Is religion an after thought now?

With religion, its now a choice. You can choose to use and possibly abuse it. Or you can ignore and hope the AI gives you a decent one. Basically you won't fall terribly behind everyone else,

I_qua_I said:

What? How? Has it changed since G&K?

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+1 per 2 cities (was +1 per city)

To be honest I'm pretty obsessed with religion, and in BNW I always try to add piety to my builds.

With the reformation beliefs and the possible world religion buffs, its just too good to pass. I'll easily pass the slight growth of going full tradition for a bigger long-term benefit. Once you have tithe and happiness + gold from temples, you start making money and then the religious game starts.

I find religion pretty useful. If you can afford one spare policy, just taking Piety cuts the hammer costs by half (doubly useful if you have a temple UB). And the benefits can be pretty extreme once you get things going - like others have said, faith tourism or Tithe or access to GP is pretty grand, in one game I think I got about six great people from Faith

I use religion mainly for happiness and it's very effective. In fact, it's saving my life right now in a cultural game by adding ~30 happiness. You can win a game without it imo but it's a big advantage having one.

SilverDash said:

I use religion mainly for happiness and it's very effective. In fact, it's saving my life right now in a cultural game by adding ~30 happiness. You can win a game without it imo but it's a big advantage having one.

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It all depends on location. If you start next to a bunch of warmongers that usually don't found religions, you're in business and would be foolish not to found one. However, if you start next to, say, Ethiopia and the Celts, chances are the effort necessary to start a religion won't be worth it.