介绍 本指南是我的《罗马2：全面战争》大师级优化指南的一个专门分支。由于《阿提拉：全面战争》和《罗马2：全面战争》共享相同的32位引擎架构，因此针对性能和稳定性的技术修复有95%是相同的。 《阿提拉：全面战争》被广泛认为是该系列中优化最差的一作。即使在现代高端硬件上，游戏也存在帧率不稳定、单核CPU瓶颈以及战役地图严重卡顿的问题。 本指南提供2026年的权威修复方案，通过利用DXVK（Vulkan）转换层，将引擎从传统的DirectX 11限制中“解放”出来。推荐：掌握技术设置 为确保技术文件和配置始终保持最新，我在总指南中保留了完整的安装步骤、配置调整和文件链接。 技术支持与可见性： 如果这些修复提升了你的稳定性或帧率，请考虑为该指南点赞和收藏。Steam需要25个评分才能在“评分最高”搜索中显示。你的投票能帮助其他玩家找到这些2026年的修复方法，而不是浪费时间在过时的2013年论坛帖子上。 与《罗马2》的关键技术差异 虽然核心引擎相同，但与《罗马2》相比，《阿提拉》引入了一些需要特别注意的功能和遗留漏洞。 1.VRAM 3072MB 错误（与《罗马2》共通） 与《罗马2》类似，《阿提拉》经常无法正确识别现代显卡。它会将你的显存硬性限制在3072MB，即使在高端显卡上也会迫使游戏“降低”图形质量。 解决方法：虽然《罗马2》有“无限制显存”的勾选框，但在现代硬件上往往不可靠。对于这两款游戏，手动编辑preferences.script.txt文件，将gfx_video_memory 0;改为gfx_video_memory -1;以绕过限制。 2. 现代CPU线程管理 《阿提拉》比《罗马2》对高核心数CPU的敏感度显著更高。在现代CPU上，这通常会导致严重的“卡顿”和微卡顿。 解决方法：在脚本文件中手动将number_of_threads设置为8。《全面战争：阿提拉》帧率下降修复方法（适用于任何电脑） 1. 引擎在计数超过8时难以同步，8是当前稳定性的最佳数值。 2. 粒子与烟雾瓶颈：阿提拉中的动态火焰系统由单个CPU线程处理。无论GPU性能如何，放大查看燃烧的城市都会导致帧率骤降。 3. 优化建议：如果在围城战中出现卡顿，首先降低【粒子效果】和【屏幕空间反射】。这些是该引擎特有的主要性能瓶颈。

该视频特别介绍了任务管理器亲和力设置方法[02:14]，并解释了为何将游戏限制在8核可稳定帧率[02:23]，这完美支持了你已添加到指南中的技术要点。 常见问题（FAQ） 问：为什么战役地图比战斗场景卡顿得多？ 答：《阿提拉：全面战争》的战役地图使用动态光照和气候图层，其资源消耗远高于《罗马2：全面战争》。DXVK可修复大部分此类问题，但如果仍有卡顿，可禁用环境光遮蔽（SSAO）和布料模拟。 问：“鲜血与燃烧”DLC是否真的会降低帧率？ 答：是的。与《罗马2：全面战争》不同，该DLC添加了复杂的火焰和烟雾粒子效果。如果在城市围攻战中出现卡顿，可将粒子效果调低至“中等”，这样既能保留血液效果，又能消除因火焰优化不佳导致的卡顿。Q：为什么《阿提拉：全面战争》的“结束回合”比其他《全面战争》系列游戏慢很多？ 阿提拉的AI需要计算复杂的游牧部落路径和迁移逻辑。若要在现代电脑上加快速度，请找到并编辑偏好设置脚本文件中的以下行： number_of_threads 8; # 推荐现代CPU使用，可防止引擎级卡顿 Q：为什么我的游戏在放大战斗画面时会崩溃？ 阿提拉的“扭曲”着色器用于模拟热雾效果，该效果在现代GPU上极不稳定。在图形菜单中取消勾选“扭曲效果”可防止这些特定的战斗中崩溃。 Q：我使用的是64位电脑，为什么必须使用x32 DLL文件？ 无论你的操作系统如何，游戏的可执行文件（Attila.exe）都是32位应用程序。使用x64 DLL文件会导致游戏无法启动。

建议的优化核心在于将《全面战争：阿提拉》中的游戏着色器替换为早期版本《全面战争：不列颠王座》的着色器。此操作能显著提升游戏帧率，尤其是在镜头放大到大型战斗场景时。 优化原理是，最初《全面战争：不列颠王座》计划作为《全面战争：阿提拉》的DLC推出，但出于财务考虑改变了计划，将其作为独立游戏发布。从技术层面来说，这本质上仍是《全面战争：阿提拉》，只是对其画面进行了加强，并将着色器版本更新为更优化的版本。由于该增强内容最终未能实装到《阿提拉》中，Creative Assembly便不再为这个已被搁置的项目更新优化，但进行优化的可能性依然存在。在《全面战争：不列颠王座》的“钢铁与治国之道”更新推出前，该游戏的着色器完全适用于《全面战争：阿提拉》，但更新后这一方法不再奏效（《全面战争：不列颠王座》的新着色器会彻底破坏《全面战争：阿提拉》的色彩风格）。 幸运的是，有人保存了适用于《全面战争：阿提拉》的新旧着色器文件，因此现在替换它们并不困难。需要说明的是，所有这些操作的想法并非出自我，而是WhyXelsink。为简化操作流程，我在此附上一个已替换着色器的现成文件data.pack，只需将其替换游戏原文件即可，路径为：“N: SteamLibrary steamapps common Total War Attila data”（请在此处填写您的游戏文件夹路径）。如果需要【回滚】到原始版本的着色器，只需在Steam中验证游戏文件的完整性。补充说明：此着色器替换不会破坏游戏成就。

消除卡顿和性能问题。 步骤 如果遇到卡顿问题，请执行以下操作： 《阿提拉：全面战争》是一款32位游戏（2015年了，CA为什么还要发布32位游戏呢？），这意味着游戏无法使用超过4个核心或4GB显存。这就导致无论你的电脑配置多高，游戏运行起来都会很卡顿。请按照以下步骤操作以改善游戏性能，使其达到可玩状态。 1. 打开路径：C: Users user AppData Roaming The Creative Assembly Attila scripts 2. 打开preferences.script.txt文件 3. 按下Ctrl+F组合键，输入"number_of_threads" 4. 找到此行："number_of_threads 0; # number_of_threads <int>, Set the number of threads <= 0 - automatic, >0 = explicit number #" 5. 将第一个数字从0更改为你的CPU拥有的线程数/核心数（逻辑核心数）

《阿提拉：全面战争》的内政系统和《罗马2：全面战争》一样复杂。本指南不会让你成为内政达人，但能帮助你了解其运作方式并掌握最佳控制方法。 内政系统如何运作？ 建议先查看相关视频。

主界面： 家族：政治界面中央家族树中的所有角色均为你的家族成员。左侧的所有角色则来自其他家族。顶部进度条中，黄色代表你的家族，红色代表其他家族。 政治权力：这是界面中央的主进度条。许多人倾向于将其尽可能提高，但在《阿提拉：全面战争》中并非如此。政治权力过高或过低都会带来巨大的负面影响。建议将政治权力保持在尽可能平衡的状态。政治权力由统治力和控制力共同决定，这两个进度条的平均值构成你的政治权力。统治力：这是你的家族成员总影响力与其他角色总影响力的对比值。例如：家族成员1有10影响力，成员2有20影响力，成员3有20影响力。其他角色1有20影响力，其他角色2有80影响力：你的家族总影响力为50，其他家族总影响力为100。你的统治力=25%。（数学万岁） 控制力：控制力由你的政治成功度决定。当你的政治行动成功时，总控制力会提升；当政治行动失败时，总控制力会下降。如前所述，这两个数值构成了你的政治权力，你应尽可能平衡它们。 角色详情： 年龄：点击角色后看到的第一个数字就是其年龄。就这么简单。影响力：这是最重要的数值，即角色的影响力。通过在帝国中取得成功可以获得影响力（例如，将领必须赢得战斗，政治家则会随时间推移获得影响力）。此外，许多特质和技能也能提升影响力。影响力构成你的统治力，同时也用于【购买】政治行动。 忠诚度：尽量保持高忠诚度。当忠诚度降至1时，角色将会叛乱，你必须在战斗中击败他。 