Benefits of One Religion Vs Another?

[KiOwA_25]

Which begs the inevitable strategy of waiting and adopting the religion of your neighbours, instead of trying to found your own. This also has the additional benefit of being able to pursue other non-religious techs instead.

 

[King Monkeyman]

Which begs the inevitable strategy of waiting and adopting the religion of your neighbours, instead of trying to found your own. This also has the additional benefit of being able to pursue other non-religious techs instead.

But not your NEAREST neighbors, those you have other plans for .

--kmm

 

[KiOwA_25]

Of course, you COULD take on their religion first to get chummy with them, then stab them in the back later when they least expect it/are otherwise occupied. But then I seem to be getting overly political here

 

[Gumbolt]

It would be interesting if each civ had a favourite religion like they do civics. You could gain points with a leader if you used there fav religion. Not sure how politically correct for the game this might be.

Best religion for me is the one you get earliest. More chance to spread more money from holy shrine over whole game.

 

[malekithe]

Of course, you COULD take on their religion first to get chummy with them, then stab them in the back later when they least expect it/are otherwise occupied. But then I seem to be getting overly political here

Exactly. Adopt their religion to get on their good side. Then, bribe them to declare war on one of their neighbors. While their troops are away, declare war on them. You'll simultaneously capture the religion, whipe out your neighbor, and buddy up with the next guy in line.

 

[Ordom]

It would be interesting if each civ had a favourite religion like they do civics. You could gain points with a leader if you used there fav religion. Not sure how politically correct for the game this might be.

Best religion for me is the one you get earliest. More chance to spread more money from holy shrine over whole game.

Yah. They should've made the game with each civ having a "favorite" religion....but then again, I could see some issues in the balance. If everybody in Europe loves Christianity, then other close by nations might get dominated by a religious alliance. Then again.....again, I'm thinking of a world map where everybody starts in the right place, not a randomly generated map.

 

[KiOwA_25]

The simplest and (still) best reason is that assigning any particular religion certain unique benefits is gonna open a whole can of worms that Firaxis cares not to deal with.

 

[ownedbyakorat]

Religions are functionally identical to each other. The only difference is that a religion established earlier will be likely to spread to more cities than one established later (however, that is dependent on trade routes and the number of cities a religion has the ability to spread to).

 

[Jeff1787]

Exactly. Adopt their religion to get on their good side. Then, bribe them to declare war on one of their neighbors. While their troops are away, declare war on them. You'll simultaneously capture the religion, whipe out your neighbor, and buddy up with the next guy in line.

Such an evil thought, but so true......

 

[moggydave]

there is an interesting debate that can take place if religions were assinged small extra benefits. certainly the strategic depth ofthe religion feature would increase hugely and make the player and AI consider perhaps trying to get Islam or Taoism.

I would be in favour of it myself, even though I'm a religious guy, but Firaxis would have to tread very very carefully,and people would have to be responsible enough not to give/take offense at the slightest of excuses

 

[Jimdigriz]

Im sure this wouldnt give Firaxis a religion 'problem' but would affect the game a bit -

How about a (small) bonus for having the real (majority) state religion for the civ you are playing? So if you are England then having the state religion as Christianity gives you a bonus...if you are India then Hinduism gives you a bonus.

Actually thinking about it again...this might cause problems after all!

 

[malekithe]

there is an interesting debate that can take place if religions were assinged small extra benefits. certainly the strategic depth ofthe religion feature would increase hugely and make the player and AI consider perhaps trying to get Islam or Taoism.

I would be in favour of it myself, even though I'm a religious guy, but Firaxis would have to tread very very carefully,and people would have to be responsible enough not to give/take offense at the slightest of excuses

That's sort of already implemented, just in a less obvious way. Think of the religion civics. They give you some specific bonus after you declare a state religion (or lack thereof after a while). The main difference between that and what you're talking about is the player gets to choose what the bonus associated with his religion is going to be. In my opinion that's much better than always ending up as a Christian Theocracy, or Confucian pacifists. It also nicely avoids the situation where the deseigners would have to attribute particular values to a religion. I mean, I would imagine there are those that would take offense if Hinduism always granted +1 happiness from cattle, or if Christianity produced Knights with a free combat promotion (eg. am I saying that Christianity is a violent religion...?).

 

[Legba]

I believe that each religion has a "surge" of spreading shortly after it has been founded. Not sure, but I've observed this phenomenon too.

I have found that there is another one of these "surges" when a shrine is built. Seems like after I build one three or four cities somewhere convert to that religion in the preceeding turns.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

I have found that there is another one of these "surges" when a shrine is built. Seems like after I build one three or four cities somewhere convert to that religion in the preceeding turns.

(My lame stickler point - You mean "following turns", rather than "preceeding turns". Preceeding turns are "before" the event. Pre=before, Pro=after)

Stolen Rutters - "I can't believe I ignored the advice of the game. You want to spread a religion, you build a Shrine..." *slaps forehead*

Well, the game does claim that the shrine increases the spread of the religion. I'm not sure of the mechanism but that would be cool. I always like spreading the later religions just because the first two (sometimes three) just seem to dominate every game. I almost always manage to found Confucianism or Christianity (they lie on my preferred tech tracks) but I never seem to be able to get either one to dominate the world. I admit that I seem to have around 5 Great Scientists for each Great Prophet I get (and I burn that first Great Prophet to get Theocracy most of the time). I will try the shrine tactic and see if that helps spread out my religions faster.

My $0.02,
SR (...has alot to learn)
currently - Single player, default Continents settings, Alexander, 8 AI, Monarch, standard speed, standard settings