Up to Monarch, any AI starting with Mysticism will always prefer Meditation to the more expensive Polytheism, and found Buddhism (always beating you, by the way!!).
Therefore, if you start with Mysticism, you can easily research Polytheism and found Hinduism.
Can anyone confirm this? Is it true that no AI will ever start researching Polytheism, and then that a player has no opponents in rushing to Hinduism? Is it THAT easy?

-Buddhism: no way, you'll lose it
-Hinduism: no way, you'll get it (if you start with Mysticism, of course)

I rarely go for a early religion, but when i do - Starting with Mysticism and Commerce Bonus - i take Meditation - as it is done faster and i can go back to really importantn stuff - and get it.

I think there is no point in going for a early religion at all if you dont have a potencially high commerce capital, as you want your holy city to be high commerce to put wall steet there.


As or all civ's go Meditation - i think it was to some extent true in Vanilla. In BTS the AI does go for Polytheism as well.

Yes.
I do not even attempt Meditation, go straight for Poly, and trade some crap for Meditation later (need to remove Medi to clear the way for your prophets CoL/Theo).

If you are not financial, AND start out with a :commerce::commerce: to provide an additional third :commerce:, forget founding Buddhism.

Blake changed the AI in his BetterAI so that not all of them go the Meditation path, and I'm fairly sure he retained that change in his BtS AI.

I never go for an early religion. Never. Playing on Monarch, 8 out of 10 times I won't get it anyway, and there are more important things to do.

Founding your own religion is only good if you can convert others to it, and I rarely have the resources to do so before most or all of my neighbors have adopted another faith and become my enemy. I think it's better to wait and adopt the religion that is best for diplomacy.

At least Wang Kon has polytheism as his referred religion tech in beginning.

Quite a few opponents go for Polytheism... On Monarch, I get it someone frequently. On emperor, playing with a lot of civs (14+), my chances are probably 20%'ish I'd say. I've stopped going for it and rush stonehenge instead, getting a great prophet and nabbing theology with it first - safest way to get a religion on Monarch or above.

Also, easy way to find out for yourself... Start a few custom games, a bunch of civs, random people... Just click on polytheism and spend two minutes rushing turns. Do this five times, and you'll know your chances - no need to ask us for secondhand info.

My experience is that indeed the AI goes more often the Buddhism route than the Hinduism, but both religions usually fall within 1-2 rounds, so there have to be AIs that research either of them, only with different commerce multiplier.

I also tend to go Hinduism if I plan to found an early religion, chances seem to be slightly higher to get it, although I have also seen Hinduism falling first occasionally.

If you miss them both you usually have a good chance to nab Judaism if you beeline for it, even if not starting with Mysticism. But naturally that sets you back in other research areas.

I like having an early religion because of the happiness bonus allowing cities to grow bigger early on.

Nansen

(usually play Prince, with BTS 3.13 and Bhruic mod v.1.11)

Up to Monarch, any AI starting with Mysticism will always prefer Meditation to the more expensive Polytheism, and found Buddhism (always beating you, by the way!!).
Therefore, if you start with Mysticism, you can easily research Polytheism and found Hinduism.
Can anyone confirm this? Is it true that no AI will ever start researching Polytheism, and then that a player has no opponents in rushing to Hinduism? Is it THAT easy?

-Buddhism: no way, you'll lose it
-Hinduism: no way, you'll get it (if you start with Mysticism, of course)

I've never lost the race for Hinduism playing as the Incas so I think you're right.

If being beaten to an early religion really annoys you, you can always do an advanced start - simply buy mysticism and meditation. You're bound to found a religion on the very first turn!

Is that cheating?

I tried founding my own religion on monarch, but it is not the best strategy for this reason. I have been able to found hinduism and judiasm, but by then even if I convert a few to my own faith, others will be against me. That leads to constant early wars etc. I find it is best to allow others to pop their religions in my territory. Hold off on adopting any religion for a while, and build monastaries to boost your science. You have few enemies, while the others fight to establish a dominant religion. When you see who is on top, you can adopt that religion and have many strong friends and weak enemies. Then the game gets fun and you are probably somewhere in the middle, so you have to work your way to the top :) You can also always conquer the weaker states and take thier holy cities :) Now you have money machine. Let the AI build the AP, and you have extra hammers. It just works well not founding a religion early on. Though for extra money machines you can always found confuscionism by slingshotting the Oracle.

