I understand that you want to found a religion and spread it to others. If they adopt it as their state religion, this improves relations.

But having founded a religion, what is the advantage of founding a second or third? Obviously you prevent somebody else from nabbing it, but what should you do with it once you've gotten it? Should you spread it in your own land? Should you spread it in other lands? Should you build temples to it? Or a shrine? Should you ignore it?

If I founded both Hindu and Islam, and I had shrines to both, would it matter whether I sent out only Hindu missionaries, only Islam or some combination of both? It would all end up the same in the end anyway right?

Grabing 3 or 4 religions and b-lineing for Liberalism can let you enact Free Religion... if you spread all of your religions to all of your cities, you have a very happy empire on your hands.

Idealy you send out both. and put each religion in your own cities and then in others cities. Each city with that religion in it is one more gold. I posted on another thread about founded as many religions as possible then using them to my advantage.

The one problem with that being that you have to actually *get a Great Prophet* (or many). Which can be arranged, but can also wind up being troublesome at times.

My current Indian Game as a case in point : Confucianism (which I founded) has been spreading like wildfire, but whenever there was even 1% chance of a new GL *not* being a prophet, he wasn't.

By the time I finally built the Kong Miao, it landed me a +40 GPT bonus, though.

Make sure all your specilist in the city that is about the produce a great person are set to priests. Then you will get a prophet. If you have one priest and one other specilist there is a 50/50 chance at either.

I understand that you want to found a religion and spread it to others. If they adopt it as their state religion, this improves relations.

But having founded a religion, what is the advantage of founding a second or third? Obviously you prevent somebody else from nabbing it, but what should you do with it once you've gotten it? Should you spread it in your own land? Should you spread it in other lands? Should you build temples to it? Or a shrine? Should you ignore it?

If I founded both Hindu and Islam, and I had shrines to both, would it matter whether I sent out only Hindu missionaries, only Islam or some combination of both? It would all end up the same in the end anyway right?

Well, generally, if you found more than one religion, you only want your "state" religion to spread. If one of your non-state religions spread, a civ that adopts it will suffer -4 relations with you because your state religion is different from theirs. (Yes, even though you founded their religion). So only spread your state religion outside your borders.

However, I like to spread all religions inside my borders. This does a couple of things. 1) If I have the holy religious building from a Great Prophet, I get 1+ gold per turn for every city that religion is in. Say I have 10 cities in the mid game, and founded three religions. I can be getting 30 gold a turn for doing nothing, which is usually enough to ensure that my science runs at 100% all game long. 2) I can have bigger cities. If a city has three religions, it can support three temples. +3 :) It can also support 3 monastaries, if I wish. +30% science. 3) Finally, when I do get the free religion civic, it means that I get an additional +3 :) This doesn't matter as much in the late game, but it's nice to have.

And yeah, I do tend to get three religions playing on noble. I'll blitz Monotheism (picking up Polytheism on the way), and usually beat everyone to Divine Right too. Sometimes I'll even get to found Christianty too. Those games are really nice.

Does everyone that discovers multiple religions spread EACH religion to each of their cities?

What is the advantage of doing so?

(i.e. although I founded 4 religions, I am only spreading Christianity to all of my cities)

What's the advantage of founding a religion as opposed to merely converting to it?

Founding gives you the holy city, converting does not(unless you capture the holy city). Also, founding guarantees you get it, you have to have someone spread it to you to convert to it.

is a Holy City one of the things you can use your Great Prophet on?

Holy city is the city which the religion is founded (random) and that needs the religious building the Great Prophet can build in the holy city, earning you gold from each city with you're state religion. The exact samething can be done if you found another religion :)

Getting a great prophet is easy if you set yourself up for it in the early game. As soon as you can build a temple build one and then hire a priest specialist. In 34 turns you'll have a great prophet, or even faster if you build the parthenon or another wonder before then.

What I don't get is how religion spreads. I've had Judaism as my state religion since early, early in the game. I captured the Buddhist holy city and most of my neighbors are Hindu (or the reverse, can't remember). When I go to my "change religion" screen it shows me the breakdown in my empire. It's 28% Judaism, and 22-23% each Buddhist and Hindu with the others taking up the rest of the 100%. Why is the state religion that I founded, built temples for, spread to my neighbors, etc. only a few points above the heathen religions from next door? Granted I took some Hindu territory, but only three of my twenty or so cities show any religion except Judaism on the city display. Together those three aren't even the population of my capital or the Jewish holy city.

Also, is there any way to see what the religious breakdowns of the neighbors are. I'm trying to pry away one of the three Hindu states and I'd like to know how close I am.

Those percentages are world population. Not just your cities.

When it comes to religion, it's usually a good idea to pick up a few for when you enact Freedom of Religion. However, leave some for the AI. Why? Because if you took six religions, and started spreading them on your continent, there's a good chance that the final one will be gotten by another civilization on the other side of the world. Result? While you do have six religions spreading over your continent, they have one that'll unify of their continent without opposition from other religions before you even get there.

