Advice on neutralizing a rival religion

[LukaSlovenia29]

I'm a bit unclear on how one can neutralize a rival religion. Can it be done without conquering its holy city? For example, let's say Carthage is the holy city for the rival religion, which is the majority religion in all three Carthaganian cities and in 5 cities from other civs. I have my own religion and Carthage is allowing open borders to me. Is it possible for me to cut off the "source" of Carthage's religion by using my 4 great prophets to simultaneously convert all three Carthage's cities (2 on the holy city and one on each of the other two)? If Carthage has no existing great prophet around to instantenously reconvert the cities etc., will that prevent (game mechanics-wise) Carthage from building missionaries and inquisitor and great prophets of its own religion?

Or is the only effective way to conquer the rival holy city?

Thanks for the replies!

 

[tu_79]

The founder can always produce a Great Prophet and ruin everything as long as he lives. But, a GP is costly, so if most of the cities follow your religion, just let AI expend the GP. Have an inquisitor every two cities, the GP will be unable to convert there. Then, use two or three missionaries and the pressure from your cities will do the rest. Perhaps its Holy City may stay with the other religion, but a single city can't hurt too much if all the other keep pressing. Having a follower belief with a building that improves pressure aids.

 

[LukaSlovenia29]

Thanks!