女性角色：女性角色同样会为你的家族增加影响力，她们可以使用政治行动，并且拥有独特的特质。 政治行动 暗杀：使用此行动可立即除掉某个角色。这对影响统治力（即影响力的总量）可能会有所帮助。稳固忠诚度：立即提升角色几点忠诚度，防止叛乱发生。 安排联姻：仅可由女性角色使用。你可以与其他家族的角色联姻，将他们纳入你的家族。 离婚：便于摆脱妻子获得的不良特质。 寻觅妻子：你的角色将寻找妻子，这会为你带来一名具有影响力、政治行动和独特特质的新角色。 降低声望：立即降低角色的影响力。 收养：将其他家族成员纳入你的家族。 挪用资金：从战争基金中获取免费资金。 集结支持：立即提升控制力（通常为10%）。 但请注意：政治行动需要消耗影响力。你本质上是在进行投资以获取更大收益。行动可能成功也可能失败。若成功，你将执行该行动，并获得更多控制力。若失败，你要么需要付出更多影响力，要么根本无法执行该行动，这也会降低你的控制力。 办公室 不同的办公室通常会为角色提供一些免费福利，包括每回合一定数量的影响力。获得办公室有特殊要求。 政治的关键在于利用你的政治行动来平衡统治力（影响力对抗影响力）和控制力（政治行动的成功率）。只要时不时尝试执行一些行动，你最终会掌握其中诀窍。

1. Start by dissolving the alliance with Western Rome because it will only draw you into unnecessary wars. 2. Then, start recruiting more troops, preferably using this scheme: 2 armies stationed in the Balkans, 1 army in Egypt, 3 armies on the border with the Sassanid Empire, and 2 armies in Palestine. Then, start suppressing all rebellions, eliminating nomadic tribes, and clearing your country of all threats (you don't have to worry about the state of your treasury, as Byzantium usually has money anyway). 3. Initially, research only military technologies to strengthen your army and prepare for war with the Huns and Sassanids. 4. Develop your central provinces, preferably in present-day Turkey and Egypt, as they are least vulnerable to destruction by enemies. 5. Under no circumstances should you conquer new provinces, as this will force you to suppress rebellions in barren provinces (you already have enough land to conquer and develop). 6. Wait and develop in this way until Attila takes control of the Hun tribes and when this faction attacks you, you should have at least 3 ready and trained armies in the Balkans, focused on a defensive strategy (if you fail to repel the attack, retreat to Constantinople and strengthen your positions, giving up all of Greece, after regrouping your troops in Turkey, launch a counteroffensive and destroy most of the enemy army and try to kill Attila by all available means, if you manage to do so and regain control of the Balkans, sign a peace treaty with the remnants of the Huns, unless you managed to kill every last one of them) 7. After eliminating the threat from the north, regroup your armies and take one of your most experienced forces from the Balkans and move it to the Sassanid border. Now you will prepare to invade Persia, which poses another threat to your country's sovereignty. Here, you will need high-level military technology and at least four armies of approximately 10,000 soldiers. After declaring war, immediately direct your offensive against their armies, which you absolutely must eliminate first to advance the offensive (their vassals, however, should be eliminated at the beginning of the war; only after defeating the Sassanids can you begin conquering them). When they have no remaining armies, direct your forces against all key cities and, after conquering them, quickly capture the surrounding villages. This should defeat them with great ease. 8. Then stabilize the newly conquered lands, preferably with two armies. 9. Finally, you can begin restoring the Roman Empire by first attacking North Africa from Egypt (use two armies for this). 10. After conquering North Africa, which stretches from Egypt to the Strait of Gibraltar, prepare one fleet and three armies for a landing on Sicily and Sardinia. This will open the way to Rome (Western Rome should have fallen by then). When you reconquer all of Italy, you have effectively restored the Roman Empire, as conquering Spain, Gaul, Western Germany, and Britain should pose no further problems. 