2 Holy cities, diplomatic/cultural victory?

I'm playing mp with a friend and perhaps 8 AI players, Prince level. I ended up with Arabia and have been trying to emphasize religion. I'm doing okay, I have the most points in 1920. The thing is that I conquered Venice and now have two holy cities. Both fairly powerful globally with the edge to Mecca.

I may have a shot on cultural victory and have no idea about the chance for diplomatic victory. The second religion complicate things and I don't know how to use it or what to do with it.

I'd appreciate some advice, thanks.

Nothing?

What are the beliefs of the second religion, and how far away is Venice from your Holy City, is it exerting a lot of religious pressure? If Venice has some valuable beliefs, you can send Missionaries or a GP to convert a favorable city of your own, especially to buy Pagodas and such, or to get some big tile boosts. 1920 seems kind of late though. I often take Tithe, and so I want my religion everywhere, every 4th converted citizen total adds to the $, so I would have subdued Venice's religion with pressure and/or GP or Inquisitors, most likely. My two cents!

You don't have to keep both religions... You could keep their religious buildings if they have any and keep the religion that you made in all cities. Inquisitors, missionaries and religious buildings are all purchasable by faith so make sure you have enough faith to keep the desired religion going...

for a diplomatic victory, you want CS influence and gold.
Does either religion benefit this? Tithe help with gold, but there are other gold bearing tenets as well i think. There is also a CS influence tenet, not sure if you have it or not.

For cultural, you will want to get the World congress to have one of those two religions as the world religion. Since you have the holy city, you get the tourism boost. The AI will vote in favor if the majority of their cities follow that religion. So, plan / convert accordingly.

For cultural you also need tourism. Have anything that can boost tourism in those religions? Cultural output?

What are the beliefs of each religion and how many cities does each religion have?

Religion is so gnk.. in bnw you can have any religion and simply take advantage of their benefits. If you made a religion then try to spread that religion and try to erase the other religions so that only your religion is the one that stays. Religion is a good source of happiness so make sure you have faith to purchase any buildings that your religion might have. If you are making prophets, you don't have to complete a whole religion and make a holy shrine instead since faith seems to be what is important to make faith purchases.

On World Religion, you only benefit if you choose the religion that is a majority in a majority of your cities, so JeSuisNapoleon's question is the key one -- how many cities does each religion have? Also, note that you only get the founder belief from your own founded religion -- controlling the other holy city does not give you that religion's founder beliefs.

In general, unless the conquered religion is very well spread in your empire and in other AI nations, you will likely zap the other Holy City with an inquisitor (to destroy it's holy city character) and just spread your religion. But the map and the religious landscape may lead you to conclude that you should do just the opposite.

Browd said:

you will likely zap the other Holy City with an inquisitor (to destroy it's holy city character)

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As far as I know you can't actually stop it from being a Holy City, and it will always cause internal pressure on itself for its old religion. But with an inquisitor or prophet and enough nearby cities, you certainly can suppress that religion under too much pressure for the rest of the game.

No, an inquisitor removes its holy city status.

Thanks! I'll try the inquisitors on Venice and see how it goes.

Edit: Venice is the only city I own with it's religion, but there are a number of city-states and a few major civ's that are influenced by Venice. Not as much as my own founded religion though.