Awesome Religion Builds

[Silverman6083]

I was appalled that when I searched up "Civ 5 cool religion builds" there were none to be found! So I decided I'd start a thread about it ^-^ So do any you have Religion builds that just can't be matched?
I have a few that are obvious:
(Byzantium)
World Church/Pilgrimage
Asceticism
Cathedral
Mosque
Messiah/Missionary Zeal
Pagodas
Sacred Sites
and
Sun God/Goddess of the Hunt/Fertility Rites
Tithe/World Church
Feed the World
Sword into Plowshares
Reliquary/Defender of the Faith

 

[rodrigoq]

I prefer.. with any Civ.
Desret Folklore, Dance of the Aurora
Pilgrimmage
Pagoda/Cathedral/Mosque(if I have to, explain further down)
Divine Inspiration
Holy Order
Reformation: To the Glory of God.

I generally take Pagoda over cathedral unless I'm going for culture win. I only take Mosque if it's my only opption, mainly so I can stack my pagoda/cathedral with Great Mosque of Djenne. Free mosque is worthless if you can buy your own. Early bonus faith is very nice.

basically It's a major faith generator, with VERY cheap missionaries. You can out spam the AI, even on diety. Main goal with this is to get Theology before anything else. I usually haven't teched trapping or bronzeworking when I get theology. Great Mosque makes this build seriously OP, and plays very well with Pilgrimmage.

I take Holy Order, because I can be a wonder spammer,without using egypt or marble on diety. It counts all "wonder" type buildings, NC,Guilds,hrmitage ect, not just World wonders.

To the Glory of God.... with sickening faith generation, you will be buying more great people than you will produce naturally, even with a city stacked for GP generation. Especially potent on epic/marathon speed games where you get more turns to accumulate faith.

On large/huge epic/marathon, this build shines. Religion is you main priority, and learning to use your missionaries effectively to spam the world till it can't compete with your insane influence. Expect 300-400 fpt on large maps, 500+fpt on huge maps by industrial era.

Desrt Folklore.. probably the only way you're going to compete with the faith bonuses the AI gets on diety, so you can get first religion/enhance w/o building stonehenge. Dance of the Aurora is just as deadly, especially with a semi tundra start/region. In some cases an empire split on grassland/tundra can produce a sickening amount of faith earlier than with a desert. especially if you go Liberty and spam cities quickly.

My favored build.

 

[sendos]

Preferred Pantheons: messenger god, desert folklore, fertility rites
Preferred Founder beliefs: Tithe...and only tithe.
Preferred follower beliefs: cathedrals, pagodas, swords into plowshares
Preferred enhancers: religious texts, itinerant preachers, sometimes Just War and Defender of Faith depending on certain situations.
Reformations: Sacred Sites, To the Glory of God, Heathen Conversion (if I'm warmongering and my happiness falls to -10)

 

[rodrigoq]

swords to plowshares on higher levels is just a reason for the AI to backstab/war for no reason. They seemed to be programmed to screw you over if you pick that belief, and keep you from enjoying it.

as for tithe... gold can't buy great people..

 

[kingofsealand]

In my last game I got forced into picking the last religion available as i slacked on temples and found the AI had ate all the building tenets. What they didnt eat were my two fav's, swords into plowshares and religious community.

I was on archapelago so the pantheon was god of the sea
Tithe
plus swords to plowshares
plus religious community
plus religious texts

= great for wonder spamming, you get more population and that religious community bonus is pretty significant, maxes out at 15% I think? Either way it makes no sense to take monument to the gods for a temp. bonus towards ancient/classical wonders ONLY when you could get something so much much better and then take this later on for a universal 15% production bonus (assuming 15 followers).

 

[Zenstrive]

Desert Folklore
Tithe
Pagoda
the one that gives one food per shrine and temple
the one that gives more religious influence range
Glory of God

 

[Arcaian]

If you're going tall is there any reason to take anything over Swords to Plowshares (for that lovely 15% early growth, stacking with the 30% from tradition in the cap to 45%, plus that aqueduct is insane) and religious community? 15% increase in production is insane, nearly as good as Egypt's wonder bonus, but for everything! Stick an inquisitor in your cities and they can't be converted, and it's bloody incredible!

Pagoda/Church/Mosque seems to pretty useless for a tall empire.

 

[Aenthin]

Probably not awesome, but this does help a bit with my Science boosts:

Pantheon: Messenger of the Gods/Any growth pantheon
Founder Belief: Interfaith Dialogue
Follower Belief: Feed the World/Swords into Plowshares
Enhancer Belief: Messiah/Holy Order/Reliquary/Missionary Zeal
Reformation Belief: Jesuit Education/Charitable Mission

Growth is an obvious choice since population also determines science. Messenger of the Gods is rarely picked on if I'm late in the religion race so, if the growth pantheons are all taken or if they're not applicable in my starting position, I take it.

