Can't purchase a great person with faith

alangtknox · Oct 8, 2012

Playing as China, marathon, 16 total civs, no city states, sandstorm map (pangea), emporer level focusing on culture from the start. I started on river, next to mountain in upper left portion of map. Great choke point with mountains going to east allowing only two means of egress above my capital. Did not get first religion point until I built the great mosque (have forgotten what it was called). Too many religions by then so I got no foundation belief. Built the Hagia anyway and planted the great prophet. Thought oh well use my points for great people eventually. Long story short won the game with culture win with my origial capital and one additional city on water to blockade the mountain pass. Puppeted 7 cities and weathered 8 wars declared by others. Had over 16000 faith points but could never buy anyone with them. Did I need someone to convert my capital? Could I have claimed one of my puppets that had a major religion and used that city to buy the great people? Or was I out of luck from no foundation belief? Any help appreciated I would love to go back now and fight it out with the other civs for total domination as tech wise the large ones and I were running neck and neck to the end. If this answered earlier I appologize for the restart.

Halcyan2 · Oct 8, 2012

alangtknox said:
Playing as China, marathon, 16 total civs, no city states, sandstorm map (pangea), emporer level focusing on culture from the start. I started on river, next to mountain in upper left portion of map. Great choke point with mountains going to east allowing only two means of egress above my capital. Did not get first religion point until I built the great mosque (have forgotten what it was called). Too many religions by then so I got no foundation belief. Built the Hagia anyway and planted the great prophet. Thought oh well use my points for great people eventually. Long story short won the game with culture win with my origial capital and one additional city on water to blockade the mountain pass. Puppeted 7 cities and weathered 8 wars declared by others. Had over 16000 faith points but could never buy anyone with them. Did I need someone to convert my capital? Could I have claimed one of my puppets that had a major religion and used that city to buy the great people? Or was I out of luck from no foundation belief? Any help appreciated I would love to go back now and fight it out with the other civs for total domination as tech wise the large ones and I were running neck and neck to the end. If this answered earlier I appologize for the restart.

You need to be in Industrial Age or later, and then may need certain Social Policy trees unlocked to buy particular people.

Once you are in Industrial, you can check the Religion screen or go to the city screen (purchase) in order to buy Great People.

AFAIK, you should not need any particular religion or pantheon to buy Great People.

alangtknox · Oct 8, 2012

I was in atomic age at the end of the game. Still had Dynamite left on tech tree (I build the great wall and wanted to keep the slow moving enemy benefit). Chased the upper path to get the Sydney Opera House. Had finished the trees to allow artist and merchant but still could not buy. Looked at save when I went back my faith was over 18000 points at the end of the game. Any ideas appreciated. I could reopen the save and try the idea of claiming one of my puppets that has religion in it. Do I need to capture a capital that founded a religion? Like I said earlier I had no founder belief due to waiting too long. Had prioritized food in order to get to the hanging garden and petra.

Browd · Oct 8, 2012

You do need to have a religion, not just a pantheon, in the city in which you are trying to buy great people with faith. It can be anyone's religion; doesn't need to be a religion you founded. As the earlier post said, you also need to have taken the opener for the policy tree that unlocks the particular type(s) of great people you want to buy (Rationalism for Great Scientists, Freedom for Great Artists, etc.).

If you want to experiment with the game save, you can annex one of the cities you puppeted that has a religion and do your buying there. Or, you can see if there are any missionaries wandering around that you can capture and send back to your capital. Once it's converted, you can buy GPs in your capital. (There's no particular reason you should want or need to buy GPs in your capital, but it can be fun to convert your own capital....)

Halcyan2 · Oct 8, 2012

Thanks for the clarification. I have never *not* had a religion, so that scenario never came up for me!

alangtknox · Oct 9, 2012

Went back to the save game and annexed a puppet that had a religion. Was then able to start spending the saved religion points on a Great Artist or Merchant as well as Pagoda. Still could not spend in my capital but could buy missionaries so would expect I could export the religion to my capital then to buy a pagoda there also. Thanks for the help.

Can't purchase a great person with faith

alangtknox

Chieftain

Halcyan2

Emperor

alangtknox

Chieftain

Browd

Dilettante

Halcyan2

Emperor

alangtknox

Chieftain

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