How do people get a religion?

[King_Course]

I play on Emperor and up, I have started quite alot of games, yet I still haven't been able to spawn a Great Prophet and a religion. I tried a few times for Stonehenge but that goes very quickly. By the time my cap builds a holy site and a shrine, and I get the Prophet wild card, I am so far behind that the religions go before I can catch up. The boost or whatever it is called is also too late. Is there some secret I haven't figured out?

 

[Fluphen Azine]

I've been playing on Immortal and Deity but I did play two starts on Emp and I built Stonehenge with ease. Id suggest that you rush it and I also found that Emp AI had no army whatsoever. I would show up to the AIs cities and nobody was home almost in all of them. Now sometimes I would run into a few warriors and a spear but I did see more cats than needed. Basically I stopped Emperor after the second run through after turn 60 or so.

 

[RealHuhn]

I was wondering the same thing. Getting a religion without stonehenge seems to be impossible on emperor. It kinda ruins the game.

 

[Ryika]

Well, if all else fails, pick Arabia. Or only add non-religious Civs to the game.
I don't think there's a way to guarantee a religion otherwise.

In a theoretical "perfect storm"-scenario you might actually get Stonehenge though, even on Deity. All you need is to find a natural wonder extremely early (turn 3-4) for the Eureka, then find 1-2 Ancient Villages that both give you gold so you may be able to rushbuy a worker that then chops the three forests that you have hopefully started with, but not next to the Stone that of course you also need - while you hope that no barbarians or neighbors show up to punish you.

Or you just hope that not a single AI started with Stone anywhere in their borders. Not that hard, really.

 

[elitetroops]

The AI likes to spam holy sites early, so maybe your best bet is to capture some of those? In one emperor game I captured a religious city state around T40 and it already had a holy site up. I added the policy for +GP points and got the second third religion.

Edit: forgot to mention, I also picked the pantheon that gives +50 faith for every barb outpost I clear. It's probably not the most efficient long term, but it's a massive boost in the early game. It can easily earn you 300 faith before you could even get up a holy site with +6 adjacency bonus or whatever the other pantheons give you. If you want an early religion and there are empty areas for barbs to spawn around you, I'd argue it is a pretty solid pick for pantheon.

 

[Erneiz Hyde]

Religion isn't gained from faith, but from the great person point (well technically you can buy prophets with faith, but it costs ridiculous, and it's kind of pointless to do that). So really the only reliable way to get religion is to have more Holy Site than the AI. Get 2-3 cities up fast and immediately fill them with holy sites and shrines. Unlike in civ5 where you can luck into a religion, you need to make the effort to build multiple holy sites, so unless you seriously aim for religious victory, I think it's best you ignore them. Also, since the cities without Holy Sites need to be converted manually when you found, it's best to build them before founding anyways.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

From what I noticed, you need to pick the +2 Prophet Points policy in your Wild Card slot to have a chance to found a religion on higher difficulties - and even then its more of a big "maybe" than a good chance.
I assume it's mostly caused by the fact that the AI gets extra settlers on higher difficulty levels, so either you have to:
(a) alter their bonuses (if that is possible atm)
(b) pick a lower dififculty
(c) add CIVs that aren't focused on religion (e.g. Kongo)

 

[elitetroops]

Religion isn't gained from faith, but from the great person point (well technically you can buy prophets with faith, but it costs ridiculous, and it's kind of pointless to do that). So really the only reliable way to get religion is to have more Holy Site than the AI. Get 2-3 cities up fast and immediately fill them with holy sites and shrines. Unlike in civ5 where you can luck into a religion, you need to make the effort to build multiple holy sites, so unless you seriously aim for religious victory, I think it's best you ignore them. Also, since the cities without Holy Sites need to be converted manually when you found, it's best to build them before founding anyways.

300 faith makes up for 20 Great Prophet points, or 5 turns earlier religion if you make 4 GPP/turn. 5 turns can easily make the difference between getting a religion or not. You'd have to own a shrine 20 turns to make the same amount of GPP. Other than to found a religion early shrines are quite useless. The units you build to clear barbarian outposts are a lot more valuable. Once you've founded your religion, you are in no great hurry to convert your cities. The early benefits you can get from your religion are quite small to the benefits an army can earn you.

 

[Erneiz Hyde]

+2 prophet point wild card is useless until you get to government which would be way too late on higher levels (unless you're Greece).

edit: ^ yeah I'm actually thinking that military is the best investment in the early game, bar none (unless somewhat isolated). The argument was only for when you're thinking of getting a religion and not much else.

 

[MasterDinadan]

You seem to get a lot of great prophet points from the holy site's project. I feel like building the holy site and spamming the project until you get a prophet (or at least are on course to get it before AI) may be more efficient than building Stonehenge, but I'm not certain (because it isn't clear exactly how much the project gives)

 

[Underseer]

Heck, I can't seem to get a religion on low difficulty. In my second game, I founded my third city next to a natural wonder (had to travel a ways to get there), built a holy district next to the natural wonder, had the +prophet civic, and still could not get a single prophet (tons of faith points, though).

I guess you have to build that holy district very, very early in the game if you want to found a religion at all.

 

[Nefelia]

1) Get an early settler for a second city.

2) Build two Holy Sites and two Shrines.

3) Prayer project.

If there AI is still beating you, go pillage his Holy Site (completely stops his GPP progression).

You might be able to get your religion with just one Shrine and prayer, but I've been going with 2 just to hedge my bets.

 

[King Jason]

3) Prayer project.

Number one most important thing people seem to skip. I've even beelined Astrology, built the Holy site, skipped the shrine and went strait to Prayers and have beaten A.I. to religions.

District Projects are really good. No one's talking about them yet but they're awesome.

 

[Nefelia]

Number one most important thing people seem to skip. I've even beelined Astrology, built the Holy site, skipped the shrine and went strait to Prayers and have beaten A.I. to religions.

District Projects are really good. No one's talking about them yet but they're awesome.

Yep. Going straight to prayer might be the way to go for at least the second Holy Site (assuming one goes the two-city route). The first one can build a shrine or not depending on how well the AI is doing in the Great Prophet race.

 

[Erneiz Hyde]

Oh yeah, the project completely escapes my mind. So how much exactly does it generate per project?

 

[Nefelia]

Oh yeah, the project completely escapes my mind. So how much exactly does it generate per project?

If I recall correctly, my first Prayer project created 15 GPP in 6 turns.

 

[se7en]

What is it you need the holy city for? Depending on the reason, the easiest way might be just to go take the closest holy city from an AI.

 

[Frank327]

Can I also suggest the divine spark pantheon? It doubles the GPP's from your holy site districts. Russia is also really good for getting a religion due to the cheap holy sites.

 

[Iberian]

Why get a religion when you can acquire one as a free bonus for making your lands safer.

 

[Jart]

[QUOTE="Jart, post: 14521473, member: 259584"
]If you are pursuing a religion:
1> Get a Holy District with a shrine to generate Great Prophet points.
2>Watch your Great Prophet (People) points
3>If you are lagging behind spend hammers on the bonus boost for the Holy District

Do not be the last civ to obtain a religion. Saladin will be on the map and will automatically get the last one.[/QUOTE]