Obtaining a Religion is far too important to Securing a late game win

[Haggbart]

You don't have to compete, simply defend the only way the AI can win

You'll need to compete to get the religion and keep it at the very least. And making that a priority in the early game on deity is not very efficient in order to win. It might be the easiest way to be sure to avoid losing, but I'll argue the easiest way of winning on deity is ignoring religion completely and risk the very slim chance of the AI winning a religious victory.

 

[Daishomei]

The other night Brazil almost won a religion victory due to him being on the other continent its was a 20 civilizations None were eliminated even though germany and india pissed me off I didnt finish though because wanted to test the new mods i dled. However for what it's worth since the patch they do seem to tech better. In that game I mentioned many had similar techs as mine. I coulda also lost to Gorgo in a Cultural win which also had tech as good or better than mine yet was my best ally cause i was war mongering but alas again Germany and india civs was buildin to close and i gotta have me space.... kinda mad i overwrote the save now seeing i actually coulda lost perhaps maybe but me doubts cause bombs were a coming

 

[Resipsa]

You'll need to compete to get the religion and keep it at the very least. And making that a priority in the early game on deity is not very efficient in order to win. It might be the easiest way to be sure to avoid losing, but I'll argue the easiest way of winning on deity is ignoring religion completely and risk the very slim chance of the AI winning a religious victory.

The AI's ability to win a religious victory is exacerbated on small and tiny maps so its not so much of a problem on Standard, I'll admit. But frankly after that loss I've been dropping two holy sites as my first districts and hammered out prayers. While it is a commitment of early hammers once you survive the early game and are pursuing a peaceful victory there is a lot of dead space; fighting with missionaries, inquisitors, and apostles fills that void because the AI rarely declares war and when they do they are inept at it. You don't have to commit to keeping your religion three rotating inquisitors can guard your cities and spread your religion by killing apostles and missionaries, that costs around 350 faith in the midgame and amounts to about 7-10 turns of faith.

I don't want the game to be easier I want the AI to be smarter obtaining a religion is too important to securing a victory. If the AI aggressively pursued Culture and Space victories obtaining a religion wouldn't be as important because there would be other considerations.

 

[The_Notorious_P]

Even on deity the AI failed to seize the initiative and take an easy religious victory. They'd converted all the other civs but me; hordes of apostles and missionaries swept through my lands the whole game but only converted sparingly few of my cities. The only thing i can think of is the AI controlling them had mont st michel. So they didn't spread, hoping to be martyrs? It was to my benefit, as I won while avoiding religion completely. Though it did provide suspense for many a turn, my victory was tainted by the taste of disappointment in the AI.

 

[Horizons]

You haven't logged enough hours and you may not have played many games on small or tiny maps

Hey ... I've logged only 89 hours and already had more than enough of Civ6 lulz

 

[Hukuma]

I played a Duel Deity game, and lost to conquering the other guy's cities and not razing them. I do think it's kind of dumb that getting conquered can be a great way to win a religious victory. If you're 1 turn from being wiped from the map, not sure how you win, but admittedly it was my mistake not paying attention (I actually had to go back in because I didn't know how I could have lost, does something on the lose screen tell you?)