Religious Pressure is Killing Me

docbud

Emperor
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Feb 14, 2012
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I'm in a game, and Ethiopia is killing me religious-wise. He has Christianity and the pressure from his holy city is 60+. My nearest city to him (with Judaism) is only putting out 20 or so. My holy city is only putting out 40 or so. It seems all I'm doing is waiting for Great Prophets to take my cities back. The pressure is killing me.

They keep getting converted because the pressure from Ethiopia is so strong (My capital/holy city never gets converted, but that too keeps converting to Christianity over the course of several turns).

NOTE: This is early (year is 1220 AD), and his capital only has a population of SIX, yet he's putting out 60 pressure. I have pops of 8 to 10 in my three cities.

How do I deal with the pressure? Mathematically it's impossible, so do I just declare war on his butt to end it? His capital is only about 10 miles away and I've got three or four trebs, CBs, conquistadors, etc. I easily have enough troops. But I am trying to play a peaceful game as Spain.

Oh--I've converted Jerusalem and some other religious CS to my religion, but the pressure isn't enough.

Ideas?
 
You either need more bases or you need to convert more cities to your own religion. Otherwise you could declare war, take his Capital, plop an Inquisitor in it and stuff it out forever. You could even give it back if you wanted at that point lol.
 
Peaceful game as Spain? What for? Smite him with your conquistadors and tercios, lol.

Without Religious Texts or Itinerant Preachers, it's pretty darn difficult to fight against a very religious civ in pressure. Usually when you found your city a religion they've already spread some to his cities already, making a large advantage that only gaps itself, kind of like the rich gets richer trend. Time to pluck the heart of the problem from its roots.
 
Thanks--and I hadn't planned on playing tall, but that was the result of the hand I was dealt. I've got an inquisitor ready for this, and my battle lines are drawn.

Do I need a great prophet to convert his city first and then use my inquisitor, or can I just use the inquisitor?

Here's a few snapshots of his pressure and my current offensive heading in.

Oh--he has one of this GPs in the area, but I've got the Inquisitor for now to block him. Unless I take him out now. I was going to wait for artillery, but I'm still teching fertilizer.
 

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It's sorta a point of contention. I would love for pressure to be more proportional to city size and be affected by things such as religious building, however depending on what they change, this could only make it that much harder to keep your pressure up on higher difficulties when even the smallest border AI city can dwarf yours in population. At least as it is now, it's more or less an even fight and if you want more pressure and faith, build more cities.

I'm not sure what I would change to make it easier to get more pressure when playing tall.
 
^^unfortunately, building more cities is not an option. There is no room. Only thing I can do is either attack and puppet a CS (which I never do), or take over Ethiopia and puppet him and kill his religion.

It does seem odd that his pop of 7 has that much pressure--but then again, he spread his religion to God only knows how many CS's.
 
population doesn't matter, it's just the number of cities within range. The only other factor is the religious texts belief.

often it comes down to timing. The religion that is founded when there are lots of small cities nearby will spread very quickly, get entrenched and will be very difficult to counteract without using several prophets at once (ala MaddJinn in the Maya LP).

having Ethiopia, Maya or Celts right next to you forces an adjustment in your religion strategy. Either wait to expand until you are sure you can spread your own religion to the new cities, or try and race them to get yours spreading faster. That can be difficult if you are not a religious civ yourself. If both of these fail or are unrealistic you can try something extreme like MD or you can go the military route.
 
I took over two of his cities (took his capital) and converted, and another city, but the pressure is still killing me. Although no longer 60+, it's in the 30s.

I'm at peace right now until I build up my troops again and do a total all-out assault. Ethiopia has 3 cities left I believe, and they are small.

The Christianity pressure is really messing me up :(

Here's where I am now...

He has several CS's following Christianity as well, so it's a ton of pressure.

I'm thinking of taking out Ethiopia and then hopefully using GPs and Inquisitors.

I just recently took Adwa and Addis Ababa (about ten turns ago)
 

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To add--Ethiopia has only two cities left as of now and BOTH following my religion. I've used GPs to convert my religion (Judaism), and it's all for naught. It's 50/50. I've converted all but two CS's to Judaism, and I'm still getting killed by Christianity.

By 50/50 I mean that half my cities and CS's are half Christian/half Judaism per pressure and citizens.

I've got four cities, three puppets, and three or four CS's following my religion, but I'm spending all my time trying to keep Ethiopa from converting them all. And I took out his holy city and made it Judaism, and then took out his second, and then third city.
 
Raze the christians! Feed them all to the lions! Mwuhahahahaaaa!!!
 
I am slowly catching up and making progress :) But damn--this is hard work :(
 
Religions rule with at least 6 cities for extra pressure. Conquer them.
 
It does seem odd that his pop of 7 has that much pressure--but then again, he spread his religion to God only knows how many CS's.

Do note that population has no bearing on the amount of pressure. Pressure is based on the number of cities within range with such religion. I believe its 6 pressure per city so a city with 60 pressure (without the modifiers) means that there are 10 cities within range that has that religion. The only way to lower it is to convert nearby cities with your own religion to reduce the pressure of theirs and increase the pressure of yours.
 
Just to note that the first civ to get religion has the full list of beliefs from which to choose. Those getting religion after pick from the leftovers. This keeps true right on through to the enhancer beliefs. It would be interesting to check on what belief Ethiopia/Christianity has in your game, which you can do on the religion screen.

Is it happening from a belief that enhances spread passively (religious texts, itinerant preachers, religious unity) or from extra powerful missionaries/Gpr's? If the latter, you can knock them out before they can act, but at the risk of war.

I find that countering active (missionary) religious spread can be done through the backdoor. If you have someone who is spreading your way, you can send a missionary/GPr to another civ near him that doesn't have a religion and get yours going there. Even if on the other side of the world, if there is peace you can get your missionary/GPr over the water with a single ship guarding against barb ships. This will at least cause him to send missionaries/GPr's away from you to cover his rear.
 
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