Up to Monarch, any AI starting with Mysticism will always prefer Meditation to the more expensive Polytheism, and found Buddhism (always beating you, by the way!!).
...
-Buddhism: no way, you'll lose it
-Hinduism: no way, you'll get it (if you start with Mysticism, of course)

i have never lost the race to buddhism (or hinduism for that matter). that's on noble with a spiritual leader. i take it you don't like the spiritual trait?

i've just remembered i also got med with boudicca.

Spiritual trait does not affect on founding early religions. Those depend on having mysticism as starting tech. Mansa is spiritual, but does not start w/ mysticism, both Egypt leaders are spiritual but do not start with it, Boudicea is not spiritual but celts start with mysticism etc. Sometimes you can have lucky break with early hut/myst pop but thats rare (once i got Polytheism first with Mansa on deity with lucky hut pop.. then i realized i had started game accidentally on deity and quit).

I used to try for buddism all the time as Brennus, but now I usually go for BW, then maybe I go for Juadism, which I usually win. At that point it is still early enough to spread my religion round the world.

If I fail to hit Juadism, I will power out the Oracle and get Confusism or Christianity (Probably for Christianity now with BTS).

Anyways, I think it is very important to found at least one religion and spread it for diplomacy reasons, and I feel subservant following another Civ's faith.

I like to ply with the Inca's (I'm a builder at heart) and I go straight for Poly and once that is established, I break out for bronze working and then so forth...

If you start with Mysticism yourself, and start with good commerce tiles by your capital, then by all means go for Buddhism.

I had one game (as India) where I founded both Buddhism and Hinduism in my capital. I later founded Christianity with a GP in my second city.

Needless to say, I put Wall Street in my capital, and it was a cash cow the whole game. That was vanilla. If I had the same circumstances in BtS, I'd probably add two corporations to the capital as well, and end up with a single city capable of financing my entire empire.

^^^Can you start more than one corporation in one city? I was not allowed to found Creative Con in the same city that I had Sid's Sushi (my Wall Street city). I had never used corporations before (because of the horrible inflation costs) and this was right after installing the official 3.13 patch. In other words, I'm not sure if this was a glitch or a feature of the new patch, or if it has always been that way. Has anyone founded more than one corporation in their Wall Street city?

^^^Can you start more than one corporation in one city? I was not allowed to found Creative Con in the same city that I had Sid's Sushi (my Wall Street city). I had never used corporations before (because of the horrible inflation costs) and this was right after installing the official 3.13 patch. In other words, I'm not sure if this was a glitch or a feature of the new patch, or if it has always been that way. Has anyone founded more than one corporation in their Wall Street city?

I regularly found 4 HQs in my Wall Street city.

Are you sure you had all of the prerequisite resources and technologies, and that you weren't running State Property/Mercantilism?

You know what, I may not have had the requisite resources. They have to be in the fat cross of the city, right? Or does universal access to the resource allow the corporation to be founded?

You know what, I may not have had the requisite resources. They have to be in the fat cross of the city, right? Or does universal access to the resource allow the corporation to be founded?
Normal resource access is all that's required. But you can't have two corporations that utilize the same resource in the same city.

The most exclusive is Mining, Inc., which prevents you from having Creative Constructions, Aluminum Co, and Civilized Jewelers in the same city.

The most you can do is four corps in a city, if those four are Aluminum Co, Creative Constructions, Civilized Jewelers, and either Cereal Mills or Sid's Sushi.

I prefer Mining, Inc. and Sid's Sushi, which give you the highest production and food bonuses. But if you're looking for a culture victory, you'll want to replace Mining, Inc. with Creative Constructions and Civilized Jewelers.

