Vatican & Religious power

Well I've been trying to think about things that could make the game more enjoyable for me. While this is not necessarily one of them, I do think it would add an interesting spice to the Religion content that Firaxis mentioned being important to them in their .ppt presentation.

I don't know how it could be implemented but assuming there will be different types of religions represented in Civ4, I would imagine this would only affect European/Christian Civs. Perhaps there could be a Wonder like the UN called the Vatican, where whoever controls it can call for Crusades against Orthodox or Islamic Civs. Or when a war breaks out between christain civs, as controller of the Vatican you would be presented with an option to Excommunicate the Aggresor, which would make that Civ lose a goodly portion of their Religious benefits temporarily until the Excommunication is removed after 20 turns (or in some other arbitrary manner) and perhaps bring other christian nations into a war against them. Islamic Civs could have a similar Wonder that could initiate a holy Jihad.

I envision these kinds of wonders more as a puppetmasters tools of Diplomacy than as a weapon though. Or if there could exist neutral religious institutions of these types that would wield these kinds of power based on events taking place in the game, announcing them as global events to all Civs, much like the Papacy in Medieval: Total War, when announcing an Excommunication - quick war would typically ensue against that nation and only the death of the Pope (natural or untimely) or the destruction of the Papacy in it's entirety could remove the Excommunication penalty.

Well if you're gonna have Christianity and Islam (and i don't think they should be designed to fight each other like you're suggesting, lol) you also have to accomodate far Eastern Religions, not to mention American Indians and the South American Civs.

Incorporating specific religions by culture group might turn into a big politically correct mess.

The muslim thing could be a wonder called "the Caliphate"

That being said I cannot foresee religion beyond "monothetistic" and "polytheistic" being implemented in any way.

I didn't mean to suggest Christian and Islamic civs be specifically designed to fight each other. Although historically they have always been at odds. I just thought that it would add an interesting dynamic to the game to bring these types of religious conflicts to the table. Perhaps including Missionary, Inquisitor, Bishop, Salim type units to convert other nations populaces to your religion as well would add a fun dynamic. It was one of the more interesting and entertaining dynamics of Medieval: Total War's diplomatic envoy units. I also loved their subvertive espionage strategies and think many of their features would make Civ a lot more fun, for me at least.

And certainly other religions would play major roles and have cool wonders and the like as well. Although my relgious knowledge isn't very wide so the above are simply examples of the overall thought that powerful religious instituations could add a level of depth to the diplomacy aspect of the game.

As I would really really like to see the espionage and subvertive strategies play a more important role in Civ4, as opposed to the buy an embassy, look at a city, steal a tech/map or sabotage build queue options (all for obscene amounts of cash making them pretty useless and more of an afterthought to use when the game is already won or to make a civ declare on you through constant failures). For me the limited strategies for behind the scenes covert war without being at war limited the overall game play strategies and I would love to see more depth in that department. I suggested a religious option because of Firaxis' apparent commitment to introducing "Religion and Civic" elements to the game, which leads me to believe (perhaps incorrectly) that different religions will be a part of Civ4 and that we will not just be limited to monotheistic and polytheistic but actual religious institutions.