Cathedrals are too weak

[dashwinner]

If you plan on going culture victory and spamming archeologist, cathedrals are quite useful to store either art or artifacts before you can get the museums up and running. At that point in the game I often find myself having too much to build at once, between factories, public schools, museums and archeologists, not to mention units since its about the time the AI like to start wars. Cathedrals are a good place to store some art while you wait for your museums to come online. If you go exploration with a tall empire, you might need more art slots. also, a good place to store those random artifacts that you cant seem to match with any other ones for the theming bonus. I do agree that they could perhaps do with another +1 faith or something.

 

[Wodan]

When I generate an artist (etc.) I just hit the work button if it's active. I don't care what city it goes in to. It's only if I don't have any available slots that I'm stuck with saving them.

With the culture screen, you can swap works around like candy at Halloween, so it's not a big deal.

Usually it's that I want to put works in my border cities or cities with resources in the 3rd tile, where the culture growth will expand borders faster. That's where the extra slots are useful IMO.

 

[peterka]

Then the cathedral should have the krepost 25% saving feature....

 

[isau]

Taking cathedrals also prevents someone else from taking them. Denying Egypt or the Iroquois one more opportunity to culture slam you in the late game isn't such a bad idea sometimes even if you aren't very interested in the slots yourself, especially if the "better" mosques and pagodas are already snatched up.

 

[azzaman333]

Cathedrals allow you to turn your early Artists immediately into GWs. It's not the greatest thing ever, but it can mean you have plenty of medieval or renaissance GW of Art to get the themeing bonuses (particularly those that require multiple from same era and civ).

 

[Tiggurix]

The Cathedral is fine. Compared to the Monastery, the "worst" building purchasable with Faith, it costs more to purchase, and gives half as much and to begin with, BUT it gives one extra (limited by population, as usual), which is very valuable, and can potentially provide more and Tourism when you fill it with a Great Work or Artifact.

As people have mentioned, it is great for housing Great Works before you have access to Museums, and late game they can house leftover Artifacts, especially if you like to go Artifact hunting all over the world, like I do.

I also suspect they would be great if you're planning on winning by Domination, or a "Culture/Domination" victory, as you'll probably end up with a lot of captured Great Works and Artifacts that need to be housed, and why not purchase a Cathedral in your border cities so that you can house them there and expand your borders?

 

[Callonia]

In the past I always picked Pagodas, but after I learned that cathedrals have great art work slot I now always pick them over pagodas. If it wasn't for the cathedrals I would be always spending alot of gpt on great artists until I get damn museums.

 

[Halcyan2]

In both G&K and BNW, I heavily favor Cathedrals over Pagodas (which beat Mosques, and then Monasteries).

BNW Cathedrals are probably a bit weaker than G&K Cathedrals since the Artist slot was great for extra science (with Secularism) or for popping Great Artists.

However, BNW Cathedrals are still good. I think you are underestimating the art/artifact slot.

1. It's the only religious building to provide potential Tourism (other than through Sacred Sites, which also works with Cathedrals).

2. The slot is often useful. Before Renaissance wonders or Industrial museum, your single art/artifact slot is in your palace. That's it. It's not uncommon to pop 2, maybe even 3 artists in the Medieval Age.

I'm in the middle of an Emperor game (with 13 opponents). 4 or 5 of the AI's went with Liberty, of which 2 of them chose a Great Artist for their Liberty finisher. Even some of the other civs have already generated 2 or 3 artists by Medieval, yet they are all capped at 1 piece of art (which means they must have burned the GA for a Golden Age, or are hiding them somewhere at a different city).

That also means that for the most part, a civ that takes over the capital of another civ, will likely have to destroy that piece of Art since he doesn't have a slot.

3. Even an empty slot is *useful*. Since you can freely move Great Works around, the AI or an intelligent player will shuttle the Great Works around in case a city is in danger.

In the early game, I've found that some civs love to build Amphitheaters. In these cases, it's hard to conquer a Great Work of Writing because even if you take the city (including the capital), the piece is likely to be moved away. Only if the civ has lots of Works of Writing do you have a chance at stealing it. In contrast, if the civ does not bother building Amphitheaters (and some are like that)

Since most civs will only have the Palace slot for Art/Artifact, if they have a Great Work of Art, you know that if you take their capital (good luck ), you will get their Great Work because there is nowhere else to move it.

However, if they have Cathedrals, then they can play the shell game (just like Amphitheaters with Great Works of Writing).

For me, that actually serves as a deterrent to attack. Given the intricacies of the new Warmonger system, I want to be very careful on who I want to attack. Someone with great works, and go gunning for their capital. Those with empty slots available make poor targets because you may need to take a lot of cities (taking a diplo hit each time) to get them.

So in that sense, Cathedrals work as a helpful deterrent in multiplayer and if the AI uses it and you are making a calculated attack. And of course, if you get swarmed by the enemy AI on deity, it's nice being able to spirit away your art to safer cities!

 

[0R4NG3]

In certain games cathedrals are essential. I play on emperor and quite often there is simply not enough space for archaeological artefacts.

 

[Crafty Bison]

Well, I certainly find it very useful when I capture a city that has a Cathedral . Wouldn't want to spend a belief on it myself (over pagodas or the 'religious catch up' mosques), but I'm very happy to take someone else's work.

 

[aling]

Im playing as Poland on Deity mode and after 5 major restarts and hundreds of minor ones I think I'm finally well positioned. I can't decide between cathedrals and feed the world as my second follower belief. My first was pagoda, a no brainer for the happiness. Feed the world will be beneficial early since I'll be colonizing a bunch of islands. Later cathedrals may be more useful but I'll need all my faith for missionaries until at least turn 160. I figure religion is the best way to win on deity since the ai's cities are three times bigger. At least I can use them to generate gold with tithe.