*Unofficial* Challenge "Zealots and Mercenaries"

Hey all,

I have been a tourist on CivFanatics for quite some time now so I decided to share a self imposed play-style with you all. I enjoy this particular way of playing tremendously, So, here goes:


Settings:
*All Leader permitted
*All VC enabled
*Continents or Pangea only

Limitations:
*Can only attack cities that have your religion
*Can only gain land units through faith purchase (Zealots)
*Can only gain other units through gold purchase (Mercenaries)
*No units, of any kind, may be produced except for Caravans/Cargoships and 1 worker to get your capitol along, if this worker is lost, a replacement may only be purchased
*May only build wonders that give faith/economic bonus
*May not use Rationalism tree or choose any beliefs that give bonus to science
*May not conquer city states (though you may puppet them as venice or buy them as switzerland)


Winning Conditions:
*Domination only. I know, all VC are active but you are only allowed to win through domination. Which means all capitols must be converted first.

Suggested civs/leaders (in no particular order)

Arabia: The extra range for caravans is nice, but its the extra religious presure from trade routes that makes Arabia a solid candidate for "Z&M"

Venice: Super powerful and fun to play, as always. The extra trade routes means you can keep the pressure on more cities at once, and the extra gold doesn't hurt.

Byzantine: One extra belief, nufsaid..

Ethiopia: +2 faith from stele, so you can get that pantheon quickly. Not recommended for Domination as you will loose your +20% combat bonus far to quickly for this civ to be vialbe

Boudica: You will be the first to get a pantheon. The picktish warriors will help you get some eary faith fast.

Poland: Extra Policies FTW!!! I often go for Poland when playing Z&M because I want to get the reformation policy asap and then move on to the honour tree.

Strategy:

1) Get that pantheon like yesterday! Z&M is all about that faith boy so no time to waste.
2) Build Stone henge
3) If you play on Continents, make it your mission to get their ASAP!! Don't let the other continent grow without your religious influence or you'll have a difficult time converting them later on.
4) Beliefs:

* Pantheon: choose one that helps you build up as much faith as possible, FAST!
* !!Must take HOLY WARRIORS and RELIGIOUS FERVOUR (after all, this is the only way you can get units)
* I personally like to take JUST WAR (+20% CS against cities with your religion) but you can do without
*UNDERGROUND SECT (spies spread religion) is also very useful!
*PILGRIMAGE is a must, no other belief allows you to build up such religious momentum when converting/conquering cities.

5) Spread your religion! Use your trade routes, missionaries and spies (if you can) to convert cities you wish to conquer.
6) Be wary of Science civs as they will pass you by in tech very quickly (as you're not allowed any science wonders...). Try and attack these civs first
7) Keep nice with citie states, make sure you don't get embargoed as this significantly impairs your ability to spread your faith.

I would be interested on which difficulty you are accomplishing this.

i cannot imagine this possible on Immortal or Deity because you will just get steam rolled before you come online and you will only have the chance to get your religion going in ~30% of the games best because the AI can spam soooo many prophets/missionares...

I frequently create my own challenges and have been considering one that involved faith, so this is just what I was looking for. Thanks for the suggestion.

As far as the difficulty level, I normally play emperor, but for something like this, where there are many unknowns, I will try it at a lower level. It's just fun trying something completely different.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ah yes, I forget to mention the difficulty settings

I´ve managed to do this on emperor with Venice, but I enjoy it most on King difficulty.

Do you allow yourself early DOWs to steal AI workers or not? There aren't any religions then and you aren't attacking cities, just stealing things so it seems valid...