11. Now you can call yourself the true Caesar of Eternal Rome. 1.Zacznij od rozwiązania sojuszu z zachodnim Rzymem ponieważ to tylko wciągnie cię w niepotrzebne wojny. 2.Następnie rozpocznij rekrutację większej ilości wojsk najlepiej tym schematem 2 armie stacjonujące na Bałkanach, 1 armia w Egipcie, 3 armie na granicy z Imperium Sasanidów i 2 armie w Palestynie po czym zacznij tłumić wszelkie bunty, likwiduj wędrowne plemiona i wyczyść swój kraj z wszelakich zagrożeń ( o stan skarbca martwić się nie musisz bo z reguły Bizancjum i tak sra pieniędzmi ) 3.Na początku badaj tylko technologie wojskowe aby wzmocnić swoje wojsko i przygotować się do wojny z Hunami i Sasanidami 4.Rozwijaj swoje centralne prowincje najlepiej w dzisiejszej Turcji i Egipcie ponieważ są one najmniej narażone na zniszczenie przez wrogów 5.Pod żadnym pozorem nie podbijaj nowych prowincji ponieważ zmusi cię to do tłumienia buntów w jałowych prowincjach ( i tak masz wystarczająco dużo terenów do opanowania i rozwinięcia) 6.Czekaj i rozwijaj się w ten sposób do czasu objęcia władzy nad plemionami Hunów przez Attylę a kiedy ta frakcja już cię zaatakuje powinieneś mieć przynajmniej 3 gotowe i wyszkolone do walki armie na Bałkanach nastawione na strategię defensywną ( jeśli nie uda ci się odeprzeć natarcia wycofaj się do Konstantynopola i umocnij pozycje oddając całą Grecję, po przegrupowaniu wojsk w Turcji rusz do kontrofensywy i zniszcz większość armii wroga oraz postaraj się wszelkimi dostępnymi środkami zabić Attylę, jeśli uda ci się to zrobić i odzyskasz kontrolę nad Bałkanami podpisz pokój z niedobitkami Hunów chyba że udało ci się ich wszystkich wybić co do jednego) 7.Po zażegnaniu niebezpieczeństwa z północy przegrupuj swoje armie i zabierz jedną najlepiej doświadczoną armię z Bałkan i przemieść ją na granicę z Sasanidami, teraz będziesz szykować się do inwazji na Persję która jest kolejnym zagrożeniem dla suwerenności twojego państwa. Tutaj będziesz potrzebować wysokich rangą technologii militarnych i minimum 4 armii liczących około 10 tys żołnierzy. Po wypowiedzeniu wojny od razu skieruj swoją ofensywę na ich armie które koniecznie w pierwszej kolejności musisz zlikwidować aby natarcie postępowało (ich wasali olej na początku wojny dopiero po pokonaniu Sasanidów możesz zacząć ich podbijać). Kiedy już nie zostanie im ani jedna armia skieruj swoje wojska na wszystkie kluczowe miasta a po ich podbiciu szybko zajmij okoliczne wioski w ten sposób z ogromną łatwością powinieneś ich pokonać. 8.Potem ustabilizuj nowo podbite ziemie najlepiej dwoma armiami. 9.Nareszcie możesz przystąpić do odnowy Cesarstwa Rzymskiego atakując wpierw Afrykę Północną ze strony Egiptu (wykorzystaj do tego 2 armie) 10.Po podbiciu Afryki Północnej ciągnącej się od Egiptu aż po cieśninę gibraltarską przyszykuj jedną flotę i 3 armie do desantu na Sycylię i Sardynię, to ci otworzy drogę na Rzym (zachodni Rzym do tego czasu powinien być już upadły). Kiedy odzyskasz całą Italię w rzeczywistości już odnowiłeś Cesarstwo Rzymskie ponieważ podbicie Hiszpanii, Galii, zachodnich Niemiec i Brytanii nie powinno ci już sprawić większych problemów 11.Teraz możesz nazywać się prawdziwym Cezarem Wiecznego Rzymu.

