Competing in the religious race on Immortal

[Miravlix]

1: Using a non religious civ.
2: Not chancing Stonehenge.

Capital: Monument, Shrine, Archer, Archer, Worker, Archer.
Liberty: Production, Settler
Second City: Monument, buy shrine. (Barbs camps for cash)

Research: Pottery, Archery, Mining, Animal Husbandry, Masonry (For Walls)

I'm out of happiness with the second city build, and have 2 plantation lux and 1 whales, so going Calendar next.

Pantheon cost is up to 105 (I have 74), no religions founded yet, so I'm far from first in the race.

 

[Volapyk]

If you want to found a religion at that diff level, you really either need to play a religious based civ, build the Stonehenge, get lucky on a ruin (or two), get a free prophet, or befriend a religious CS.

Also what speed is that on? 105 faith for a pantheon is huge (even considering the increase in price for each pantheon already founded), especially if on standard speed where 200 faith would give you a great prophet.

 

[ggmoyang]

I think it is marathon... 105=35*3.
Thats quite slow pantheon, you'll need to speed up little.

 

[Miravlix]

Catharine rushed me. Lost my warrior, might have been my own fault, but since I'm gold starved and loosing the one unit made me able to pay the upkeep for the monument just build and stay on 0 GPT. It might have been okay to loss it.

As Cat decided I was beating her up to badly and ran away, I got the found pantheon popup, It was up to 120 faith. I'm rushing 3 range on my archers, so I might be able to take Cat out if she allows me a bit more XP on her units. Except I have no warriors to take cities. DOH!

Marathon speed, everything is x3 cost of standard. 600 for a Prophet.

 

[Miravlix]

Guess I facedesk to much it's harmed my brain.

I play Songhai, so picked Sacred Waters +1 happiness for cities on rivers, then realized none of my cities was on rivers....

Reloaded and changed to +1 culture/faith from Incense/Wine, since I have 1 incense and 1 wine.

I went liberty opener, so I'm getting a prophet from it, don't see any other way to compete for founding a religion. Liberty or death.

 

[Miravlix]

Stonehenge wasn't much of an option, since Cats rush would have killed me then.

What I'm testing here is how to give you the best possible foundation for creating a religion. religious CS, Ancient Ruins (That I turn off), Natural Wonder is things that will make this foundation better, but they are not required.

I always create my own luck, using gambling is just bad strategy. Taking advantage of luck that make a good strategy better is the only option.

 

[Miravlix]

I ended up with +4 faith turn, 2 shrines and faith from pantheon.

I founded the 7th religion, so that was the bare minimum to get a religion, but it definately wasn't even close to competing.

I don't get how Russia beat me, she has 3 towns, no wonders. No +faith pantheon. Unless the AI get +faith on immortal, she shouldn't have been able to beat my 4 faith a turn. Just checked with a mod, she has +3 faith, but still I got +4 faith when she had 2 towns.

I think the conclusion is that you need 8ish faith pr. turn to compete on immortal.

 

[Wuddel]

slightly ot but scout->mountment->worker->stonehedge works nearly everytime. Just set it on production focus at pop 3.

 

[Miravlix]

slightly ot but scout->mountment->worker->stonehedge works nearly everytime. Just set it on production focus at pop 3.

1: It also ensure you have no army for dealing with rushes.
2: It doesn't work every time, sometimes an AI civ builds stonehenge, before you can, no matter what productivity tricks you pull.

So there isn't just one case of this scenario failing, there is two.

Scouts is pointless waste of production.

 

[RealHuhn]

Build more cities!
More cities = more shrines.

Build temples!
One temple = two shrines.

Don't ever rushbuy shrines!
Too expensive for their low hammer costs. Rushbuy a worker instead and build a mine for more production.

That should guarantee you a religion (in fact, I always got a religion on Immortal).
And if you want to be 100% sure, go Piety and Organized Religion. You will swim in faith ...

I agree with Stonehenge though. Too risky.

 

[Polycrates]

If you want to found a religion at that diff level, you really either need to play a religious based civ, build the Stonehenge, get lucky on a ruin (or two), get a free prophet, or befriend a religious CS.

I strongly disagree. You might not get the best religion, but in my experience you almost have to be trying not to get a religion to miss out on immortal.
You'll probably get a late-ish and perhaps crummy pantheon, true. But getting a religion is not that hard, you just have to invest. Second city needs a shrine straight away for the pantheon, and third city gets settled to take advantage of faith-producing terrain (ideally a desert or a natural wonder). Or settle your second city at a holy mountain if you're even vaguely close to one (which seems to happen to me quite often).

If you really want a good religion and you've got absolutely nothing nearby that can give you faith, the surefire way is to beeline Philosophy and take the first two policies from it. And build those cheap shrines/temples! A Philosophy beeline also gives you a pretty solid chance at the Oracle to get the second Piety policy super quick and then you'll be sitting pretty on 5 faith per city.

I actually came close to founding religion #4 of 6 in my last game (which had both Maya and Celts) with a truly pathetic non-effort involving a grand total of 2 shrines and nothing else giving me faith at all, so you definitely get a pretty decent window if you don't mind not being first.

 

[Furycrab]

If I'm not playing a Civ with a religion advantage. My best bet is usually a Stonehedge streamline.

Yes I play Immortal.

No it doesn't get me killed.

It's usually the safest bet to getting a religion and maintaining it.

Alternatives are to use Liberty Finisher to get the GP. This will put back your first normal GP, but doesn't even require a Pantheon. Opening piety and getting a 2-3 cities "relatively" quickly. Just being lucky with Ruins. Investing in a Faith based CS isn't terrible either.

 

[Slvynn]

best and sure way - wide ics expansion with chops and settling on lux and early philo for xtra temple. Shedge hammer cist better be spent on workers and settlers .. each new city generate new hammers which do build shrines/temples... all u need is lux techs for lux around u mining archery and philo