2nd game in a row w/o religion

This is the second time back to back my civ has not managed to gain a religion before they were all taken.

What tips do you have for gaining the necessary faith to "get on the board" religiously speaking.

There were 4 CS's near my civ, 3 were cultural (got a great culture boost from them) and the 4th was mercantile.
Short of stumbling into a faith ruin I just can't seem to accumulate enough to get a religion before they are all gone.

Play as Ethiopia or Maya and you will definitely get a religion.

3 Suggestions:

1)Above Emperor it takes focus- you need to build shrines and get temples in every one of your cities, and the more cities you have, the better.

2) Research Pottery --> Calendar ASAP. As soon as you finish, start building Stonehenge immediately. Switch your capital to production. Take Tradition, and select the +15% to wonders policy ASAP. If you do this, you will get a religion.

3) Take a pantheon belief that gives you more faith. Desert folklore, tunda, the quarries one...

You can take the celts/maya/ethiopia. However, this is rather limiting, so if you wanna play your favourite civ and still get a religion, you can

1) Ally a religious CS (including scouting hard to find one)

2) Use a religious natural wonder

3) Build Stone Henge (only with a v good start cos it's competitive)

4) Use a religious pantheon. (requires a ruin to get going or a shrine + meet religious CS (I've taken to buying my first), or heavy investment in shrines/temples with early expansion)
I find 4 to be the best, because it's more versatile and less of a craps shoot. If you can't do 1 or 2 and don't think you'll be able to go for 3, 4 is good because there are a load you can take -
1) Everyone knows desert folklore, get it with a desert start
2) Dance of aurora, get when on tundra, especially with hills cos you might actually work those tiles! If you're near tundra it might be a possible idea to move onto the tundra itself, cos with the pantheon the city tile will give good food/hammers plus the +1 faith for free off of a weak tile.
3) One with nature - get if you have a natural wonder nearby that isn't religious (if it is, it'll already be giving you the faith boost you need, so you can take MoG/FR for your pantheon), a second on the horizon wouldbe ideal. Particularly good with great barrier reef, which counts as 2 wonders.
4) stone cirles - Get if you can work approx 3 stones in a reasonable timeframe.
5) The one where you get faith from nearby wars. I like this one cos it's not terrain dependant, pick it if you start real close to some warmongers and expect an early DoW. Get good at inducing DoWs from reluctant would be warmongers. Nice cos you turn the most dangerous thingin the game into a benefit.
6) Less good but the one that gives +1 faith and + culture for wines and incense. Should only do with 3 or so such lux's, and will probably have to work in conjunction with shrines/temple builds here, but you get the culture boost as well.

Every one of these things is situational, but between all of them it's very rare that there's nothing you can do to aid your situation and get a religion. Just remember that if nothing else works out, you can usually sacrifice a MoG/FR pantheon in order to get a good founder/enhancer, which are the two best beliefs anyway.

Lastly, don't forget to think about the Hagia Sofia later on, which may be your best shot at getting the religious texts/itinerant preachers enhancer, which'll really make your founder work.

at deity you need focus AND luck ... if there is no religious CS, no religious natural wonder near you you will only get a religion (while focusing...) if not so many civ are interested in them (and none if you do not focus the "not interested" will get them before you if you do not have great focus).

if you have a religious CS OR a religious wonder ... just focus your HAVE to be continuously allied with the religious CS or you SHOULD build your 2nd city near the wonder and exploit it FROM START (ya often that means no growth until you can get a granary... you want a religion or not ? ) and obviously the 1st building in all your cities is an shrine ... with that and a good choice of pantheon you will get a religion most of the time ( often will be the last...). and yes 3 cities is imo a minimum (never tried with less).

remember a lucky ruin only means you get a better choice of pantheon... the race is just started.

and for a religious natural wonder "near" is relative... if you own the only land way to it 20 case away is near to get it if you want a religion... if you have a way to defend both (1path to the part were both cities are for example) it is near enough

I tend to not actively pursue a religion when playing at these difficulty levels. A pantheon however is worth getting.
I have two questions which could change the way I view things:
Do great prophet spawning (i.e : at ~200 faith, before industrial) count toward your great people generation (it looks like it does not, but I am not sure)?
Do you lose your pantheon if a foreign religion spread to your city? (it looks like it does).
Thanks.