手动设置《全面战争：阿提拉》的CPU线程数，以提升其自动检测下的性能。 操作方法： 1. 在Windows资源管理器中，导航至：C: Users [你的用户名] AppData Roaming The Creative Assembly Attila scripts，或直接输入%appdata% The Creative Assembly Attila scripts 2. 打开preferences.script.txt文件 3. 在文件中找到以下行：number_of_threads 0; # number_of_threads <int>, Set the number of threads <= 0 - automatic, >0 = explicit number # 4. 将0修改为你的CPU可用的线程数或核心数。例如，以我使用的Ryzen 7 5800x为例： number_of_threads 16; # number_of_threads <整数>，设置线程数 <=0为自动，>0为明确数量 # 如果你不知道自己的CPU有多少核心，可以按下CTRL+Shift+Esc，打开“性能”选项卡，然后在CPU选项卡中就能找到你需要的信息。

This guide is a rough infodump of the reletively obscure/unknown mechanics of Attila Total War, and how you can change them. Melee Accuracy and Charges The Base accuracy of all attacks is 40%. Melee attack, Bonus Versus, and charge bonus add one percentage point to this value. Melee defense subtracts one to this value. (Charge bonus also adds to the units melee damage.) Attack accuracy cannot go below 15%, or above 85%. In KV rules, these values are Melee_hit_chance_base, Melee_hit_chance_min, and Melee_hit_chance_max. Melee hit chance is entirely based in arithmetic with a few caps added on. In the vanilla game, the charge bonus of most units can be expected to cap accuracy in nearly every engagement. Charges: Charges boost the units weapon damage, and accuracy, as stated above. They last for 15 seconds in the base game, as determined by Charge_cool_down_time, in KV_rules. The timer for Charge_cool_down_time starts ticking when the unit enters an animation state called "Charge_Adopt_Pose" which can be set in battle_entities_table. The further away you have a unit adopt their charge pose, the more likely they will successfully deliver a charge when intercepted or caught, but this gives the unit less time to deal charge bonus in an ideal charge scenario. Armor Armor blocks a random amount of damage, from 0, to the armors value. On average, you can assume armor will block a third of its value (For some reason.) AP damage ALWAYS bypasses armor, and generally should be set to values where you never expect armor scores to actually trigger AP damage, however, due to the RNG nature of the game, armor may randomly decide to block 100% of the enemies damage for 83% or the battle when you set AP to 0. Having no AP makes battles get wildly unpredictable when armor scores are even remotely close to being as high as the enemies damage score. Bonus VS Infantry or Cavalry also bypasses armor when the bonus is applicable. Armor_piercing_divisor, and armor_penetrating_divisor, KV_rules values, are used to divide the enemies armor score when enabled on a melee_weapon. This is not used int the base game. When regarding missiles, it seems whether the Missile_Armor_Penetrating_Coefficent, or Missile_Armor_Piercing_Coefficient (KV_Rules) is used as a multiplier is actually determined by the Unit_armor_Types. By default, the Missile_Armor_Piercing_Coefficient is used against most armors. If bonus versus missiles is checked on the Unit_armor_type entity, the full armor value is used, if weakness versus missiles is checked, missile_armor_penetrating_coefficient is used. This is used to offset certain KV_Rules values that cause missiles to experience damage falloff. There is a lot of them, and I haven't tested them all. One governs shots that hit targets past the missiles maximum range, as determined by the missile table. Arrows that hit past 150 meters (Or 200 for the longbow,) should do 1/5th less damage. Shield armor is always half as effective against missiles, to counterbalance missile block chance. This can be changed with the variable "Missile_Shield_Piercing_Coefficient." A KV_Rules value. Missile Weapon Accuracy Missile Weapon Accuracy is determined by several factors: Velocity (Faster shots hit more often,) An unseen "Base Spread" value, Accuracy Skill+Weapon Accuracy Skill Bonus (Reduces the Base spread,) and by introducing some fixed spread. In baseline Attila, the high velocity of Slings and Crossbows make them the most accurate missile weapons. The faster the projectile flies, the easier time your men will have in hitting the enemy unit. All accuracy scores are 0 (Unit Accuracy Skill,) + 5 (Weapon Accuracy Bonus.) Unit Accuracy Skill is on the Land_Units_Table, Weapon_Accuracy_Bonus (PFM marks it as a "marksmanship_bonus,") can be found on Projectiles_table. Accuracy Scores of above 100 do not seem to become more accurate then 100%. The Spread score found on Projectiles_table creates some inaccuracy that the unit cannot bring down through its accuracy skill. Seems to be the base dispersion in meters. (More testing needed.) Accuracy skill takes a 20% penalty when firing on targets in cover. This is determined by missile_target_in_cover_penalty in KV_Rules There are accuracy multipliers for all weather effects. Shockwave radius can be used to make missiles stagger or knockdown enemy units. This can be found in the Projectiles_Table. A value of 0.05 will reliably stagger medium infantry, so be careful! Missile_saving_bonus is the base chance that a missile that hits a target will miss. This is to account for the chance of a shot passing between someones legs, or past their head. Its a KV_Rules value, and it is set to 20 in the base game. Missile units will choose to aim at a random point within a 2 meter radius of the center of the enemies unit. This is based on "Projectile_Target_Calibration_area," in KV rules. Where you can find unit Movement Values. Units Base speeds (Charge, Walk, Run, "Crawl") are all found in the Battle_Entities_table. It is also home to the values regarding the base health, mass, and charge distances of units. The KV_Rules value "Pike_Move_Speed_modifier" is used to multiply the walk speed of units that are in any mobile infantry formation, be it shield wall, pike phalanx, or mobile testudo. The Battle_entites value "Tracking_Threshold" determines how cohesive units within a certain weight class will try to be when making movements on the battle field. This is disabled when a unit is charging it seems. Impact damage Impact damage: The formula for