Since I'm not very aggressive in missionary expeditions, I usually let the AI rush theirs on other cities then I come with a couple of Great Prophets and/or Missionaries to get myself a small boost of science, usually on CS's so I don't get a diplomatic hit. I also pull out missionaries instead of inquisitors when my cities get converted.

Again, since I'm not big on faith generation, getting cheaper prophets or missionaries help. Reliquary helps too if I get a lot of great persons. Missionary Zeal, on the other hand, allows me to give me a better chance at converting a city to allow the AI to try and convert them again. I just use it for Interfaith Dialogue, really. For the same reason, I avoid any belief that would make my religion spread faster or stronger to ensure I have a city to convert for the sake of science.

My reformation belief depends on whether I get Patronage or not. Charitable Mission at least keeps me allied with my CS's, especially when I'm fighting against "Alejandro" the Great. (I hate him). This is to ensure I have my science boosts coming from CS's as well. Otherwise, I just spend faith on science buildings rather than buying them with gold, even if I have more to spare. If Jesuit Education and Charitable Mission are unavailable or not applicable, I take whatever reformation there is left.

 

[DarthSheldonPhD]

Finding with BNW I NEED to spend both follower beliefs to get 3-4 happy/city. Before that i loved to mix tithe with religious community and religious texts: one gives a bunch of extra gold, the other gives a bunch of extra hammers, and the enhancer increases the rate at which you get the bonuses. Build more stuff to win, buy more stuff to win, just have a ton of extra stuff... that wins

 

[Arcaian]

Finding with BNW I NEED to spend both follower beliefs to get 3-4 happy/city. Before that i loved to mix tithe with religious community and religious texts: one gives a bunch of extra gold, the other gives a bunch of extra hammers, and the enhancer increases the rate at which you get the bonuses. Build more stuff to win, buy more stuff to win, just have a ton of extra stuff... that wins

Tithe + Religious Communities is perfectly possible in BNW if you're going tall

 

[hnut]

Recently i've been playing wide with Maya and Celts, church property is awesome with a wide empire (10 cities on T100). Motg is nice as well but i always lack gold, especially with Maya as buying/upgrading archers isn't cheap and science isn't that big of an issue. Also apart from obvious pagoda/mosque build i go for belief that spreads religion 30% further instead of 25% faster, 10 cities make enough pressure that i never need missionaries. I play immortal mostly pangea standard, also i've taken god of open skies a few times and found it awesome if you have 5+ early pastures.

 

[EriktheRead]

I had a fun time with world church/itenerate preachers/religious texts as Byzantium. Huge map, pre BNW, culture Vic. Made up about 1/5th of my total culture. I'll have to try that at some point with the latest changes.

 

[georgie]

If I'm playing tall and stars align,
Pantheon: God-King
Founder: Tithe
Follower: Pagodas
Follower: Religious Community
Enhancer: Religious Texts

 

[Heretiv]

I am glad some people name checked fertility rites.
I think it is great - 10% growth and the power of compound interest - a great recipe.

Sure you have to make sure you have the happiness covered, but it stacks very nicely with Temple of Artemis too.

 

[Astennu]

Does anyone here opt for the Messiah enhancer (25% cheaper and stronger Prophets) rather than Religious Texts or IE?

I find that waiting for your religion to just spread by itself can become unreliable on Immortal + and that you actively need to spread it, especially when the AI tries to missionary/prophet spam you.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

As Byzantium:

Any culture pantheon

Cathedral
Mosques
Bonus: pagodas

Reformation: sacred sites.

Build wide and put each building in each city. You will get an early lead in Tourism because hardly anyone is pumping out culture until the middle of the game. I can usually Dominate two of my neighbors by the time I get to archeology.

It will work for any civ, but Byzantium can get more buildings to generate tourism.

 

[dopingman]

Does anyone here opt for the Messiah enhancer (25% cheaper and stronger Prophets) rather than Religious Texts or IE?

I find that waiting for your religion to just spread by itself can become unreliable on Immortal + and that you actively need to spread it, especially when the AI tries to missionary/prophet spam you.

Religious Texts and IE are primarily to keep your religion spread within your empire, if you want to actively spread further, i.e. AI or CS territory you can pick Messiah. The payoff of spreading religion on Immo+ is however doubtful as it will make AIs belligerent towards you, whilst they can easily convert back due to huge faith generation bonuses and it saps generated faith you'd be burning on GPs or Pagodas. If you can pick up Mosque of Dienne it may be okay, but you can spend those hammers used for it on sth else more useful in most cases.