1. No - But I have heard the free great person from liberty if you choose a Great Prophet might (I haven't done this often and haven't checked when I did - so not sure)
2. Yes

I am playing on Immortal level and it is near impossible to found a religion without:

1. Building several cities as soon as possible
2. Building shrines first in each city
3. Finding a goody hut with a Faith bonus

Even doing all of this, it is very, very difficult to found a religion. And I can't build Stonehenge on Immortal level.

I think it is very unfair that one of the other civs (I suspect the Ethiopians) get to found a Pantheon in a matter of a few turns while it takes me A LOT longer as the Koreans. The Faith bias for certain civs is way too severe, IMHO.

Having moved up to deity recently, I find it difficult to found a religion. I really have to make an effort at it. The tips above from Crafty Bison are very good, and that's the path I follow. I prefer to build a city near Mt Sinai or Sri Pada, but if by about turn 20 my scout and warrior haven't found those, then I'll try to befriend a religious city-state. If I haven't found one, I'll compete for Stonehenge, and I'll win that race more often than not. I almost always choose God of War, so that slaughtering the invading barbarians gives me both and

Gucumatz said:

1. No - But I have heard the free great person from liberty if you choose a Great Prophet might (I haven't done this often and haven't checked when I did - so not sure)

Click to expand...

I haven't spawned a GPr from the Liberty finisher, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't reset the Great Person timer to the next 100 increment. In any event, rather than spawn a Great Prophet with the finisher, consider getting a GE and then bulbing Hagia Sophia -- you get the free GPr (who I know doesn't reset the Great Person clock), extra faith and a free Temple.

siredgar said:

I am playing on Immortal level and it is near impossible to found a religion without:

1. Building several cities as soon as possible
2. Building shrines first in each city
3. Finding a goody hut with a Faith bonus

Even doing all of this, it is very, very difficult to found a religion. And I can't build Stonehenge on Immortal level.

Click to expand...

Well, unlike lower levels where you can do pretty much everything simultaneously, on Immortal you do need to prioritize what you want to accomplish. In addition to the methods you note, as Pook says you can try to settle near a religious wonder (in GOTM 44 the capital had Sinai three tiles away, which made that strategy work for an OCC game), but that depends on geography, which you cannot assure. One fall-back (which Pook also notes) is to make friends with a religious CS - get at least 4 faith when you first meet, immediately pledge to protect (to start the influence meter creeping up to 10), and then either prioritize satisfying that CS's quests or use proceeds from sales of early luxuries or strategic resources to make a cash gift to buy 10+ turns of friendship. (Of course, that gold then can't be used for another worthy purpose, like buyng a settler or an archer to help fend off an early warrior rush, but this game is all about making choices.)

With a religious CS friendship and a shrine in your capital and maybe another city, you have approx-Stonehenge-level faith rolling in as long as the friendship lasts. Do this reasonably early, and you should easily get a pantheon. For founding and enhancing a religion, you need to keep renewing the friendship or have some other method of consistently generating faith, or just bee-line Theology to build Hagia Sophia (which I find easier to accomplish on higher levels than competing with the AI for Stonehenge). In fact, I've founded a religion with no prior pantheon just with the GPr from HS (need at least one more foundable religion, of course).

Read the posts of Pook, Browd, and Crafty Bison to get my answer. Technically all I wanted to say.

Rather, no. read all the posts before me. You get my answer.

lol, silly smiley...

On Diety If I want to guarantee a religion I don't build early momuments except first city, you have to sacrifice something.. and I usually sacrifice early money that would usually go to settlers into a religious city state. Even then it is touch and go unless you are Boudica, Hallie or Mayan's. Or grab faith from a barb ruin...Playing as mayans guarantees a religion at Diety im my opinion. never failed with them.