Religions spread quite randomly through agnostic cities in your part of the world. A city closer to the holy city is more likly to "contract" it, but it's not certain the religion will arrive there before it arrives somewhere a bit further away. In addition, if a city already has a religion, the natural spread of any other religion is slowed almost to a halt; in the last thousand years of my last game, not a single one of my cities picked up a religion naturally; religion was only spread through missionaries. This is why it takes a concerted effort to spread the later religions such as Christianity and Islam.

Also, can anyone tell me if there's a downside to having multiple religions in the same city, as long as your state religion is present too? I don't think there is, but just to be sure.

What's the advantage of founding a religion as opposed to merely converting to it?

Also--the holy city gets a FIVE point culture bonus instead of one if you founded it. That's one of the bigger benefits earlier in the game of founding a religion--easy way to expand borders quickly.

Also, can anyone tell me if there's a downside to having multiple religions in the same city, as long as your state religion is present too? I don't think there is, but just to be sure.

Conflicting religions can create unhappiness.

Conflicting religions can create unhappiness.

Ooook. Big downside.

I think Free Religion (maybe pacifism too) nullifies these penalties, though...

Those percentages are world population. Not just your cities.

Good. Any way to A) Determine what my %s are, particularly for one city? And 2) Eradicate a religion from a city, even at the expense of unhappy citizens?

Even your own cities do not all convert automatically. One thing that seemed to work is to have one of the higher production cities do nothing but make missionairies for a while, and send them off to all possible cities - including your OWN if they don't show the little religion icon.

I was able to convert two other civs that would be otherwise hostile to me that way.

I think Free Religion (maybe pacifism too) nullifies these penalties, though...

Free Religion gives you +1 happiness for each religion, effectively converting a malus into a bonus. It also removes your State Religion, so all happiness modifiers connected with that are gone, too.

Free Religion gives you +1 happiness for each religion, effectively converting a malus into a bonus. It also removes your State Religion, so all happiness modifiers connected with that are gone, too.

So if you're strong in one, stay with a state religion. If you happen to have a lot of them, use it to your advantage with free religion. Okay.

Conflicting religions can create unhappiness.

Nope, doesn't happen, no unhappiness from multiple religions in a city. (seems like it might but it doesn't)

There are supposedly some reasons why you might not want a religion in your cities but that is not one of them (probably increased war weariness when attacking a civ with that as their official religion or something)

Good. Any way to A) Determine what my %s are, particularly for one city? And 2) Eradicate a religion from a city, even at the expense of unhappy citizens?

A) No because I don't believe those % exist a city either has it or they don't (I'm guessing for the 'world' % its assumed a city is split evenly among its religions)

2) No (unless you raze the city when you take it in which all the religions are 'eradicated from the city...but then so is the city

Conflicting religions can create unhappiness.

I've never seen that. Not to say it isn't there, but if it is, it's rather minimal. I have four religions in all of my cities and no problems yet.

I haven't gotten the game (I'm in the UK) and I was wondering what happens on the world stage if you use the Freedom of Religion civic - how does it affect the way other civs feel towards you?

The general rule is to have all your cities have all the religions where you control the holy city. Then only spread your state religion to other players. And finally try not to let religions that other players own the holy city spread to your empire.

The last one is difficult to do and is not a hard and fast rule. The downside of letting a foriegn religion spread in your empire is you may be giving another civ GPT by having it, and they essentially get a "spy" in your city. the upside is you get to build more temples and thus get more happiness.

One of the things I really don't get is when an AI switches to a religion other than the one that they founded. Why would they do that? Are they wanting to help out the other AI that founded that religion they switched to? I mean I know it adds strategy to the player. This way you can convert another civ to your religion. But it just doesn't make sense. It's not very "intelligent" of them to do.

One of the things I really don't get is when an AI switches to a religion other than the one that they founded. Why would they do that? Are they wanting to help out the other AI that founded that religion they switched to? I mean I know it adds strategy to the player. This way you can convert another civ to your religion. But it just doesn't make sense. It's not very "intelligent" of them to do.

If all or most of their cities are worshipping a foreign religion, then converting to that religion will give those cities happiness. I do think that the AI converts too quickly, and thus adds to the spread of a foreign religion within its borders.

The AI each have a preferred religion and switch to it if it is available and they feel it is safe or beneficial to do so.

If all or most of their cities are worshipping a foreign religion, then converting to that religion will give those cities happiness. I do think that the AI converts too quickly, and thus adds to the spread of a foreign religion within its borders.

I agree. I've seen the AI switch to my religion quite fast. Granted I send missionaries to their cities but they don't seem to do the same and early on it seems easy to get them to convert.

Anyway this topic is great as I've had some similar questions.

I read that if you found a religion (and hold the holy city) you have read access to the city screen of every city which follows it. The indians founded hinduism and it spread to me. Somehow they were always one step ahead of me right until they beat me by 2 turns in the space race. After I lost I read about religion and on page 80 of the manual I realized they did know what I was doing. Next game I'll try to found my own.