Can't ask AI to stop spreading religion

[Juanholio]

This has not come up for me before but it seems you can't tell an AI to stop spreading their religion if you've not founded one. I had (in this case) hinduism which gave me cathedrals and mosques and it has been replaced with protestantism which gives sweet f.a. (since he was one of the last to found)

I think religious solidarity is pretty weak in this game. Considering how badly AIs spam missionaries I'd like to see non-founding AIs stick up for the religion they have or at least encourage one compatible with their aims within their borders. That would mitigate some of the AI spam. It's pretty lame I can't get annoyed with Hiawatha for religious spread thru diplo. Now if I declare war to make him stop I'm just going to be a warmonger.

 

[reddishrecue]

You can make holy sites near your capital to make faith for future prophets or religious purchase needs. I don't know how to stop the AI from spreading its religion, but I often keep a prophet in the capital to spread my religion to my capital in case my capital gets converted to another religion.

 

[Juanholio]

You can make holy sites near your capital to make faith for future prophets or religious purchase needs. I don't know how to stop the AI from spreading its religion, but I often keep a prophet in the capital to spread my religion to my capital in case my capital gets converted to another religion.

Yeah I'm used to emperor where founding a religion/building wonders is pretty easy even if you're not really specifically persuing religion.

Now I'm playing more immortal games I'm trying to focus more since you have less luxury of time. As such in this game I'm not persuing religion at all; I think it's a bit weak that even though there is a religion established in my cities with bonuses I like, there's no diplo option to tell other civs I don't want their religion just because I didn't found it.

 

[reddishrecue]

Yeah I'm used to emperor where founding a religion/building wonders is pretty easy even if you're not really specifically persuing religion.

Now I'm playing more immortal games I'm trying to focus more since you have less luxury of time. As such in this game I'm not persuing religion at all; I think it's a bit weak that even though there is a religion established in my cities with bonuses I like, there's no diplo option to tell other civs I don't want their religion just because I didn't found it.

I used to play Immortal but failed a few times. I often didn't end up with a religion but that didn't stop me from making faith. As for the world congress, the only thing there is in faith is world religion.

 

[triheptyl]

INQUISITORS! No one ever buys inquisitors. I constantly see pictures of people surrounding missionaries and prophets with units, all you need is 1 or 2 inquisitors and you are basically immune to conversion, but no one ever gets them and constantly complains about AI converting their cities. An inquisitor doesn't just remove religion, it completely prevents missionary and prophet conversion in any city its stationed in.

I usually place an inquisitor in my Holy City, and then have another one which I move from city to city, depending on where I see missionaries and prophets. Sometimes you have to do the tango with the AI and follow his missionaries around for multiple turns, but I find they usually give up and send them elsewhere (if they don't get destroyed by attrition).

The AI does seem to have a tendency to lie through their teeth about not spreading religion, however. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen an AI keep their word when they say they aren't going to send anymore missionaries to you.

 

[Pietato]

Like triheptyl said, telling the AI to stop spreading their religion to your cities does nothing anyway.

 

[joncnunn]

There's no point in even asking the AI to stop; even if you do ask and they accept they'll continue to do it anyway. Build inquistors and park them.

 

[krc]

INQUISITORS! No one ever buys inquisitors. I constantly see pictures of people surrounding missionaries and prophets with units, all you need is 1 or 2 inquisitors and you are basically immune to conversion, but no one ever gets them and constantly complains about AI converting their cities. An inquisitor doesn't just remove religion, it completely prevents missionary and prophet conversion in any city its stationed in.

Sometimes you have to do the tango with the AI and follow his missionaries around for multiple turns, but I find they usually give up and send them elsewhere (if they don't get destroyed by attrition).

