Great prophet only useful religious unit?

I think the inquisitor is useless, can only remove religion once! The missionary can only add religion twice. The great prophet is the only strong unit that can not only spread religion multiple times but it automatically removes the other religions. So why is there such a discrepancy between the great prophet and everything else? It's like all your military units are crossbowman except one who is a modern tank. I hope 2k makes religious units more powerful next time. It's annoying to spend so much time removing religion from cities nearby other civs. Tips and tricks anyone?

missionaries are best used early to get your religion spread to your cities or to nearby CS.

MarauderCH said:

missionaries are best used early to get your religion spread to your cities or to nearby CS.

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This. Prophets take a huge amount of faith to get, are slow as snail poo, and it's a very long time between them where you aren't accomplishing any religion spreading- particularly early on, when it is the most critical to get yours spread first so it can push out the rest with it's awesome powah. In the time it takes to spawn a couple prophets, you could have sent out a half a dozen nimble missionaries that got you twice as many cities for your religion. In the early game, when cities are low-pop, less than ten citizens, a simple missionary will usually convert over 50% of their people with one shot, and that's all you need to start your ball rolling downhill big time. Get the Great Mosque which gives them 3 shots instead of 2, and more the better.

Later on, when the rest of the civs get to spreading more religion around, then the prophets show their real worth, because they can cleanse out the enemy religion before converting to yours. Missionaries aren't so great for that. But by that time, the religious frontiers are more like trench warfare- slow and brutal, with you and the other aggressive religions trading punches with your prophets, and often not a lot of progress gets made. The real religion-spreading game is won or lost by the fastest with the mostest, in the first few thousand years. And missionaries fill that bill very well.

I think Smokeybear has pretty much said it all. I used to be of the same view as the OP, but early on you can pump out a lot of missionaries- especially if you ally a religious CS.

As for inquisitors, again, they are cheap and are valuable if you have an AI aggressively spreading their own religion- (think Ethiopia or the Celts). In those circumstances it can be really helpful to park an inquisitor in your Holy City. It does seem to deter Prophets.

Always park an Inquisitor in your holy city. And Inquisitors are also useful when you capture an enemy holy city ... burn an Inquisitor on it and bam - no more holy city.

I prefer to buy a missionary before getting the second 300 faith prophet. As long as you are quick enough and get religion on your initial core cities, additional ones settled/conquered after that will absorb your religion on their own. Then you can use the 300 faith prophet to enhance. The key to a strong religion is largely dependent on how quickly you can get them on multiple cities. Even against Civs with more faith per turn: they need to burn all that extra faith just to remove all the cities you've already converted.

Missionaries do the same thing great prophets do, to cities without any religion yet, but are cheaper during the medieval and renaissance period. Missionaries are also available sooner than the third great prophet. You can get really good results if you buy missionaries nonstop during the medieval period.

AlextheGr8 said:

I think the inquisitor is useless, can only remove religion once! The missionary can only add religion twice. The great prophet is the only strong unit that can not only spread religion multiple times but it automatically removes the other religions. So why is there such a discrepancy between the great prophet and everything else? It's like all your military units are crossbowman except one who is a modern tank. I hope 2k makes religious units more powerful next time. It's annoying to spend so much time removing religion from cities nearby other civs. Tips and tricks anyone?

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All 3 units do have different uses.

Inquistor: Best use is to park in (or next too) whichever city the AI wants to actively convert. (Normally your capital, but is sometimes a different city.)

Missionary: Best use is for cities that only have pantheons; especially early on when these only cost 200 faith each. (Jump-starting your religion if you have any enhancer other than RT or Messiah)

Great Prophet: Best use is for cities that have several followers of some other religion.

inquisitor is really important when you have your own religion... They prevent other civilizations from spreading their religions to you