Are the religions useless?

Don't underestimate the ethiopians. Stele is incredibly useful and Stele first builds can get religion even faster than Mayans while also helping culture.

On paper at least, pound-for-pound the Stele looks to be one of the best UBs in the game.
 
I do think they need a greater variety of bonuses, and maybe make the bonuses that appear in a given game random (so that each game will be different). Of course, they'd have to balance out economic/combat bonuses, but it would be nice.

Religion is far from useless, even in the end game you can hire Great Persons (albeit for exorbitant prices). I would really like to see some kind of Apostolic Palace though....and I would also like to see multiple religions coexisting in a city more easily.

ALSO, I would really like it if there was a nice city screenmouseover tooltip as to what a given religion's bonuses are. It's annoying to constantly have to click the religion panel to find out what bonuses each religion confers. It'd be easier to have a separate city screen panel.

That, and an "actual value" mouseover for each of your religion's beliefs on the full religion screen would be nice. So if you have Tithe, Asceticism, and Messenger of the Gods, you can see how much they're providing you all in one place instead of having them scattered all over (and having some that I believe don't show up).
 
Well, like I said in the starting post, I agree that there are some uses for it. Thus I don't think that it is useless.

Let me express the thing that bothers me the most with an example:

I was playing as the Byzantines. Ethiopia found Christianity as the first religion in the world and I found the Shinto religion as the second. Shinto began to spread to the cities surrounding me, but Christianity didn't seem to take off at first. First my religion spread to my cities, then to nearby city states and finally to some of the cities that I occupied. Then it started to spread to enemy cities. I was quite thrilled about it and wanted to see what would happen when the nearby Chinese cities would adopt my religion. Once it happened, I was disappointed. The only thing that really happened was that the cities got the torii-gate icons and Wu had the "We happily adopted your religion" thing on the diplomacy window. That was all, at least all that I noticed. What I would have wanted would have been some kind of control. At least I should be able to view the cities like in Civ4.
Could the Pope see what the French King was building? What you are proposing is extremely op, thank god they didn't go down that route.
 
Stealth_nsk: The Mayan Shrine is 2 Faith / Science, rather than just the 1 Faith most people get from their Shrines.

So, yes, Mayans are third in their ability to handle Religion.

Egypt isn't bad, either, if they decide to Rush-build Stonehenge (and they're the ones to do it). In my current game as Siam, I was probably one of the last people to get a Pantheon (through Stonehenge), and I founded the first Religion.

The +Faith Desert Pantheon is very powerful.
 
If you're going for an early rush, I can see how religion could be useless. Also, if you're civ gets dominated by another religion that could also be why you may think it's useless. Same if your religion never goes beyond your own borders.
 
Religion won't win you the game on its own, no. However, it would be unwise to overlook the many bonuses it can give you - which you get early on and last the ENTIRE GAME.
 
I think Religion is pretty useful. What I don't understand is why I should spread my religion? Looking at the different abilities a my Civ gains when I found a religion, I have to select a ability for the followers of the religion. Why would I spread my religion to a rival Civ so that they can benefit from the ability?

Does the more followers I have matter or does the more cities using my religion give my Civ more benefits?
 
Does the more followers I have matter or does the more cities using my religion give my Civ more benefits?

Follower beliefs benefit followers. Founder beliefs benefit founder. That's simple. If you choose right founder belief, you'll be very interested in spreading your religion.
 
After 4 games of Gods and Kings, I came here looking for a thread saying something more like "Is religion overpowered?"

First game, Byzantium, I thought religion was ho-hum. Then as Dido, a little better. As Askia it started to look really good, and as Pacal....well, with the advantage of a nice starting position, he was quickly an unstoppable force.

I'd say, all in all, religion may give you more advantages toward a non-military victory. Also, I'd say don't try to design your religion before you've taken stock of your territory and neighbors. Try to choose a pantheon belief that suits the land where your first 4 cities will be located--I had one game where there were 8 wheat fields in my first 4 cities, and another where there were 5 stone (+2 faith for each!). And unless you have a nearby neighbor who wants to pick a fight early in the game, consider beelining theology.
 
Pardon me if I'm wrong here but having played one game with the expansion, I haven't really found any specific reason why you should focus your empire in building faith and trying to create the best religion possible. Sure, the beliefs are somewhat useful, you can get bonus diplomatic points from another civs who have adopted your religion and you get some benefits with the city states if they share your religion, at least if you're the founder.