Yes, this works. But the micro-managing that goes along with it is agonzingly painful. I just played a game as Morocco and founded Islam. My nearest neighbor was Arabia, who founded his own religion. I captured Mecca before he could get camel archers and left him with two small cities. I then spread Islam to every city on the continent. He still managed to get a prophet from his own religion and kept trying to convert one of my cities. I had two inquisitors and had to continue the @$#&* anti-prophet dance for a hundred turns. And then he finished piety and sent another prophet! At which point I DoWed and captured his prophets and turned them into my holy sites. But all I could think about the entire time was how much of my life was being wasted moving my inquisitors from a pair of southern cities to a pair of northern cities, and back, every 3 turns, forever. And he never ever even tried to convert his own cities to his to his own religion.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

[joncnunn]

The above dance with only 2 Inquisitors is why I normally build 3. That and I normally don't pick any religious buildings.

 

[reddishrecue]

Great Wall also destroys missionaries much easier when they try to spread their religion into your civilization. Prophets should be an issue.

 

[LoneRebel]

Yes, this works. But the micro-managing that goes along with it is agonzingly painful. I just played a game as Morocco and founded Islam. My nearest neighbor was Arabia, who founded his own religion. I captured Mecca before he could get camel archers and left him with two small cities. I then spread Islam to every city on the continent. He still managed to get a prophet from his own religion and kept trying to convert one of my cities. I had two inquisitors and had to continue the @$#&* anti-prophet dance for a hundred turns. And then he finished piety and sent another prophet! At which point I DoWed and captured his prophets and turned them into my holy sites. But all I could think about the entire time was how much of my life was being wasted moving my inquisitors from a pair of southern cities to a pair of northern cities, and back, every 3 turns, forever. And he never ever even tried to convert his own cities to his to his own religion.

Regarding that, how was Arabia still able to get a prophet of their own religion if their holy city had been captured and all their remaining cities were following your religion? The same thing happened to me in my game. I was Portugal and sharing a continent with Bismarck. I founded Catholicism and he founded Protestantism. He later declared war on me, and I wiped out his army and captured Berlin. I hit newly-captured Berlin with a double whammy of Great Prophet and Inquisitor to completely remove every trace of Protestantism from it. He had two cities left, but the civs from the other continents were aggressively spreading their religions to us by that point, and so those two cities soon converted away from Protestantism as well. I was satisfied that I had managed to drive Protestantism to extinction - and then all of a sudden I see a Protestant Great Prophet again. How did he do that?

 

[Civilmyzation]

for the past year, after being spammed by AI GP's etc, I started putting an inquis in my city. I lost my religion because I didn't have one, and ever since made the decision to just have an inquis in my capital.

if you get it early enough with good faith production its nice, I often just say "screw" the pagoda if I am not producing enough faith to put one in a majority of my cities, and will go with the early inquis and choose something else growth related, a lot of times you can get caught after the CPU makes the wonder that adds 3 missionary's. they do that, and you better have an inquis in your capital or you will* lose your religion without a bunch of units surrounding your capital

my issue is that if you choose to not go with your own religion, you don't have any say over which religion you end up with unless the AI makes it to one of your cities

 

[BuzWeaverCiv]

INQUISITORS! No one ever buys inquisitors. I constantly see pictures of people surrounding missionaries and prophets with units, all you need is 1 or 2 inquisitors and you are basically immune to conversion, but no one ever gets them and constantly complains about AI converting their cities. An inquisitor doesn't just remove religion, it completely prevents missionary and prophet conversion in any city its stationed in.

I usually place an inquisitor in my Holy City, and then have another one which I move from city to city, depending on where I see missionaries and prophets. Sometimes you have to do the tango with the AI and follow his missionaries around for multiple turns, but I find they usually give up and send them elsewhere (if they don't get destroyed by attrition).

The AI does seem to have a tendency to lie through their teeth about not spreading religion, however. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen an AI keep their word when they say they aren't going to send anymore missionaries to you.

This is true, however every once in a while I'll get those games where I'm getting Mega Spamed with Religion that by the time I can generate enough faith to build an Inquisitor my main city(s) have been converted.

