Why spread your religion to another civilization?
- Thread starter draaibaar
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The Founder Beliefs provide that incentive.
MaximusK
Warlord
It depends on what beliefs you select and your overall strategy.
The science bonus to spreading your religion might provide impetus to send out missionaries. Other bonuses are calculated on the # of followers in foreign cities, etc.
The science bonus to spreading your religion might provide impetus to send out missionaries. Other bonuses are calculated on the # of followers in foreign cities, etc.
I must be the only person that loves the addition of espionage, and feels that religion is half-assed.
There is no incentive in G+K to spread religions to other civilizations whatsoever. Why would you want another civilization to get the belief bonuses you chose? The only incentive to spread religion in your own empire is to get those belief bonuses, and to prevent other belief bonuses from superseding them. I'm really hoping someone will come into this thread and tell me I'm wrong.
Religion is responsible for most major conflicts in human history, yet, in G+K, religion is never even factored into diplomacy unless you aggressively spread it in their territory through prophets. There's no friend bonus by having the majority same religion, and no relationship detriment to having opposing religions. In fact, there's no such thing as opposing religions in G+K at all. Beliefs should have opposing beliefs that define which religions get along with eachother.
There is no incentive in G+K to spread religions to other civilizations whatsoever. Why would you want another civilization to get the belief bonuses you chose? The only incentive to spread religion in your own empire is to get those belief bonuses, and to prevent other belief bonuses from superseding them. I'm really hoping someone will come into this thread and tell me I'm wrong.
Religion is responsible for most major conflicts in human history, yet, in G+K, religion is never even factored into diplomacy unless you aggressively spread it in their territory through prophets. There's no friend bonus by having the majority same religion, and no relationship detriment to having opposing religions. In fact, there's no such thing as opposing religions in G+K at all. Beliefs should have opposing beliefs that define which religions get along with eachother.
king Oosterveld
Chieftain
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2012
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- 49
in the early game, a civilization will like you more/dislike you depending on your religion. so spread your religion for a better chance at having allies.
Yes, I suppose if you figured out an opponent was going for a cultural victory, you could spread a religion throughout their empire that provides 0 cultural bonuses. But surely, that's an extremely weak incentive at best, and only is effective if they've established their own cultural-centric religion. The amount of resources required to grow and spread religion is enormous and could more effectively be used to sabotage that opponent through other means.
I think you're missing the point. You get additional bonuses, like happiness or culture or science, based on which Founder benefit you choose.
Only you get the Founder benefit for your religion. The Founder benefit is virtually always a benefit that increases with the number of cities following it. THAT is the benefit to spreading your religion; you get free happiness, or free gold, or free science, or whatever.
There is a weak diplomatic bonus as well.
Randall_Flagg
The Evil One
Church tithe. +1 gold per 4 pop per city..... The follower beliefs, i want anyone with my religion to have also, they boost food which means more pop which means more gold.. I dropped down to large maps, huge they slow down to much in the mid 1900's. 
So, 10 civs and 20 CS as base, 6 religions can be founded, that is 4 civs the other 6 will be fighting over. Also, I like to see the religion of Bob spread to all. I declare war on anyone spreading hearsay in my lands!! IE kill any missionary or GP in my lands.
So, 10 civs and 20 CS as base, 6 religions can be founded, that is 4 civs the other 6 will be fighting over. Also, I like to see the religion of Bob spread to all. I declare war on anyone spreading hearsay in my lands!! IE kill any missionary or GP in my lands.I think that the main problem with spreading religion is the super-high cost of missionaries . If their cost is reduced by at least 50%,it'd be much more interesting to try playing a non-founder style . Right now,you'd have to literally pray for the ai to send missionaries to your lands if you want to skip religion .
Randall_Flagg
The Evil One
I will say it here and now, misionarys are total waste of faith period!! Just simply use GP's and time, once you get it up and going it will spread. You need to keep your main cities clean and it will flow out. Pain in the ass for sure, but if you have units around your whole city, no way they convert. Not optimal for sure, and not to be done with more then 4 cities, but it works. After you get printing press, the pressure of religon gets insane. Use your gps to your advantage, the 3rd one save him for new religions, go to that city convert and profit. You basicly need to stop pressure, and the best way is to slow down the holy city, I know this works, because Songai did it to me, that is how I learned the trick.
Xotite potancev
Chieftain
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- Jun 21, 2012
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Ahriman
Tyrant
In addition to the founder benefits, you get slower influence decay with city states that use your religion. And the more you spread it, the more resilient you are to other faction's missionaries or great prophets.
