I was just watching the history channel and they were talking about the Crusades. The Christians lost the "true cross" in a battle. I thought it was an intresting idea. Maybe there could be a unit built that would have GREAT significance for each religon. If it were lost in battle or captured then that civs with that religon would pay you a great tribute to retrive it. . . or go to war with you. The bonus to having a great relic might be better luck in battle, better crop growth, to any of a number of things.

I just had the idea and wanted to get it out there. Anybody else like this idea?

Maybe you could build a wonder or have a Great Prophet thing which gives you the relic as a resource, which could give your people a :) bonus if you have the correct state religion

BFD8656,

Hmmm.... here's an interesting idea. Let me mull this one over for a while.

I think it would add a whole new dimention. Think about the possiblities of bringing a holy relic into battle with your armies. you have increased luck, healing or both. Then you happen to hit a group of enemy soldiers who desimate your army. Now your relic is taken captive by your enemy. To regain it you must pay a huge randsom or attack with reckless abandon. If you do not another civ with the same state religon may rescue the relic and gain a cultural edge over you.

I think it would not only be a great strategy for battle and the game but also very historically accurate!

Actually, this idea could be extended out to just plain out items for units. But there are some issues:

1) How would the AI know how to use them?
2) How should they be represented on units?

The number 1 problem I see is that the AI will never figure them out.... That being said I would think maybe building a Religon spefice wonder that produces a unit would be best. Maybe a great leader type that can not join a city or research a tech but instead has a unique promotion that will allow for +25% in battle or maybe a +50% healing in all lands. The part about being captured and randsomed would have been easier if they would have kept the trading workers function. . . I am not sure if that will ever be solved unless they could also give you a resource of like "religous relic" +2 :) and +2:hammers: and +2:culture: but it would have to be permenent. I am not really sure


I know this will be tough, it will also have to be creative but I would say that this would be a GREAT mod component!

Any ideas on how to make this work?

Nice, I am going to use a version of this idea for my mp games. Each religion is going to give a Holy Relic unit to the person that discovers it, the Arc to the jews, Grail to the christians, ect. The AI might not use it right, but me and my buddies can have fun fighting over them. Thanx for the idea :>

Not a problem. . . Could I get a copy when you are done?