 

[Juanholio]

This is true, however every once in a while I'll get those games where I'm getting Mega Spamed with Religion that by the time I can generate enough faith to build an Inquisitor my main city(s) have been converted.

Yeah that was a problem not enough faith for inquisitors while saving for faith buildings. Had to wait for two GPs to pop 200 & 300 faith respectively before I could buy 300 faith-cost buildings or one inquisitor.

I tend to find it more satisfying if you can 'offcially' chastise the AI and if they carry on, off to war. If you kill them then you're a warmonger just like always but it sort of has a better narrative. Like 'don't settle near me, oh you did, well you had been warned...'

I'd like to see some sort of religious solidarity mechanic, maybe something like a DoF for a duration of turns where an AI ally will defend your shared religion with it's own missionaries and denounce spread as if it were their own. Or maybe this sort of agreement would generate extra pressure from the non-founding ally capital? Certainly more active participation from non-founding AIs in encouraging/defending a religion which best suits their goals could be more interesting.

I generally find the endless missionary spam incredibly tedious especially when there are a number of AIs/CSs being contested. If I am going religious I almost always find myself choosing +25% spread or itinerant preachers and forcing world religion (which always aggravates) just to try to balance this and save faith for great people.

 

[Browd]

Regarding that, how was Arabia still able to get a prophet of their own religion if their holy city had been captured and all their remaining cities were following your religion? The same thing happened to me in my game. I was Portugal and sharing a continent with Bismarck. I founded Catholicism and he founded Protestantism. He later declared war on me, and I wiped out his army and captured Berlin. I hit newly-captured Berlin with a double whammy of Great Prophet and Inquisitor to completely remove every trace of Protestantism from it. He had two cities left, but the civs from the other continents were aggressively spreading their religions to us by that point, and so those two cities soon converted away from Protestantism as well. I was satisfied that I had managed to drive Protestantism to extinction - and then all of a sudden I see a Protestant Great Prophet again. How did he do that?

An AI that has a religion (even if it is no longer majority in any city) can always generate a Great Prophet as long as that AI still has at least one city, and the Great Prophet it generates will always be of its own religion. This is particularly irksome if the religion(s) in the AI's cities have faith generation bonuses -- the AI will generate a GP all the more quickly. Best case is to spread to the AI a religion with a pantheon that is worthless to the AI (e.g., desert folklore but the AI has no desert tiles) and that has no faith-generating follower beliefs.

 

[Evil Spock]

I am currently playing as Sweden doing an ICS game on a huge map for shits and gigs on emperor and Korea keeps sending prophets into me I've killed then about 6 times, got tired of them and their stubbornness my only solution is to kill them by making bringing a carpet of units into their lands and making them starve or settle heaps of terrible cities around them then invade. Ai is to stubborn to acknowledge that you want them to stop.

 

[Redaxe]

As others here have said you pretty much can't stop the AI trying to spread religion. But you can

-Not give them open borders. This will degrade foreign missionary strength each turn. If there is a particular AIs religion that you want (if you didn't found) you can give them open borders and send them trade routes....

-block the missionaries/prophets with civilians or military units. Blocking bridges/rivers etc is smart as it forces the AI to spend a turn moving around a river which weakens the missioary.

-Go to war and capture their prophets. Often they'll send 2 at once to you. You might be able to get Holy Sites from them.

-By inquisitors (as mentioned)

-Play Liberty and build lots of cities. If you build 8-10 cities and take Itinerant Preachers very quickly you'll produce massive religious pressure and you'll be able to outcompete foreign religious pressure. Piety is considered the tree that gives extra faith but in reality more cities will generate more faith and more religious pressure so Liberty is also a perfect strategy for a religion focused game (although it doesn't come with the Reformation)...

-Build Great Mosque. The extra missionary spread and the high amount of faith that wonder produces is very valuable (saves you 200 faith on the religious building too!). If you buy Great Prophets with faith from the Industrial era they will also come with 5 spreads (instead of the normal 4)

 

[FaohKi]

Place Inquisitors to your cities and no one can convert your cities.