impact damage is (((((BracingX(Mass/100))XSpeed))-((BracingX(EnemiesMass/100))XSpeed))^Collison_Damage_Normalizer)*Collison_Damage_Multiplier+Collison_Damage_Default (Big formula, right?) Collision_Damage_Normalizer, Collision_Damage_Multiplier, and Collision_Damage_Default are all KV rules value. Collision_Damage_Normalizer=1.5 in the base game Collision_Damage_Multiplier=2 in the base game Collison_Damage_Default=20 in the base game. This makes the base impact damage expodential damage that can easily reach into the thousands. It cannot be blocked by anything except having enough bracing force to deflect the enemy charge. Half of all collision damage is AP, by default. Bracing is always 1 when the unit hasn't stood still for about 2 seconds. Bracing is never used when a unit is getting hit with a flanking charge. The strength of bracing can be determined in KV_rules, which allows players to set at how many ranks does the unit get the most bracing per rank, what the maximum bracing per rank is, and what the maximum mass multiplier one can get from any number of bracing factors. Charge reflectors get 4X mass from bracing when hit from the front, and standing still. (KV_Rules.) Mass bonuses from unit abilities are all bracing, so stand still, and get hit from the front! Cavalry is immune to impact damage in the base game. This can be changed in KV rules. (Collision_damage_exclude_large_entities.) Proof regarding cavalries impact damage immunity.

侧翼机制 单位中攻击敌方单位侧面的士兵只需应对敌方一半的近战防御。 攻击敌方单位后方的士兵则无需面对任何近战防御。 这由KV规则值【Melee_Defense_Coefficient_Flank/Rear】决定。 【Factor_Attack_Dir_Front/Left/Right/Rear】（KV_rules）设定敌方攻击被忽略并由侧翼士兵发动攻击的百分比概率。大致而言，当敌方单位被士兵绕至后方时，敌方仅会在14%的时间内发动攻击。 实际上，一名绕后士兵的作战效率是正面冲击敌方单位士兵的7.14至9.6倍。拥有3名侧袭士兵，相当于部队规模比敌人多出20人。 未使用的先攻机制 在melee_weapons_table中发现了一个未使用的 initiative 值。每点 initiative 值大致能让你的部队在所有情况下有较高几率用自己的一次攻击替代敌人的一次攻击。 在《罗马2：全面战争》中，这个变量据说会使攻击比例改变1/25；而在《阿提拉：全面战争》中，我的测试显示其效果更强，甚至到了几乎无法使用的地步。

In this guide, you'll find a basic overview on the various religions in Attila and all that they offer you - bonuses, buildings, and edicts, few of which the game goes out of its way to explain. You'll also find out where a migrating tribe can most easily pick up the religion, as well as my own personal thoughts and conclusions about the usefulness of each religion. Introduction Religion is one of the things that’s really very important in Attila, but which the game doesn’t go out of its way to explain the details of. Not only does religion affect your public order and which countries like you marginally more, each religion offers its own set of bonuses, edicts, and buildings that can very seriously affect your gameplay and general strategies. Unfortunately, all the game itself actually tells you is that you CAN convert – anything else requires either digging through the awful encyclopedia (and not actually finding out everything anyways), or playing through each and every religion to get the dirt. Fortunately for you lot, I’ve gone and done the latter. Not in full games, that would be insane, but with a lot of saving and reloading and migrations – enough to get the information that you need to decide which religion is best for you. For every religion in the game, I’ll give a rundown on its bonuses and the edicts it allows, a summary of what their temples offer, and where a barbarian horde might migrate to in order to pick up the religion (civilized and settled nations can change religions as well, but this usually requires a bit of high-level trickery that’s a bit beyond the scope of this guide). Before we begin, a quick glossary of terms: Religious pressure affects how powerful your religion is in any given province – strong religious pressure means more people praying your way, with subsequent bonuses to public order (usually ranging from -4 to +4 total, though certain edicts modify that). You’ll rarely if ever get 100% of all people in a province committed to your religion, however, as most provinces have local religious traditions that constantly push back against the best efforts of your priests – weak religious pressure, therefore, usually means a public order penalty. Religious influence affects how much religious pressure you exert on the religion in THAT one particular province. Religious osmosis affects how much religious pressure you exert on religion in provinces ADJACENT TO that particular province. Right, then, that should clear up the basics. Let’s begin, then! The Christian Religions The three Christian religions, Arianism, Latin, and Greek, all share a number of important similarities that are worth discussing together. They all have a similar building template – major temples that branch into “churches” and “monasteries,” with the churches providing powerful public order/influence boosts and monasteries that provide reduced influence bonuses compared to the churches, but which also provide religious osmosis and extremely useful secondary bonuses, including usually extra priests at the highest levels. They can also take advantage of Sees, special region bonuses that allow them to build a Legendary-tier religious building that act like super-charged churches that also provide +1 religious pressure on ALL provinces in their faction as well as an extra priest. Their minor temples, meanwhile, act like lesser forms of their churches in every way. Further, none of their buildings cost any food at all, allowing them to go easy on your food stocks as climate change hits. All of this is very nice, but the Christian religions have two very major downsides. Firstly, they suffer a -10 morale penalty when fighting against Huns, which is a pretty big deal. