...the AI civs could send missionaries into your cities.

Hinduism & Buddhism kept spreading to cities in my solidly Confucian land, and I didn't think about what was going on until I saw...missionaries! I didn't build those! They're coming from Egypt and India to feed their shrines!!

LOL...this game is so whack. :rotfl:

Yep, sign open borders and they send caravels into your ports with missionaries. They're pretty good about infecting you at higher levels.

Relegion can also spread without missionaries

;)

~Ryanstein

Relegion can also spread without missionaries
Only if there's no religion in the city, right? Hinduism keeps popping up in cities that already have 2 or 3 religions in 'em...

Only if there's no religion in the city, right? Hinduism keeps popping up in cities that already have 2 or 3 religions in 'em...

Religions spread along trade routes. THey have less chances of spreading the more religions a city already has

I would suggest Theocracy civic if you don't want non-state relegion spread

:D

And it is not so common of an event that you can ignore the unit either. Trade route spreading will save you a couple of missionaries, but certainly not all that you will need.

Egypt is very good about sending missionaries. But it's also a pleasant civ to have as an ally.

Religions can only spread to a city along a trade route if the city has no religion at all. To get a second or more religion you have to use missionaries. The AI is often very efficient with doing this, so it's not uncommon for them to spread their religion to most of your cities.

is there an economic advantage of others following your religion? ie money

i already know about the relation bonus and the ability to "see" other cities

is there an economic advantage of others following your religion? ie money
Only if you have built the holy shrine. Then it's +1 gold/turn from every city (yours and AI's) with that religion, whether it is anyone's state religion or not.

If you control a religion's Holy City and there's a Shrine in it, it generates 1 Gold per Turn for every city with that religion in it. So the more you spread a faith that you founded, the more cash you get.

Whether or not the AI leaders have that faith as their state religion makes effectively no difference as far as economy goes.

Whether or not the AI leaders have that faith as their state religion makes effectively no difference as far as economy goes.

Not directly: if having same faith makes the AI like you more and sign open borders allowing your cities to get better trade routes, and allowing you to make better deals with the AIs, then yes it does have a positive effect on economy.

I never knew that religion couldn't passively spread into cities that already have one. Explains a lot.

Besides the shrine there is the spiral minaret wonder, which gives you gold for every building of that religion (temple, cathedral, monastery).

Besides the shrine there is the spiral minaret wonder, which gives you gold for every building of that religion (temple, cathedral, monastery).
And one more interesting thing about the spiral minaret is that when free religion is chosen, you get gold for EVERY religious building in your empire. Found that out by accident, btw.

Besides the shrine there is the spiral minaret wonder, which gives you gold for every building of that religion (temple, cathedral, monastery).
But there is a rather important difference between the two -

The holy shrine generates 1 gold/turn in the holy city for every city with the religion, whether AI or not. So it's a large bonus to a single city (and thus readily optimized with banks/markets/grocers/Wall Street) and encourages the spread of that religion to other civs.

Spiral Minaret generates 1 gold/turn for each building in the cities where the building exists within your own civ. So it's a small bonus spread across mutliple cities. It adds up to a lot, but you get nothing for that religion being in other civ's cities.