Is it ever ok to not found a religion?

[ParadigmPlague]

I mean sure religion get some sick bonuses, but if i get faith from runes Ill just get one of the godly pantheons.. is that good enough?

 

[kwidem]

.

 

[Mesix]

I am going to play a game as Venice and not found a religion so that I can capture the holy city of the religion which spreads to me and get the achievement.

 

[ParadigmPlague]

Religion isn't crucial. Pantheons exert no religious pressure, so you will eventually lose the pantheon to someone else's religion, but in any case you don't need a religion.

Interesting to know. So I guess I'll have to DOW people who send me missionaries >

I am going to play a game as Venice and not found a religion so that I can capture the holy city of the religion which spreads to me and get the achievement.

 

[kwidem]

.

 

[ParadigmPlague]

That is the ... extreme approach

Try to take away the pantheon= get punished

 

[_invy_]

You don't need religion but it has some benefits ofcourse if you can spread it or hold it in your cities.
If you don't have own religion its still very good to have faith production, so you can buy faith bulding from other religions.

 

[oddtail]

You will still lose the Pantheon due to naturally occurring pressure, though - even without a single Missionary. Trade routes will only make the process faster.

It's pretty much impossible to keep a good Pantheon throughout the game. If you want to, you have to found a religion.

 

[stealth_nsk]

IMHO, not founding a religion is a viable strategy for Indonesia to maximize Candi bonuses.
It's also worth if you want very focused early game without time for building shrines. Huns are good example.

For other cases religion looks like a must.

 

[Wuddel]

For cultural and diplomatic VC a religion is very helpful, since enacting the World Religion to your Religion gives you extra votes and a tourism boost.

 

[andymant]

Well I was playing a game with the intent to start a religion, but good ole Egypt on my border started one first and grabbed pagodas and uh.. one of the other buildings, I forget which. And then built borobudur all before I could found a religion. So I was like, well come on in with all those missionaries why not. He pretty much got what I would have wanted. He even did the tourism reformation thingie! I even voted it for world religion and got lots of brownie points from him for it, he loves me lots now, I have a neat religion and our favorable relationship makes him easy to manipulate in the WC.

This is all highly situational of course; but the answer is, you can play however you want. Perhaps though you might want to examine the faiths of those missionaries comin' at you and pick one you might be able to use

 

[Wuddel]

Even when I found a religion I often go for the science generation bonus, when the AI is super spreading it. I do not know where they get all the faith from.

 

[Abraxis]

huh. I don't found one in most my games...

Why do you think it's necessary? are wonders necessary? You sound like you need to up the difficulty...

 

[Scott Jegg]

The only time I would definitely want to get a religion is if I had a pantheon that was so powerful based on my starting position that I didn't want to lose it.

Religion is good, but you don't need it to win.

 

[Merciorum]

You can found one, but it's not vital. If you want to play particularly religiously, then yes, it's useful, but you can still win without one.

 

[Gehennas]

Religion always gives you the great boost, but it isn't worth trying if obtaining one will be too difficult for you.

 

[FeiLing]

A pantheon seems very important to me. Having an own religion not so much any more. And it's okay to lose your own pantheon by the time the enemy converts you to/spreads his religion. This will be unavoidable on harder difficulties pretty often anyway.

 

[simonthesinner]

If you play as a nation that doesn't have any special shrines or temples and going for a diplo/cultureish thing as say Sweden and you meet friendly Arabia within 10 turns you may a well not bother.

 

[Soil]

Since BNWs release I haven't bothered to found a religion at all.

It might make things a little more difficult if your starting location isn't the best and if things don't develop too perfectly (neighbour that DoWs you/too fews CS to trade with/not enough luxuries in the area/noone spreading their religion to you - which religion could help with due to providing gold/culture/food/happiness) but tenets of ideologies are powerful enough to overcome most areas you're struggling with by chooosing the right ones and they can also see your happiness shoot into the +50-100 range if you don't neglect culture and tourism. Overall, religion doesn't feel so necessary as it did in G&K.

 

[Octonde]

I'll ignore religion if it looks like the cost isn't worth the reward. If someone else got the useful pantheons (situational, of course), then I might just save the production and maintenance costs of shrines and temples, at least early on when all I can buy with faith are units to spread the religion that I don't have.