Byzantium religion

[Ninal]

edit: this was meant for the Civ 5 Vox Populi forum. Apologies.

Hello everyone,

After I managed to win eacht victory type once on Deity/Pangea/Normal speed I am now interested in experimenting with leaders that I consider a bit weak. I am now experimenting with Byzantium.

I have forested start with Furs. I have built Stonehenge to get God of the Hunt (boosts camps) and I have built the Hanging Gardens in my Capitol. I have the opener and 3 additional Tradition policies. I settled a total of 4 cities and will keep it that way.

It's turn 97 and I can start my religion. It's the last religion available. I was wondering how to profit most from the extra belief and I am at a loss at how to synergise my religion.

So far I think Ceremonial Burial would be nice with all the tradition GP's. But I have no idea how to organise the rest of my religion to get the most out of it. Do any of you have any pointers or suggestions?

Moderator Action: Moved as requested. leif

 

[HeroOfTheSword]

Hi, I play Byzantium a lot because I love a good religious game. I wouldn't consider them weak at all though. Like I did a game recently picking Authority and building Alhambra just around the time their unique unit the Cataphract becomes available and I was blitzing through other civs. I also picked Orders to gain extra xp points. So combining Orders, Alhambra, barracks and Armory the Cataphract is immensely powerful. I rarely go aggressive but decided to pick God of War pantheon to gain faith from kills, Hero Worship founder to utilize capturing cities, Council of Elders (as the bonus) to rush certain wonders, Veneration to make the most of the faith created from kills and cities captured. With my second prophet I went with orders like I said above and zealotry to quickly build units and keep my capital focused on wonders.

Also you can always found a religion and you can always choose any of the beliefs listed including any picked by other civs so there is actually no need to build Stonehenge. Better to bee line for one of the later ancient era wonders.

I usually go tradition with Byzantium too and in the last game I picked Council of Elders and Apostolic Tradition; boosting culture, food, science and production, all in one spread. I always go with Veneration too, which works really well with Byzantium's other ability of being able to purchase great people in the classical era. I still pick zealotry and orders for the culture boost from Veneration even though I'm not going Authority. You'll always need good defense with Tradition! And the Cataphract is actually a good defensive unit.

Personally I don't go for a situational pantheon like you have, I think something cumulative like Goddess of Love works really well over time. For Reformation, the last time I played I went for Faith of the Masses which works well with Veneration but I want to start a game and go for To the Glory of God and see if that works with Byzantium's ability to purchase great people early. Update: I tried that and it doesn't work so well so I'd go for one of the ones Vektic mentions below.

Overall I think Byzantine is weak and vulnerable in the ancient/Classical era but because you never have to worry about when you found a religion you can focus on growth and moderate defense in anticipation of a powerful Medieval game.

I hope that helps

 

[Vektic]

Depends very highly on your situation in the game. 5 city tradition makes the %yield in holy city founders appealing. Its always possible to grab both, the and WLTDK one for huge scaling in the .

Apart from that, things like / per pop are very valuable if you don't intend on spreading. However if you do, you can get 2 of Dioceses/Universalism/the one with during . Last one pairs very well with ceremonial burial. But you could go on and on about possible synergies for days, so I'll just leave you with a quick summary as a Byzantium-enthusiast myself:

Byzantium is a very strong and flexible civ, however it is very hard to play as a lot of power will come from your religion. The one extra belief makes a HUGE difference in the way you can get a lot of value out of your religion. The AI is not good at this, compared to other parts of the game which may make Byzantium seem weaker in the hands of AI.

In my experience there is one particular way in which to abuse Byzantium and I will try to do my best to share my thought process because there's a lot of factors involved. First off you will need a solid ground for spreading. This will mean at least one neighbor you can convert easily, and no India/celts/spain or the like in immediate proximity.

Your Founder belief is not that important, though I recommend CB especially after the buffs and because you have a lot of uses for the it will generate. Then you can compliment this with a strong building to ensure your spread, like churches, mandirs or mosques. As your free belief you want to grab a 2nd founder or dioceses for the flat early yields. It will not let you build both founder buildings but still they are very powerful.

It is vital that you enhance quickly before spending too much on missionaries, buildings etc. WIth your enhancement you can get another belief building so any AI you spread to will increase your pressure much more. Alongside another enhancing belief you should have very little competition for centralized yields.

As for reformation beliefs, TTGOG may seem appealing, though I had a lot of success with Jesuit education or faith of the masses, as well as the -buy archaeologist one, with and from and GPTI.

This will open up diplo as win condition with world religion, or and from this giant . My best advice is to experiment though. Keep a save from when your 1st prophet spawns and play out the game a bit from there a few times to get a feel for it. Hope this helps

PS.: 3 Follower buildings is insane as well but 5 cities is a little iffy a base for that