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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.