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, ALL of their religious buildings cost a certain amount of maintenance in money, ranging from -100 per turn to -1500 at the highest levels, even up to -3000 for the Sees! A Christian country therefore relies on a powerful economy to make the most of their benefits – but those benefits are very useful for getting that economy up and running in the first place. In general, Christianity is very useful from a public order perspective, but unfortunately public order isn’t usually the biggest barrier to provincial development – sanitation is. Still, it’s hard to complain too much about dealing with public order more easily, and the monastery bonuses are usually very handy stuff to have around, while the lack of food costs means that you can weather climate change more easily. The biggest issue to think about when contemplating Christianity really are the temple costs – can your economy afford the drain? A point to note about Christians, by the way, is that only their major temples matter – their minor temples are usually too weak in effect and too expensive to be worthwhile. Arianism Bonus: +1 Religious Pressure all Provinces Edicts: Almsgiving: Up to +4 public order bonus from Arianism, Tax +5% Doctrines of Arius: +4 Arian influence, +10 morale to all recruits Buildings: Arianism offers the standard Christian package. Their monasteries provide moderate amounts of extra food and agricultural wealth bonuses. It’s unlikely that those wealth bonuses will actually offset the cost of the monasteries themselves entirely, however, so the primary benefit of Arian monasteries is that they’re effectively cheaper to maintain than their Christian counterparts, and provide bonus food. Where to get: It may actually be a bit difficult to get Arianism if you want it, as it starts out without having a very dominant presence anywhere in particular. Your best bet is probably to look in the Balkans, though there are pockets in Italy and Southern Iberia. You may be best off watching to see if any Arian Christians have settled first, however, swooping in to take their land and convert yourself once they’ve gotten the population nice and Arian. Conclusions: Arianism is in some ways the most practical and straightforward of the Christian religions. Both their edicts are almost always going to be useful, with one obviously geared for your richest money-making provinces and the other being great on your military production provinces, while their monasteries provide a very simple but effective bonus, extra food on top of the public order of religious influence always being useful to have. Don’t overlook their religious bonus, either, as +1 pressure to all provinces effectively means a slight boost in public order everywhere. Greek Christianity Bonus: +5% Civil Research Development Edicts: Divine Liturgy: +4 Greek influence, +10 morale to all recruits Christian Progress: +2% civic research, up to +4 public order from Greek Buildings: Greeks offer the standard Christian package, as per usual. Their monasteries, however, offer powerful research bonuses all-around – up to +15% or +25% at the highest levels! Where to get: The Eastern Roman Empire. Where else? Take just about any Byzantine city and you’ll be good to go – you don’t even need to hang around if you don’t want to! Conclusions: I’m a bit prejudiced, but I do love research. Shooting up the tech tree faster means stronger troops, stronger economy, better everything than everybody all around! However, in order to actually take advantage of the bonuses of technological supremacy, you really need a strong economy, and Greek Christianity doesn’t provide any special solutions so far as that goes. If you’re confident that you can gear up an economy worthy of your research, Greeks provide unparalleled bonuses on top of the extra public order you get from religious influence and osmosis – if your needs are more immediate, however, you may be better off looking elsewhere. Latin Christianity Bonus: +1 Religious Pressure all provinces Edicts: Ecumenical Matters: Corruption -5%, -4 to non-Latin religious influence Christian Mission: Research +2% civic, +4 Latin influence in neighboring provinces Buildings: Latin Christianity is actually a bit odd – it offers the usual Christian package, but their buildings tend to provide slightly less public order in exchange for slightly more religious influence. Their monasteries provide a LOT of sanitation for the capital region. Where to get: The Western Roman Empire is the obvious choice, but Latin Christianity is actually a bit weak compared to the wide array of other religions running around the Empire – the only places it actually starts out strong is in Italia, North Africa, and Southern Iberia. Keep an eye on the Empire and any successor states, however – if they get their act together they will often convert their provinces, making them prime for you to invade and convert yourself. Conclusions: In some ways, Latin Christianity provides the strongest economic boost of all the Christian religions, as their sanitation on top of the public order conferred by interlocking monasteries means that their capital regions can withstand a LOT of development. However, that sanitation only affects the capital region, limiting its use somewhat. The tendency towards extra religious influence at the cost of public order is a bit questionable, as religious influence in the end is nothing more than indirect public order. Their edicts are also very weird and will require some care to take advantage of – still, a reduction in corruption does effectively mean a +5% tax boost in large empires while an edict mandating osmosis means a lot of public order to a lot of provinces at once, so they’re far from useless. Manichaeism Bonus: +1 public order to all provinces from presence of Manichaeism Edicts: Exaltation of the Elect: Tax rate +5%, up to +4 order from Manichaeism Induction of the Hearers: -20 food consumption, +4 Manichaeist influence Buildings: Manichaeism is a very weird religion in a lot of ways, and their buildings are no different. They’re similar to Christian buildings in their general layout, but all their temples cost food – a lot of it. Further, their churches and minor temples don’t actually provide public order, instead reducing the public order loss from immigration. Their monasteries, meanwhile, provide quite a lot of cultural wealth, and further provide significant bonuses to the wealth of all cultural