, but only thanks to the context. In most cases, I avoid using these at all costs.

As for the sympathy tools, don't use them unless you don't have access to an ambassador or you are really that desperate/in a hurry.

[Adriddae]

Hmm, I can see you using it to repair your own regions.

What about when your using "offensively", against other realms? Say you want to reduce the morale and loyalty in a region of an enemy realm with their own religion? High oratory skill would be a necessity here to get maximum effect. I've never really experienced the priest game and seen a blown out religious war between priests.

[Bedwyr]

There's one going on in the south of the East Continent right now, and Ibladesh is using their Priests to good effect.  Perdan can't even arrest them as the unrest that causes is too painful in the border regions.

Of course, that's why we're burning the temples and shrines of every region we pass through...

[De-Legro]

Arcaea currently have two priest who are able to convert, claim and then maintain control of rogue regions without any assistance from the army. Course these regions have next to no peasants in them, but so far they are able to get control to core and stabilise the region in about 3-4 days which isn't too bad for an effect by two characters. They do spend considerable time preaching before the RTO though.

[Chenier]

Hmm, I can see you using it to repair your own regions.

What about when your using "offensively", against other realms? Say you want to reduce the morale and loyalty in a region of an enemy realm with their own religion? High oratory skill would be a necessity here to get maximum effect. I've never really experienced the priest game and seen a blown out religious war between priests.

I've used the Blood Cult to great effect against Republic of Fwuvoghor, when the war against it by Enweil was looming. But the circumstances were exceptionally favorable to such a thing, and it usually really wouldn't be all that good.

[songqu88@gmail.com]

It's good for screwing with your enemies. If you're trying to repair your own realm, then you're really better off relying on courtiers and police work. If you really have to rely on priests for region maintenance, your realm is doing something wrong.

[Telrunya]

What about when your using "offensively", against other realms? Say you want to reduce the morale and loyalty in a region of an enemy realm with their own religion? High oratory skill would be a necessity here to get maximum effect. I've never really experienced the priest game and seen a blown out religious war between priests.

Two Priests in an enemy region can be very effective, but one Priest can pull things off too. Population will of course greatly matter (Smaller regions are easier. Armies can very much help you reduce the amount of peasants to convert too) A Lord in the region holding courts will make things more difficult too. But when you got the region converted and are left alone for a bit, you can quickly destabilize it by scaring the population or causing unrest, opening up other options. Decreasing loyalty is trickier, as it makes you lose more followers, and will probably cause a reaction by the Lord / Judge. Increasing Sympathy can be done if you're given some time, but you should really ask yourself whether it's easier to use an Ambassador or a Priest when dealing with loyalty/sympathy. It depends on the situation. As a Priest, you basically poke the enemy until you find the weak spot, then exploit it.

As an example, Ibladesh has been poking and found and exploited a weak spot by taking Bursa (A small mountain region) from Caligus. It's now rogue, but Ibladesh has denied Caligus the use of the region, and it will take a while if Caligus wants to get it back under control. Ibladesh has managed to convert various border regions, which will make arrests of Priests more difficult, and allow Priests to start harassing as soon as they can use a weak spot.

Coordination and working together can be critical in offensive use of Priests, and the Priests do require to have high oratory skill if the enemy will attempt to take action against them.