What affects missionary odds?

It's really annoying when missionaries fail to spread religions, after that long march/long sea voyage to get them to their destination! What factors increase the chances of failure, and how can I maximize successes?

What influences the chance of missionary success: whether the city is owned by your team, and how many religions the city has already got.

So to improve your odds... well, if it's an enemy city, you can try capturing it first. That's about it.

Each time you convert a city, the odds of a later conversion drop; so in practice the important thing is to prioritize the religions (state religion, wall street religions, other religions for which you own the shrine, what ever is left).

The probability of converting your own team's city are never lower than 40%; other cities half that. Assuming the game actually matches the code in the SDK, etc.

Reference: CvUnit::spread

Edit: pointed out elsewhere, you can gift your missionary to the AI, and let the AI try to convert its own city for you

city population & number of religions in the city.

VoiceOfUnreason said:

Edit: pointed out elsewhere, you can gift your missionary to the AI, and let the AI try to convert its own city for you

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Does that actually work? Sounds like a good strategy...

Does that actually work?

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it works, but is unreliable, sometimes they just sit there. occasionally they try to convert other cultures, which is real nice if you don't have open borders with that culture.

ese-aSH said:

city population

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Can anyone verify this? As I recall the only factor was the number of religions in the city. Each religion increased the chace of failure by 14%, starting with 0.

Lord Chambers said:

Can anyone verify this? As I recall the only factor was the number of religions in the city. Each religion increased the chace of failure by 14%, starting with 0.

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Population? No, population having any impact contradicts my understanding of the SDK.

By my understanding, 14% isn't quite right. Closer to 9%/religion for your own cities, 11%/religion for everybody else's (assuming the standard game with seven religions). It's always possible to shoehorn in another religion, because of the base chance of success.

Or I'm an idiot. Let's not be too hasty about eliminating that possibility.