However, these all seem pretty minor effects to me. There isn't a way to win a religious victory, which is a huge minus to me. It also seems rather meaningless if some city from another nation adapts your religion as their main religion. You can't see what they're doing like in Civ 4. You can't annex them or puppet them as if they were in awe of your religious superiority (at least as far as I know). It simply seems to make no difference whether your religion is strong or not. Has anybody else thought about this?

Now don't get me wrong. I actually like the religions and I like spreading mine even if it makes little difference. It adds more immersion to the game as I can imagine religious wars, which don't otherwise really exist as a mechanic. However, I do feel that the developers could have done something more with this system.

Ps. Sorry if the thread already existed. I tried to search and only found Civ4 threads.

Well, I get what you mean, but there are certain boni that focus heavily on a widespread religion - and if you're fast enough, you can really tailor your religion to your playstyle, for example:

I sometimes love waging holy wars, so I go for as much +faith as possible, the ability to buy units with faith, and usually +20% damage against cities that have your faith.

Other times, I will focus on economic growth, going for 10% extra city growth, 15% more production and +1 gold per 4 followers, usually with enhanced religion spreading and some happyness for good meassure.

Another great choice is going straight for cultural stuff, keeping your civ small, while spreading your religion like crazy and winning culture that way.

So, in conclusion: If you're not able to pick and chose what you want, then religion is just a petty bonus, but if you are able to, it can not only become really powerful, but also truely feel like you're following the cause that your tailored religion is set out on.

I like it overall.
 
Playing as Ethiopia going for a cultural victory I chose the founder belief that gives culture for followers in other civs and then took the hermitage culture increase as my follower belief. Then when I enhanced I took Messiah for stronger and cheaper Great Prophets. This combo worked well as I spread my religion far and quickly and the other civs didn't gain too much from having my religion. Plus it gave me early DoFs and RAs as a result.
 
Could the Pope see what the French King was building? What you are proposing is extremely op, thank god they didn't go down that route.
Being able to view AI cities of the same faith (as your controlled Holy City) was a nice feature in Civ IV, however, I found it significantly slowed the game down when you could see every city on the map!

Considering how slow Huge maps can run on Civ V, I think it might actually be good that we can't see everything!
 
Being able to view AI cities of the same faith (as your controlled Holy City) was a nice feature in Civ IV, however, I found it significantly slowed the game down when you could see every city on the map!

Considering how slow Huge maps can run on Civ V, I think it might actually be good that we can't see everything!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that ability actually tied to espionage in Civ IV? I'm pretty sure that having the holy city of a religion gave you a big boost in espionage for cities that shared this religion (or maybe it had to do with the state religion?) But anyway, from what I remember, religion alone didn't have that effect. (Again, I could be wrong)
 
Minor effects? What are you people smoking? :D
If i pick the happiness boost i can easily have 30+ happiness through out the game, if i pick the money boost i can have 100+ gold per turn the rest of the game... I wouldnt call that "minor".

What are they called btw? +1 happy per 5 followers and +1 gold per 4 followers... I think the gold one is called Tithe.
Absolutely mega if you know how to spread your religion.
 
I think Religion is pretty useful. What I don't understand is why I should spread my religion? Looking at the different abilities a my Civ gains when I found a religion, I have to select a ability for the followers of the religion. Why would I spread my religion to a rival Civ so that they can benefit from the ability?

Does the more followers I have matter or does the more cities using my religion give my Civ more benefits?

Ultimately, your founder belief's benefits to you will outweigh the benefits your enemies recieve for following you. +1 gold per 4 followers is insane and even if that means giving your enemy a +8% production boost, you'll likely be experiencing the same or a bigger boost in your cities and be making 2 gold from him each turn in just one city. Also, you can just pick follower beliefs like +2 faith per world wonder which will benefit the AI in (at most) 1-2 cities and be of little use bc the bonus faith will mean nothing if they can't found their own religion. And even if they do, they'll lose the faith bonus. Win-win.
 
You should look at religion as an extra social policy tree that's entirely customize-able. If you go in with a clear goal it can be game changing. You can stack up things which make warmongering much, much more successful. You can go for gold. You can go for culture. You can go for happiness. The science and city-state benefits of faith are a bit lacking but there are a few options.

You have to think of how each of your beliefs is going to play with the ones you've already taken and the ones you intend to take down the road.

As you approach the later stages of the game, if you've gone faith heavy, the ability to purchase great people depending on which social policy trees you took is simply outstanding.
 
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