Playing the Maya

[reddishrecue]

The maya GP bonus comes up really late during the renaissance medieval era.

 

[wayneb64]

Don't forget the option to build the holy buildings of the invading religions. It can be quite nice to have Cathedrals, Mosques, Pagodas, etc. in your cities. Lots of extra faith, culture, and happiness. This works well if two religions are trying to invade. Let them battle each other and when a city has all the extra faith buildings, then it's time for the Inquisitor.

 

[docbud]

^^I've done that a few times, and you're right--it has helped. But that's was for my other cities. I like to keep my capital as my own religion.

 

[reddishrecue]

Don't forget the option to build the holy buildings of the invading religions. It can be quite nice to have Cathedrals, Mosques, Pagodas, etc. in your cities. Lots of extra faith, culture, and happiness. This works well if two religions are trying to invade. Let them battle each other and when a city has all the extra faith buildings, then it's time for the Inquisitor.

That's why having any faith is good because of that.

 

[CraigMak]

Go wide prioritizing their pyramids in every city and getting messenger of the gods pantheon. The pyramids is a good choice to make 1 turn roads for your city connections. +2 from MTG and +2 for each pyramid really adds up.

 

[claudiupb]

Maya is quite strong even for tall civs. At 4 cities pyramids give you as much as an academy. The GP bonus guarantees you a religion, but I think it's stronger to get a GS as fist pick and plant an early academy. With NC at 4 cities that is 15 from the capital (Academy + pyramids) + another 6 science from expos, that other civs don't get.

 

[Plumfairy]

When playing the Maya, a surprisingly good pick for one of your first Great Persons is the Admiral. Picking him early means you get to send him out exploring very early, and you can make contact with other civs & CS's way earlier than you would have otherwise. Just remember to always end his turn in the ocean. (rather than the shallows) It will be a *loooong* time before barbarians get ships that will be able to reach you there.

 

[stormtrooper412]

Maya is quite strong even for tall civs. At 4 cities pyramids give you as much as an academy. The GP bonus guarantees you a religion, but I think it's stronger to get a GS as fist pick and plant an early academy. With NC at 4 cities that is 15 from the capital (Academy + pyramids) + another 6 science from expos, that other civs don't get.

Well yeah but not really, because on Immortal/Deity all religions tend to get picked incredibly early

 

[Redaxe]

I really wanted to play with religion but I found it so super exhausting I gave up.

Maybe you guys constantly scan every tile every turn for a missionary or Great Prophet, but that is not what I call fun.

I've tried the religious texts enhancer, built Grand Temple. I've never gotten this "self sustaining pressure" thing to work.

The AI civs will beat you down in the end. I've toyed with the idea of declaring war on people like Boudicca, but while historically accurate, am I getting enough benefit from religion to warrant a war just for that? I've also tried spreading it with missionaries and prophets to key cities, but that eats all my faith points and leaves me with the question of why I was bothering with this whole thing in the first place.

I mean if the idea of religion is to spam missionaries and prophets in a never ending conversion battle, instead of using those points to buy great people and buildings, it doesn't seem worth it.

Another alternative you can take (that might work out better is this). Focus on building about 6 cities so you have enough Pyramids to get 1 Prophet from faith generation.

Found your religion and take your religious beliefs. This time don't focus on spreading your religion early - save faith for religious buildings. Even if the AI converts some of your cities just buy their faith buildings if you can.

Then use your 1st or 2nd Free Great Person from Mayan Calender to get a free second Prophet. This is more advantageous because the 2nd Prophet is more expensive than the first so you save more faith this way. Enhance your religion and choose 'Messiah'.

Now just passively accrue faith until you get 2 Great Prophets (just sit your first at your capital until your second is ready - if you have Pyramids, Temples and Grand Temple over 6 cities this shouldn't take too long). Once you have 2 Prophets go out on a big converting spree and convert every city in your civ that has AI followers. Remember you need to convert your cities that are following the enemy religion and those that are putting out that religions pressure.

If you remove foreign religious pressure on just a couple of cities, chances are there will still be too many cities nearby putting out pressure on those cities. So this way if you hit 8 cities at once (mostly yours) you will remove enough foreign religious followers that your religion should now stick unless you let foreign Prophets convert your cities.
This way is also much cheaper with faith. 8 Inquisitors will cost 1600 faith. With Messiah your 3rd and 4th Great Prophet will cost about half that amount. And inquisitors don't do anything to spread your religion so your far flung cities will also need missionaries (if you just hit them with an inquisitor you won't have any followers and an enemy religion will just reconvert it quickly). Also having to keep an inquisitor in every city is terribly wasteful not just in faith but in gpt. An inquisitor is going to cost 2-3 gold so a few of these will really drain your treasury.

You also want to think a bit about city placing and religion. A city can emit religious pressure for 10 tiles so make sure you found your religion in a city that has a few cities in range. Coastal cities and river cities are best because they grant bonuses to trade routes and you should use trade routes to send faith out to cities beyond 10 tiles.

But in short try the Messiah belief. The AI tends to stop doing missionary work in the Industrial age and Messiah with the cheaper Prophets and extra strength can be very powerful at spreading your religion in the later game.

 

[beetle]

Well yeah but not really, because on Immortal/Deity all religions tend to get picked incredibly early

I think Maya can be pretty guaranteed to found -- just beeline theology, use first GP as GPr.

 

[reddishrecue]

I think Maya can be pretty guaranteed to found -- just beeline theology, use first GP as GPr.

You have to be careful to be not too close to civilizations though. If there's civilizations nearby with good military, going forward to theology could be a risk.