Heathen Conversion

So I was reading about reformation beliefs in the War Academy and Heathen Conversion really caught my eye. I had never really given this reformation belief the time of day because it didn't because it didn't seem useful.

If a missionary instantly converts barbs to your civ and cannot be captured, this could be very useful! I play a lot of game on Tilted Axis Pangaea maps where a lot of the map is snow covered and full of barbarians. In theory, I could send a missionary up there and convert endless barbarians to my cause and send a wave of troops into war!

Anyone tried something like this before?

I kinda want to, put them in front of artillery as meat shields, send them in endless waves.

The problem is that the bonus just isn't active for too long. Most camps will be cleared relatively soon in BNW, so as long as you don't want your missionary to farm the few remaining camps somewhere around the north pole, send every converted unit on a 30-turn-long journey to your lands, then the usefulness vanishes in the midgame.

Not a weak bonus per se, but other reformation beliefs are way more powerful if you're playing with standard settings. However, if you play on marathon and with raging barbarians active, then you can get some really insane value out of it.

If you get below -10 happiness, there is a chance rebels will spawn in your territory. Rebels are treated as barbs, and can be converted the same. I suppose you could go on a rapid conquering spree, ignore the unhappiness and use it to your advantage for the free units. However, the unhappiness brings a combat penalty, 2% per unhappy, so you would be fighting with atleast -20% strength, prolly more. Not sure if it would be worth it...

Must be fun on Terra maps, it's common to meet barbarian Great war Infantry...

If you play Spain, you can convert Axe Throwers, bring them to a city you settled, and upgrade to Conquistador: free settler!

Raging Barbs will have to be turned on also!

If at least one civ has researched Nuclear Fusion there's a possibility to have barbarian Giant Death Robots spawn as rebels in your borders Just sayin'...

Paszczak said:

If at least one civ has researched Nuclear Fusion there's a possibility to have barbarian Giant Death Robots spawn as rebels in your borders Just sayin'...

Click to expand...

Wait, rebels' tech level isn't based on that of the unhappy civ, but on overall research advancement ?