buildings. Where to get: The easternmost edges of the map around Kwarasan, deep in the heart of the Sassanid Empire’s vassals, is pretty much the only place you can realistically hope to pick up Manichaeism. Their local traditions in the area are pretty strong, though, so you can afford to spend some time getting there. Conclusions: Manichaeism is just strange. Immigration bonuses are something a niche use that starts to die out as your empire becomes settled and secure, and the hefty food costs of their temples makes them pretty unattractive as well. Throw in the fact that they only exist in isolated corners of the map, and it makes it hard to see why anyone would specifically try to convert to Manichaeism short of a gimmick run, like Saxons migrating to the East to convert to the light of Manichaeism before migrating all the way back to bring the light of the east to Britain, or something like that. Still, not the most useless of all religions. Zoroastrianism Bonus: +1 growth to all provinces Edicts: Pursuit of Truth: -5% corruption, +4 influence Teachings of Zoroaster: +10 growth, -50% religious unrest Buildings: Zoroastrian major temples have two basic lines, the Fire Temple and the Burial line. Fire Temples act much like Christian Churches, save that they provide a +1 priest bonus at the highest level and that they require a lot of food to function. Burial temples, on the other hand, provide trace amounts of religious influence and very little osmosis – but they require no food or money to function, and more importantly provide large amounts of sanitation not only to their region, but to the entire province. Zoroastrian minor temples differ little from their Christian counterparts, save that they cost food instead of money. Where to get: The Sassanid Empire, obviously. Go East, young man. Conclusions: Zoroastrianism is well in the running for most powerful religion in the game. It has major growth potential, with their burial lines providing oodles of lovely sanitation to develop your provinces with. They have a harder time keeping a lid on public order, however, as their burial lines do almost nothing for religious influence and as their temples are food hogs – not a great thing to have when climate change bears down on you. Still, there’s usually more ways to deal with public order than there are ways to deal with sanitation, and when added to Teachings of Zoroaster and their religious bonus, there are few more attractive religions than Zoroastrianism when it comes to building massive, sprawling, hyper-developed provinces. Just make sure you’re keeping an eye on your agriculture and public order. German Paganism Bonus: +1 recruitment slot to all provinces Edicts: Judgment of Wodan: +2% civic, up to +4 public order bonus from German paganism Might of Tiw: +1 army recruitment slot, +4 influence to German paganism Buildings: German major temples have only one line, which costs a moderate amount of food and which offers considerably less public order than their more organized counterparts, but which still offers competitive religious influence bonuses. Their minor temples, on the other hand, are where they get interesting. They have two branches: Burials and groves. Burials offer microscopic religious influence and osmosis benefits, but also come with a small province-wide sanitation bonus, while groves offer small public order, growth, and influence bonuses – at a small cost in food. Where to get: Germany, where else? Also strong in Scandinavia and Central/Eastern Europe. Conclusions: German paganism is an interesting reversal from the more civilized religions, in that their major temples are rarely worth it (save that it’s easier to recruit priests from major temples) while their minor temples are where it’s at. This does add a certain degree of flexibility, as you thus have a free city slot with which to play with. However, the German temples are all notably weaker than their civilized counterparts, and so can’t support the kinds of economies that civilized religions can. Their edicts are also very much a niche use thing. If you focus on the burial line entirely, they can be an interesting choice for wide, low-development economies that rely on cheap interlocking religious osmosis and sanitation, but on the whole Germanic paganism is a fairly weak pick – in fact, Celtic paganism (see below) is arguably superior in most every way. Celtic Paganism Bonus: +3% wealth from all buildings Edicts: Aegis of Touatis: +10 morale all recruits, up to +4 order Celtic Power of Taranis: -10% recruitment costs land, +4 Celtic influence Buildings: Celtic major temples are pretty much a reskin of German major temples, so see above. Like the Germans, their minor temples have two branches, burial and water. Celtic burial temples are a reskin of the German temples, so again see above. Their water temples, on the other hand, add tiny public order/religious influence bonuses until they hit level 4, at which point they gain +1 XP for all recruits on top of the still-pretty-small order/influence bonuses. Both Celtic minor temples do not cost food. Where to get: Britain, Iberia, Switzerland, and Northern France are to the go-to places to pick up Celtic Paganism. They usually have pretty strong local traditions, so don’t worry too much about needing to rush ‘em. Conclusions: Celtic Paganism can pretty much be summed up as “German Paganism, but better in almost every way.” Their temples are much the same, but their differing minor temple is much more potentially useful, their edicts are far more applicable and less niche, and their religious bonus is a small but wide-spread shot in the arm for the economy. If you’re Germanic pagan, looking to expand into the Western Roman Empire, and you don’t already have your heart set on any other religion, there’s almost no excuse not to switch to Celtic Paganism. Compared to every other religion, it really depends on what you need your religion to do - if you're hoping for powerful public order and sanitation to support highly developed provinces, you should probably look