Getting leaders to convert to your religion

I am playing the game as a religionut (have founded 4 religions already) and as a result have slacked behind production of military units and have pissed off a couple of my neighbors whose state religion is not one of mine. So to prevent them from attacking, I want to convert them.

When I bring up that particularly angry leader to convert her, I see the option is there to "Convert" but nothing else is listed with it. I am guessing there SHOULD be a choice of religions to convert her to, but how do I get that list to show up?

I had been making missionaries at a wicked pace and sending them into other civs, coverting a city one by one, and eventually that civ chose mine as the state religion. But I have closed borders with this angry civ and wanted to try the "Convert" method.

Any tips welcome!

Another civ can only convert to your state religion IF they have a city with that religion.

And a second question - How do I find out which religion a civ is without opening up the score window? I dont want to see the score, makes the game more fun for me to keep guessing what other civs are doing.

Yep, you'll need to find a way to get open borders, then rush in some missionaries to convert a few cities, just so you can get the option. If they already have a state religion (esp one they founded), it will take quite a bit of infestation of your religion before they will even consider converting.

So you've got a tough road ahead - especially in getting those open borders.

Of course, that's assuming they are even allowing the spread of a non-state religion...

LostKing said:

Another civ can only convert to your state religion IF they have a city with that religion.

Click to expand...

Are you saying that once one city has that religion, when I bring up the leader of that CIV, that particular religion will be listed under "Convert"? I swear I have sent successful missionaries to this particular civ before, but I will check to make sure.

By the way, I noticed that the AI, at least at prince and noble levels, automatically converts to the religion that's most spread (in most cities) as long as it doesn't have an "own" (first discovered) religion.

Made a lot of friends using that...

botski said:

Are you saying that once one city has that religion, when I bring up the leader of that CIV, that particular religion will be listed under "Convert"? I swear I have sent successful missionaries to this particular civ before, but I will check to make sure.

Click to expand...

No, more than half of their cities need to follow that religion for the option to convert be available. If at least 1 city follows that religion then the option will likely appear red in the diplomacy window and if you hover your cursor over it then it will likely say "not enough of our people follow that religion". If thats the case you need to spam out the missionaries. I'm assuming its 50% of their cities btw - that just seems logical to me.

To be honest i've found that converting a civ to a religion to be absolutely pointless if they have founded a religion of their own as they (for me) always change back to their religion after the required amount of turns. Therefore all the time spamming out missionaries was useless and you have affectly lost the bribe you paid them for nothing. This is something which regularly pi**ed me off

botski said:

And a second question - How do I find out which religion a civ is without opening up the score window? I dont want to see the score, makes the game more fun for me to keep guessing what other civs are doing.

Click to expand...

I think that info might be at the top of the screen when you open up a trade window with them. That's where I would look at least.

They only need one city for the option to convert them to appear, but they are very unlikely to accept it unless at least a third of their cities have it. Otherwise it will be in red. (You must of course have a state religion, and so not be running free religion, though this is fairly obvious).

It can sometimes be useful if you need a quick relations boost, but it's very unlikely they'll stick to your religion for more than about 10 turns. Far more effective is to try and get your religion into more than half of their cities, in which case they may well convert of their own accord.

Villein said:

To be honest i've found that converting a civ to a religion to be absolutely pointless if they have founded a religion of their own as they (for me) always change back to their religion after the required amount of turns. Therefore all the time spamming out missionaries was useless and you have affectly lost the bribe you paid them for nothing. This is something which regularly pi**ed me off

Click to expand...

I have seen this, too. However, I have also seen the religion stick quite well, especially with the more cities you populate with that religion (you can't usually rely much on them spreading it themselves). It might also have to do with the popularity of that religion in general. The more AIs that share that particular religion, especially those that are friendly with the AI in question, the more likely the conversion will stick.

Think of it this way: If AI X has their own religion and have spread it throughout their cities, what benefit do they have for converting when you've only filled up half their cities and their standing with their allies/enemies goes relatively unaffected. Conversely, if AI X has this new religion spread to all of their cities as well, and now their friends/enemies are on better terms with them because of this change, wouldn't it be wise to keep this religion?

I've seen this in the most recent game we are playing. I have managed to spread my religion to all the AIs that had no religion, and now I'm working on those other AIs who have their own. Fortunately, some of the AIs that I have spread to are on great terms with some of the others. Victoria was neutral, but is now hindu. She and Gandhi have something going on, but he's Christian. I have good relations with Gandhi, too, and managed to get missionaries into all of his cities. He converted without being asked and hasn't looked back.



Now we're off to kick some heathen butt.

You guys rock! Thanks for your tips. I am quite enjoying the $$$$ coming in from owning 4 religions and my research has never dropped below 100%. We'll see how it pans out. I love the experimenting this game offers!

Missionary rush is the best way to handle this, but of course it requires open borders and that your target is not a theocracy. However, you usually need to do it early in the game, because the longer you wait, the longer things have transpired, and it may get to the point where you just can't make a Civ happy enough to give you open borders.

Even civs with only a slight negative modifier won't offer open borders, and getting them in the positive is not easy, particularly since you don't share religion. I've found that the best way that works for me is to start churning out missionaries early and sending them everywhere I can. Usually before the Renaissance it's pretty clear who your rivals and who your allies are. Work hard on converting your allies (if they aren't your religion already) and for your rivals... do what you can to improve relations but do not worry if they won't convert. If you can get two or three other civs to follow your religion, you're not doing too badly.

Another thing I thought of is...

Do you have any of your cities with his religion? You can convert to his religion long enough to get open borders and send over your missionaries, then when he has been inundated with your religion, switch back to your own and get him to convert.

It isn't the preferred method, as it will likely have a short-term negative impact on your relations with everyone else, but if those relations are very good it won't be noticable and you'll be back to your old ways in short enough order.

How do you get someone to adopt your civic? That option has never appeared for me.

I never get either the convert-religion nor the adopt-civic options.

Make sure you dont let your good body capture an enemy holy city, they will ditch your religion quite quickly.

Also gettign all religions is kinda coool but after a while I stop sreading them so my cities end up with about 5 out of 7 religions, I jsut dont want to bother sacing so many missionaries :/ 5 is still good I guess 50% extra research :/