Better Founder Faith: TITHES or CEREMONIAL BURIAL?

[El Caballerion]

Whenever I found my religion ('Caballerionism', duh), I will either choose from one of two only valid options: TITHES or CEREMONIAL BURIAL. TITHES give you gold based on how many followers you have. C.B. gives you happiness for every two cities that follows the religion. Which is better and why?

I always felt that TITHES was better in G&K, but I think that CB is better in BNW. In my current TERRA game, I was able to spread my religion to the eastern half of my continent, bringing in about 7-10 happiness. This isn't a whole lot, but because of the difficulty (IMMORTAL), it enabled me to stay on top of my happiness game, something that is always difficult otherwise.

I think that TITHES is good if you want to be a warmonger, because lost gold from trading will be helped out by gold from religion. CB is better if you are at peace OR at war, because benefits to happiness trump just about any other aspect of the game.

Also, which other FOUNDER belief out there is considered better than these two? I can't think of any better alternatives than these two.

Thoughts?

 

[GreenThings]

I normally pick tithes because I LOVE THAT MONEY! Sometimes I like to go full piety and play a religion game. Very early religion with tithes and itinerant preachers always gives you tons of cash. On a standard map I had almost 90 gpt just from that. I haven't even tried Egpyt and Burial Tombs yet!

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[bcaiko]

I'd also say Tithe, since Ceremonial Burial got nerfed and also seemingly didn't work correctly for me in my last game. Grrr.

 

[livsbrand]

CB was cut in half and I haven't picked it since. Tithe is my go to, very reliable.

 

[Aaron90495]

If you're playing tall, Peace Loving can often be better than either. When I'm not doing so, however, I'll usually go with Tithe because the nerf to CB hurt it too much.

 

[Rob5000]

Tithes is better since you get more of a bonus based on pop, not just simply a bonus per city.

IE. CB will give you happiness for every 2 cities. But with tithes you can earn several yields for just one city, if its very high pop.

 

[BroOfTheSun]

If you're playing tall, Peace Loving can often be better than either. When I'm not doing so, however, I'll usually go with Tithe because the nerf to CB hurt it too much.

Seconded for peace loving. This has been my first pick most of the time. Especially since I play on Large maps, there are a lot of AI cities that do not have a religion. Set up your religion with AI cities and watch it spread. It has been good for anywhere from 10-20 happiness throughout the game. Much better than Ceremonial Burial. Tithe is excessive since you make so much money from trade routes anyways.

 

[Hieschen]

I am not a big fan of tithe, it is kind of overkill. When you need money most, it does not contribute something significant and when it kicks in, you should already have a strong economy, if not, the game is lost anyway.

I generally prefer to take happiness beliefs (CB or peace loving) if i have a lot of potential for VERY strong growth (a lot of wheat, banana,….), as these kick in pretty early when you need the happiness boost. They do fade throughout the game, because at least in my games after T160/170 happiness is rarely a problem through trading and CS allies.

Therefore my new founder belief favourite is pilgrimage. It gives you early faith help to get the faith economy going and can turn into mass faith late game when you will need it to buy GE/GA/GS

 

[oldbear38]

Give me the money everytime.

 

[mabalogna]

Ceremonial Burial for wide almost ICS style play - with a pinch of world shattering domination. Global happiness is the best kind of happiness and is harder to come by, so getting extra of this is good since it's the only way to counter act the inherent -2 happiness from having a city.

Tithe works better for Tall or Semi-wide empires since you can muster more population to get the bonus.

 

[kaspergm]

I go with Initiation Rites. I find money is much more scarce in early game than late game, and while IR will not give as much money as Tithe in the long haul, it gives me the money when I need it. But that's just my 5 cents.

 

[Drawmeus]

The most important use of gold is paying maintenance costs on buildings that give happiness anyway. Cities, population and tech are power. Everything else are just ways to get those three things. Happiness gives you all three, straight up, no questions asked, since tech is so heavily tied to population.

Gold is nice, but happiness, always, unless it's in minute quantities (which CB isn't).

 

[Byzantine Bomb]

Used to always pick Ceremonial burial but I've been playing on larger maps so Tithe is more useful. It can basically fund all happiness buildings and then some!

 

[MarshalN]

I like Peace Loving - it'll give you more happiness than CB now in many cases, and it works even if your religion is not the majority in the city. My last game PL was what kept my empire happy throughout the mid-game when there weren't enough luxuries to go around. Of course if you think you'll be a warmonger then PL is not as good.

 

[Gyra Solune]

...am I the only one who likes World Church? Culture is still super-useful, and if I'm pushing Religion hard it usually means I'm aiming for Theology which generally means I have culture in mind, and despite being defensive, Culture has more active purposes for a CV, namely, shiny social policies and how you want all of them especially with the power of Ideologies and how they can suck up a lot of those, alongside Aesthetics and Piety and Rationalism and you also want to dip into Exploration and asdf. I'm only ever dry for Gold in the very early game, and later on can be kept afloat by trade routes.