How advisable is it to start your own religion in Civ V?

The other nice thing about founding is the CS quests to convert them. After barb camps, this is the CS quest I am most likely to go out of my way to complete.
 
It's highly advisable, especially since tithe is still the most powerful founder belief. Later in game, it can mean the difference between having an additional 50-100gpt or not. Excess faith will also give you extra great people. You could hoard up faith, finish rationalism buy about 7 GS' in late game and bulb your way to the necessary techs to build spaceship parts and win. Also, if you have any dangerous nieghbouring opponents in SP or MP, you could choose defender as faith enhancer which effectively gives you an Ethiopian UA near your cities that follow your religion.
 
It is advisable because when you don't have a religion, you end up with much less faith. Religion gives you more faith because of the grand temple that can be built in the holy city. This is why the faith increase will allow you to shop for more great people that are brought with so much faith. The more faith you invest in, the more great people you can shop for in the future. You don't have to make a religion, but you do have to have a holy city.

That's not always true though. A wide civ will almost always outperform a tall civ on faith but will rarely ever build the grand temple. Doesn't matter if they founded or not. Faith for buying great people is easy to get if it's what you're going for. Shrines and temples can be built quickly at that point in the game. Heck, doing what happyturtle said and building holy sites will ensure your faith generation is better than the guy who used his first two prophets to found and enhance.
 
Think about your strategy first ,if there is some religion matching your plan ,go for it .If you are unclear ,probably you should just focus on other things rather than letting this killing your brain cells .
 
That's not always true though. A wide civ will almost always outperform a tall civ on faith but will rarely ever build the grand temple. Doesn't matter if they founded or not. Faith for buying great people is easy to get if it's what you're going for. Shrines and temples can be built quickly at that point in the game. Heck, doing what happyturtle said and building holy sites will ensure your faith generation is better than the guy who used his first two prophets to found and enhance.

That's true. 2-3 different holy sites make a lot of faith.
 
I'm playing a game as Poland with no religion of my own. I have three holy sites and a holy mountain natural wonder.

Meanwhile, Theodora and Maria Theresa are spamming the world with missionaries. One of the religions has Mosques and Cathedrals. The other one has Pagodas and Monasteries. Whenever I get enough faith, I just look through my cities and see which one is the best place for a shiny new building. If my cities are between religions, then I'm benefiting from my own pantheon, which buffs my Ducal Stable enhanced pastures.

Even though they are the religious civs, I effortlessly win every faith quest from the city-states because I planted Holy Sites instead of burning those prophets on religion. Even with a Grand Temple and the Theology wonders that the AI tends to go for, they still can't catch up. The only thing I'm missing out on are the Founder Beliefs, and I think the bonuses from the city-state quests probably balance that out.

Founding and customizing a religion is fun, particularly if you have a leader that synergizes well with faith, but it's by no means necessary for a strong game.
 
As most things in BNW, it depends. I go for founding a religion if I have a civ that gets bonus faith (Celts, Maya, Ethiopia, Spain often), has a Temple UB (Egypt, Songhai), or another religion related benefit (Byzantium, Arabia). Other than that I would need an attractive terrain Pantheon (Wine tends to be specially good, typically lots around and Monasteries are nice) or a Faith bonus from a Natural Wonder, city state or goodie hut. Would err on the side of not founding with Venice and Indonesia.
 
Top Bottom