Ulthwithian
King
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- Apr 25, 2012
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- 733
I'm... actually rather astounded by the idea that people don't want to spread their religions.
First, as others have said, there are the Founder beliefs. Tithe in particular is rather ridiculous, but the others are a better argument, because many don't do ANYTHING in your own cities.
Second, though, if your Follower belief does not help a non-Religious player as much as you, why do you care?
Personally, I go for wide empires and choose the building follower beliefs generally. Therefore, if my opponents are faith-based, they probably have a strategy for their own religion, and will not benefit strongly from my own belief. If they do not have a faith-based strategy, then they will not have the faith (or, in many cases, the cities) to benefit from your Follower buildings as much as you.
Either way, you win.
First, as others have said, there are the Founder beliefs. Tithe in particular is rather ridiculous, but the others are a better argument, because many don't do ANYTHING in your own cities.
Second, though, if your Follower belief does not help a non-Religious player as much as you, why do you care?
Personally, I go for wide empires and choose the building follower beliefs generally. Therefore, if my opponents are faith-based, they probably have a strategy for their own religion, and will not benefit strongly from my own belief. If they do not have a faith-based strategy, then they will not have the faith (or, in many cases, the cities) to benefit from your Follower buildings as much as you.
Either way, you win.
what happens if you haven't founded a religion and it gets spread to your country. Any disadvantages? Playing Prince, I ignored religion in my first GK game and did fine. (Playing King, I built a religion and spread it, and that was helpful.) Is there a disadvantage to having an enemy religion in your nation?
Actually,I'm not ranting about ai sending missionaries to spread religions into my lands . What I'm ranting is exactly the opposite,because if you choose to not found a religion,you may never enjoy any bonus of any religion,because no one is spreading the word of god into your lands(even if you have a neighbor who have founded a religion) .
If you are a Founder, is there a disadvantage to having a few believers of another religion hanging around your cities? Playing Arab, I established Islam, and then wiped out the Confucianist Romans...there were always some left over Confucians hanging around some of my cities, not enough to take over Islam.
LostKnight
A wandering knight
Jaqpike: the main disadvantage of having a competitor's religion in your city is twofold:
1-They get benefits. Lots of belief benefit from having a lot of follower, wich help your competitor.
2-You dont get to choose the beliefs. You do get some benefit from the religion that is spread trough your lands, but some of them might be totally useless(having bonus culture for each plantation wont really help you if you dont have any plantations.)
2b-One belief give bonus to any units fighting nearby a city with their religion, and yes, it does work if your competitor attack you!
1-They get benefits. Lots of belief benefit from having a lot of follower, wich help your competitor.
2-You dont get to choose the beliefs. You do get some benefit from the religion that is spread trough your lands, but some of them might be totally useless(having bonus culture for each plantation wont really help you if you dont have any plantations.)
2b-One belief give bonus to any units fighting nearby a city with their religion, and yes, it does work if your competitor attack you!
Disgustipated
Deity
How do I see what beliefs I get when they spread religion to my city? I just finished my first game and Austria spread Christianity to most of my cities. But the city screen doesn't show what bonuses. I get.
One other advantage of spreading your religion to AI civs, depending on your playing style, is that it provides a diplomatic bonus if your civs share the same majority religion. If one of the AIs is Sweden then that's an even bigger boost, as it helps you get those DoFs which give you +10% GP production.
As far as missionaries go, I buy one (as soon as I regenerate enough FPs after founding my religion). That one missionary goes either to my two furthest outlying cities (I'm generally at 4 cities then), or to one of those cities plus a nearby CS that I want to be allied to. Then when I enhance, Religious Texts along with another GP here or there takes care of the rest.
I normally don't actively spread my religion into opposing civs, but instead send the follow-up GPs to distant city states to start their pressure working on the AI's border cities. The one exception would be if I see an OCC civ along the way which doesn't have a religion and there are no religions left to found (spreading to an AI capital is kind of a waste of a conversion otherwise, as your religion there is getting wiped out when/if they found their own).
As far as missionaries go, I buy one (as soon as I regenerate enough FPs after founding my religion). That one missionary goes either to my two furthest outlying cities (I'm generally at 4 cities then), or to one of those cities plus a nearby CS that I want to be allied to. Then when I enhance, Religious Texts along with another GP here or there takes care of the rest.
I normally don't actively spread my religion into opposing civs, but instead send the follow-up GPs to distant city states to start their pressure working on the AI's border cities. The one exception would be if I see an OCC civ along the way which doesn't have a religion and there are no religions left to found (spreading to an AI capital is kind of a waste of a conversion otherwise, as your religion there is getting wiped out when/if they found their own).
