-heading straight towards alphabet
-budhism and hinduism founded by ai
-got writing ,choosing a 'world religion' acc. to leaders personalities,founder civ,distance of the holy cities from your empire.
-opening borders with founder civ of the chosen religion(to allow it to spread to your city) and others except the founder of heathen religion.
-got alphabet ,gifting or trading writing to the founder of 'world religion' and others except the founder of heathen religion and civ near it.
-playing normal game
-nearly all civ have writing now,worst enemies are emerging.
-'world religion' has spread quite more than heathen religion
-you convert to 'world religion'
-bribing a civ near heathen holy city to declare war on that civ.(and later joining that civ in military struggle)

seems to me a good strategy to pull off diplomatic victory,,,what do you think?

year, good strat... i found Confu and convert most of the world... then i kill the rest... :)

year, good strat... i found Confu and convert most of the world... then i kill the rest... :)

you don't need to found a religion in this strategy(also on monarch-emperor with 7 civ ,it is highly improbable). you although you can later capture the 'world religion' holy city for massive cash benefits.
which level you played on?

recently managed to get a 6 (budhism) vs 2 (hinduism) world by this...:king:

Certainly, playing with religious affiliations and picking your sides is a powerful diplomatic strategy early-on.

But this method of player control of how the religions spread seems to hinge on getting Alphabet before rivals get Writing, which probably isn't consistently attainable on the higher levels (unless you're neglecting worker techs, which has its own set of problems). It also depends on early contact with all the other civs, which isn't likely on most map types. And there is always the risk that your rival in a diplomatic victory vote will be one of your co-religionists, rather than a member of the other bloc. (Indeed, if you're going to be inciting a dogpile war on the minority faith, the chance of one of those civs being a candidate in a diplo-victory vote would seem slim.)

Religions can auto spread without open borders. You just need a possible trade route - not an active one.

Religions can auto spread without open borders. You just need a possible trade route - not an active one.
I did not know that. But it does explain how Tokugowa ended up as part of a religious bloc in a recent game of mine. Thanks. :goodjob:

Perhaps Sailing should be the distribution tech that the original poster uses to control religious spread...

Religions can auto spread without open borders. You just need a possible trade route - not an active one.

yeah, but religions spread faster with open borders.

Certainly, playing with religious affiliations and picking your sides is a powerful diplomatic strategy early-on.

But this method of player control of how the religions spread seems to hinge on getting Alphabet before rivals get Writing, which probably isn't consistently attainable on the higher levels (unless you're neglecting worker techs, which has its own set of problems). It also depends on early contact with all the other civs, which isn't likely on most map types. And there is always the risk that your rival in a diplomatic victory vote will be one of your co-religionists, rather than a member of the other bloc. (Indeed, if you're going to be inciting a dogpile war on the minority faith, the chance of one of those civs being a candidate in a diplo-victory vote would seem slim.)

i am able to get alphabet before ai get writing in monarch.(and i doubt this strat will work at all above emperor)......sometimes( or should i say rarely) 1-2 ai gets it but it don't matter because
-they are not able to trade it
-they are not the religion founders.
-they do not show any preference for opening borders with religion founders.
even if they convert to the heathen religion ,one more civ isn't that hard to knock down given that you also have civs on your side.

I'd have to perform a search of the forums and do not feel like it in order to be certain, however I am pretty sure that the only thing that increases auto spread of a religion is the founding of the shrine since you cannot pick up a city and move it closer. Open borders will of course a lot very devout AI's (Issy, Pacal, Saladin, and their ilk) to distribute missionaries, which of course is a huge help as you can only get auto spread to a city without a religion.