elsewhere, but if you just need something to keep your less-developed provinces from falling apart and are hoping for super-powered soldiers, Celtic Paganism is a fine choice. Roman Paganism Bonus: +2 sanitation to all provinces Edicts: Blessing of Minerva: Up to +4 order from Roman Paganism, Sanitation +2 Will of Jupiter: +2% to military research, +4 Roman Pagan influence Buildings: Roman Pagan major temples are all identical up to the fourth level, where they branch apart into five different temples. Up to that point, all their temples have the standard order/influence package at a huge cost in food. Their five temple choices consists of the usual final temple order/influence/food costs, plus the following: - Sol Invictus allows the recruitment of champions as well as +1 unit experience for all recruits, at the cost of slightly weaker public order. - Hermes offers +1 experience for spies and +20% to commercial wealth, with the full public order bonus. - The Imperial Cult increases the max amount of priests and has a small religious osmosis bonus, at the cost of slightly weaker influence. - Serapis offers +20% to cultural building wealth. - Isis grants +15% to agricultural building wealth and some growth. Their minor temples offer literally nothing except tiny amounts of religious influence, but at least they don't cost food! Where to get: Available in various parts of the Roman Empire, particularly in the West – it’s wise to move quickly, however, before the influence of Christianity subsumes the old pagan traditions. And if you move that quickly, odds are you’re going to want to migrate as soon as you’ve converted, before angry and still-strong Roman legions descend upon you. Conclusions: Roman Paganism is odd. Their basic religious bonus is incredibly powerful, and their Blessing of Minverva edict is just icing on the cake. However, their temples are alternatively anemic (minor temples) or else incredibly expensive food-wise (major temples), requiring you to pretty much accept a near-permanent penalty to public order or else hobbling province development by devoting more slots than usual to minor temples and farms. On the flip side, some of their top-level temples offer very powerful bonuses that are only rarely achieved otherwise. On the whole, something of a high-risk, high-reward religion, and not one I’d suggest in any regions without much in the way of Roman local traditions. Tengrism Bonus: +1 Integrity to all armies Edicts: Glory of the Ancestors: Unit experience +1 for all recruits (all provinces), up to +4 bonus order from Tengri Buildings: Both major and minor temples just offer religious influence and unlock priests. That’s it. They don’t cost food, which is small consolation. Where to get: Handfuls of independent minors around Germanto-Sarmatia or Hyperborea make good places to pick up Tengrism, as well as any desolate steppe wastelands you settle. The problem is getting past the angry Huns to get at them, however. Conclusions: Tengrism is a close contender for the worst religion in the game. Their temples are incredibly weak, and their religion bonus is only moderately useful at times, and only really for hordes on the move - and even then it's pretty minor. Their edict isn’t the worst available, but it only applies to hordes that have already settled down, and most of those who can realistically convert to Tengrism already have Warrior Rites, anyways, which does the same thing without needing a terrible religion. Not really much use at all, but hey, it’s not like the Huns needed to be any stronger, right? Minor Religions Bonus: +1 morale to all forces Edicts: Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Buildings: Honga claims there’s a secret minor religion building that adds +1000 cultural wealth and +20 public order and influence at the cost of -20 squalor, which is pretty hilarious, but the building cannot be built in-game. It may hypothetically be found somewhere in the far distant corners of the map in some middle-of-nowhere tribe, where it brings regular disease, happiness, and wealth, but otherwise, good luck. So effectively speaking…nothing. Zilch. Nada. Where to get: Not really that hard to acquire, actually. Look around Sarmatia, Arabia, or the southernmost provinces of Africa. Conclusions: Totally useless. Get it for the sake of the achievement if you must, and note that you have to let a turn pass after conversion before the achievement fires. Also note that the achievement doesn’t specify actually FINISHING a game as a Minor Religion, just playing one turn as one, so feel free to load a save immediately after you’re done. Quick and Dirty Summaries Well, I hope that was all useful to those of you trying to decide upon a religion! As you can see, your choice of religion depends heavily on circumstance and what you hope to achieve with your religion, so the best religion is, really, ultimately up to you. However, sometimes you really just want a one-line summary to tell you what to do next, and in this section I will provide exactly that for each religion: Christians: Expensive, but great with public order and lots of side bonuses. Arian Christianity: Generic, but powerfully so - useful all around, good edicts, some free food too. Greek Christianity: Lots and lots of research, oh boy! Latin Christianity: Convert literally everybody, plenty of sanitation for capital regions too. Manichaeism: Weird, hard to convert to, and food-expensive, mostly good for challenge runs. Zoroastrianism: Never worry about squalor ever again, but I hope you have something to take care of public order. German Paganism: Categorically worse than Celtic Paganism in almost every way that it isn't equal to it. Celtic Paganism: Great for powerful militaries, less so for strong economies. Roman Paganism: Powerful sanitation bonuses as well as unique high-level advantages, but expensive in food and bad with public order. Tengri: Almost entirely useless for everyone except hordes, in which case it is merely mostly useless. Minor Religions: Get it for the cheevo, dump it after.