[BNW] Abandoning my religion? Who will advise me on this and other Civ V questions?

[mastrude]

My religion was Catholicism. I let it get out-majoritied, but not actually wiped out, in all my cities where it was established at all. First, is there a way to re-establish it anywhere? Second, should I bother? Indonesia wiped Catholicism out with Hinduism. I always seek to found Catholicism when I can, because I believe you can buy scientists with it, late game. But I'm not sure whether that's intrinsic to Catholicism or one of the tenets you can choose. If I could, I'd pick Buddhism, otherwise.

[Lucky Update:] I reached enough religious points in a city that still had a Catholic minority. I had associated pagodas with Catholicism. I used religious points to buy a pagoda there, (instead of a cathedral, apparently the flavor is associated with a particular religion when it's first founded. Then I bought a great prophet there. He was Catholic.. Using the prophet, I converted Hindu majorities in that town, then in my 2 biggest towns. Now I can free my other cities from Hinduism I think. I still don't know what's required to buy scientists with religious points.

Maybe I can buy pagodas to assert Catholicism in towns with Catholic minorities. This is pretty interesting.

Now I've accumulated enough religion points to buy a missionary. I should be able to buy a Catholic missionary and convert 3 cities with him. I made peace with the Hindu proselytizer, but I'll declare war again if he sends missionaries into my turf.

I was able to buy a missionary and converted two of my irreligious cities. Now I'll make points to convert more. So Indonesia's strategy of building missionaries early was a bust.

Nobody's helped me yet. What's the matter with you lummoxes! However I'm doing ok without you. So there!

 

[mbbcam]

The name that you give your religion is merely a label, and it has no effect at all on the beliefs available during the game. So it really doesn't matter what name you choose. If you want to add certain beliefs to your religion, you need to get them before other players do. That means getting a pantheon as soon as possible, then founding your religion as soon as possible. If you are able to found your religion before anybody else, you have the pick of the whole range of founder beliefs and follower beliefs. The later you found your religion, the less attractive and useful the available beliefs tend to be.

I play on Deity, and I typically don't even bother to try to found a religion, because even if I am lucky I will probably only get the fourth or fifth religion (on a Standard Map) and the beliefs that are left are usually pretty crappy. I also find that defending a religion is a pain, so I usually just concentrate on Science or warfare (or both). A Science victory usually seems to be the easiest, so if you go Tradition then Rationalism you can usually catch up in Science, provided you can bribe runaways to fight each other at appropriate times.

Basically, I pretty much ignore religion in my games, though others think it is important. But it might depend on the Civ you are playing. If you are playing the Celts or somebody like that, it makes more sense to take an interest in religion.

PS: if you haven't read this resource, you might find it useful -- https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/religion-how-to-found-and-enhance-a-religion-bnw.521444/

 

[mastrude]

The name that you give your religion is merely a label, and it has no effect at all on the beliefs available during the game. So it really doesn't matter what name you choose. If you want to add certain beliefs to your religion, you need to get them before other players do. That means getting a pantheon as soon as possible, then founding your religion as soon as possible. If you are able to found your religion before anybody else, you have the pick of the whole range of founder beliefs and follower beliefs. The later you found your religion, the less attractive and useful the available beliefs tend to be.

I play on Deity, and I typically don't even bother to try to found a religion, because even if I am lucky I will probably only get the fourth or fifth religion (on a Standard Map) and the beliefs that are left are usually pretty crappy. I also find that defending a religion is a pain, so I usually just concentrate on Science or warfare (or both). A Science victory usually seems to be the easiest, so if you go Tradition then Rationalism you can usually catch up in Science, provided you can bribe runaways to fight each other at appropriate times.

Basically, I pretty much ignore religion in my games, though others think it is important. But it might depend on the Civ you are playing. If you are playing the Celts or somebody like that, it makes more sense to take an interest in religion.

PS: if you haven't read this resource, you might find it useful -- https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/religion-how-to-found-and-enhance-a-religion-bnw.521444/

That is helpful. Thank you!

 

[lerrocco]

I play on Deity, and I typically don't even bother to try to found a religion, because even if I am lucky I will probably only get the fourth or fifth religion (on a Standard Map) and the beliefs that are left are usually pretty crappy. I also find that defending a religion is a pain, so I usually just concentrate on Science or warfare (or both). A Science victory usually seems to be the easiest, so if you go Tradition then Rationalism you can usually catch up in Science, provided you can bribe runaways to fight each other at appropriate times.

mbbcam, sorry to go off the thread topic, but can I ask, in your warfare games are you looking to complete a domination victory or switch to another victory condition after some conquests? Also, how do you deal with late game happiness if you do go for the domination victory?

 

[mbbcam]

mbbcam, sorry to go off the thread topic, but can I ask, in your warfare games are you looking to complete a domination victory or switch to another victory condition after some conquests? Also, how do you deal with late game happiness if you do go for the domination victory?

I usually aim for a Science victory -- if I get that far ... Most of my games get abandoned somewhere after T200 (normal speed) when other things in life come up, or it begins to feel like a slog. On the few occasions that I have been able to make @peddroelm's Honor-Commerce-Autocracy strategy work, it has been very satisfying. But he was a very good player (have a look at his YouTube videos, if you haven't seen them). I am a very poor player, very slow at conquest, hence the preference for Science victory. The times when Honor-Commerce-Autocracy have worked for me have been when I have been able to capture a capital with a lot of wonders, which results in a lot of cultural pressure on Civs that have taken other Ideologies, and where I have been able to take the happiness tenets in good time (along with the military buildings that give happiness). Naturally, the other factor in making HCA work is being able to capture at least a couple of good capitals fairly quickly, which may depend on the map, and also needs tactical ability which I don't have. It has usually taken me to beyond T325 to win using HCA. But flooding the map with tanks that ignore Zone of Control is very satisfying -- as is the mountain of gold you get for kills.

If you haven't tried the HCA strategy, there is an explanation of it here:

 

[martindo]

If you watch what happens when you convert an AI's holy city to your religion, you can see that the original religion of the AI continues to exert influence. IIRC, it will eventually restore that religion.

Another option, which is somewhat awkward and expensive is to purchase an Inquisitor who will eliminate a huge chunk of a "foreign" religion in a city. Note that "foreign" means you propagated your religion there first -- if an AI got there first, then you're not "re-converting" it. Same for the diplomatic dialog box "stop sending missionaries to my cities" -- if AI put its religion there first, it's not "your" city in terms of its religion, so the option doesn't appear.

Grand Temple increases your religious pressure. Adding religious buildings (esp Pagoda if you chose it for your religion) also increases pressure to retain your religion. And you can also send a trade delegation to your own city to add to the pressure exerted by the sending city's religion.

It seems that OP figured out some of this himself.