AI Reformation Dates?

Just saw both Songhai and the Maya get theirs before Turn 100 Standard Emperor. Of course they took the ones I wanted (Jesuit Education, To the Glory of God). Now I don't feel like finishing Piety at all . Anyway, is this standard? Or is it only with religious civs? Should you really make a mad rush down Piety if you want a good Reformation Belief? Is it even worth it? Information on other settings might be useful to others as well.

I'd be interested to see what people think as I've been encountering a similar problem. Piety only seems to be worth it if you go for it from the start (and I don't think that a straight Piety opening is a good idea for the majority of Civs at the expense of, say, Tradition or Liberty) as the AI loves it and snaps up Reformation beliefs very early.

The AI founds religions a lot faster than it used to as well. In my last game I was the last to found one despite opening Piety early, by which point all the buildings - and Jesuit Education - had been snapped up (I had Tradition going at the same time and didn't get my first GP until a long time after I'd passed the threshold - a combination of a poor decision and bad luck). So no Sacred Sites for me. This was King, by the way - honestly I think if I were playing Emperor I wouldn't even bother with trying to found a religion.

I find the AI takes Sacred Sites a lot, even if they don't have any religious buildings in their religion.

I haven't seen any of them taking unity of prophets belief. If you plan to get it, don't worry about rushing through Piety tree.

I wanted to try out Interfaith Dialogue, so the plan was to spam Missionaries like they were going out of style. Inquisitors and Great Prophets aren't that useful for me.

The problem is the developers didn't adapt the way the AI choses to the new culture victory. So the AI still tries to fill up the trees pretty fast. (The actual formula is "Random choice of 3 most wanted policies in maximum of 2 opened trees", or something alike, haven't looked it up right now). This makes them likely to take the reformation policy quite early. I don't know how the AI choses the beliefs though. But anyways, yes, you better rush it if you want a specific belief.