Can you start more than one corporation in one city? I was not allowed to found Creative Con in the same city that I had Sid's Sushi (my Wall Street city). I had never used corporations before (because of the horrible inflation costs) and this was right after installing the official 3.13 patch. In other words, I'm not sure if this was a glitch or a feature of the new patch, or if it has always been that way. Has anyone founded more than one corporation in their Wall Street city?

You can found multiple corporations in the same city as long as they don't compete for resources (which Sushi and Creative Constructions don't). Possibilities why you couldn't found CC are:

1)You had no access to any resources for that corporation (they only need to be connected to your trade net or imported - they don't need to be in the city radius)
2)You were running state property
3)There is a bug in the official 3.13 patch which stops you founding corporations under Mercantilism either - Bhruic's patch fixes this.

The maximum number of corporations you can have founded in a city is 4, due to the way the resources work out. That's Creative Constructions, Civ Jewellers, Aluminium Co and any one from the Standard ethanol, Sushi, Cereals trio.

If you have mining Inc you're limited to two corporations.

I've been playing Wang Kon for a while at Noble, and a couple of times I got beaten to Polytheism when I went for it, so someone is going for it. If you move your settler one square then settle, you're more likely to miss it. If you're determined to get an early religion, you can still probably get Judaism since you're part way to Monotheism and financial helps.

I think as many have said that most civs go for Meditation, but few go for Poly as well. I usually only go for one of the earlygame religions, when starting with myst, and only sometimes. I tend to like to have one of the other guy's early religion, for diplomatic purposes. Then found Cristianity, spread it like hell, and build holy building and apostolic palace, if not for anything then for the extra hammers. The downside here, is that, by the time I get Theology, I have so many cities, that the holy city, very likely isnt that good a commerce center.

BTW, once and for all, competing corporations can not be FOUNDED in the same city. they can both be build in the same. Or am I wrong here?

BTW, once and for all, competing corporations can not be FOUNDED in the same city. they can both be build in the same. Or am I wrong here?
The latter. Competing corporations cannot occupy the same city, period.

With non-HQ cities, you can buy them out (costs more than simply spreading the corp), but you can never buy out the HQ, so once you found a corporation, you're stuck with it in that city.

If being beaten to an early religion really annoys you, you can always do an advanced start - simply buy mysticism and meditation. You're bound to found a religion on the very first turn!


5th turn, I bet, assuming that the advanced start mechanism works the same way that the mechanics of classical (and later era) starts work.

Nah, if you start with mediatation you do get a choice of religions after 1 turn.

[QUOTE=ViterboKnight;6236414]Up to Monarch, any AI starting with Mysticism will always prefer Meditation to the more expensive Polytheism, and found Buddhism (always beating you, by the way!!).
Therefore, if you start with Mysticism, you can easily research Polytheism and found Hinduism.
Can anyone confirm this? Is it true that no AI will ever start researching Polytheism, and then that a player has no opponents in rushing to Hinduism? Is it THAT easy?

I have only ever gotten Buddhism on maps where I have 3 commerce somewhere - I had a Korea start once on a river that had spice by - was able to pull 3 commerce off and get Buddhism. I've never gotten both Buddhism and Hinduism on Prince, but on the one below that I sometimes get them both.

Can anyone confirm this? Is it true that no AI will ever start researching Polytheism, and then that a player has no opponents in rushing to Hinduism? Is it THAT easy?.

I'm afraid not! :( The AIs have beaten me to Hinduism many times.

On advanced start, at least in Warlord and Noble, you get the founding for any religions you buy the pre-reqs. I've done this many times, as I have an odd love of having most religions starting in my empire. It seems to not be the best strategy though. : )

It's good to have 1 or 2 religions founded in your empire. 3 is cool, too, if you are far enough ahead techwise to grab Divine Right without losing a military tech lead. Make sure to found one in your cash city and put the shrine there. Spread that religion like crazy. Sometimes, it's better to keep another civ's religion as your state religion for diplomatic purposes, but spread the religion you founded in your cash city like a virus.

Advanced start is awesome for founding religions, but, has anyone analyzed the AI response to a user purchasing the religious techs? Do they make up for it by grabbing military techs (BW / AH / Archery) or maybe they buy excess cities and population to counter your religious purchases. I'm not sure.