Theodora(s)

The Byzantine Unique Ability is the ability to pick a 6th Religion belief upon founding of a religion..

So.. I was wondering.. what IF : You played 7 Theodoras against each other, each founding a religion (on huge map), and they all picked a 2nd Founder belief..

Simple.
There is only NINE Founder beliefs.
So that means that only Five religions will be founded..

Once all Founder beliefs are taken, no more religions can be founded, however, Great Prophets can still be spawned by the other 2 civs.

You may be right that once all 9 founder beliefs are gone, no more religions may be able to be formed (I haven't played a G&K game with 17+ AI civs), but I'm not sure your method would guarantee that result, since you can't be assured that the Byzantine clones would all choose an extra founder belief as their bonus belief. They could choose any belief as their bonus, including a second enhancer or an additional pantheon or follower belief. In fact, I suspect they would be more likely to run out of enhancer beliefs before exhausing the founder beliefs, but I don't think that would prevent additional religions from being formed.

That blew my mind. To make it work, it should be a multiplayer match, as the AI will never pick 2 founders for every theodora

To think, that there'd be a Theodora who COULDN'T found a religion. I imagine she'd be beside herself.

Haha. One reason I stopped playing Theodora is because she is too slow to adopt a religion in the first place, and a lot of beliefs will already be taken by the AI before you can get to them.

Hmm maybe, does anyone think Theodora's ability is underpowered? Or is it just that there is no down side?

Heretiv said:

Hmm maybe, does anyone think Theodora's ability is underpowered? Or is it just that there is no down side?

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The main downside is actually getting a religion for her above Emperor... you have to really go for it, while delaying doing other things, which puts you back a bit. Pick the right founder and follower options, and you can catch up though... biggest problem is if you get attacked at that time, and you lose the time AND the religion!

The_Quasar said:

The main downside is actually getting a religion for her above Emperor... you have to really go for it, while delaying doing other things, which puts you back a bit. Pick the right founder and follower options, and you can catch up though... biggest problem is if you get attacked at that time, and you lose the time AND the religion!

Click to expand...

Interestingly enough, what you said are exactly the reasons why I both enjoy and dislike playing with her. I like feeling vulnerable (no, not a fetish of mine) at the start of the game and having to rush myself after establishing a religion to catch up with the other civs. I find more fulfillment in defending against stronger armies over, say, wiping out a civ and puppeting their cities

It's the point after I establish my religion that I lose interest. Her unique units are gone, her UA - while useful, powerful and long-lasting - has been milked. You have no more say in how things are done other than actively spreading her religion - something you can do with any civ. I don't dislike the civ as a whole, I just lose interest.