Confused about Faith Healers belief

[Souwaylier]

Hello. As the title says, I'm so confused about that belief. Description says: +30 HP healed per turn if adjacent to friendly city.

I've just started game as dominant Assyria and wanted to use that power in offense (conquer -> fast heal -> conquer). I've conquered a city-state and belief doesn't seem to work at all with that city. I've tried to heal my troops while it was resistant, non resistant puppet and annexed city, no healing bonus (unit inside city still heals 25, adjacent 20). I almost thought FH is broken, but near my capital it works just great.

Does that city need to actually follow my Pantheon for belief to work? Belief description doesn't state that.

Sorry for my relatively poor english.
Thanks in advance for any interest towards my topic.

Cheers!

 

[shaglio]

Does that city need to actually follow my Pantheon for belief to work? Belief description doesn't state that.

The city needs to follow your Religion, since (I'm pretty sure) Pantheons don't spread outside your own cities except when piggybacked on a full Religion.

 

[Souwaylier]

That definitely sucks, I wanted to use that belief offensively but maybe it would be a little OP. Well, thanks for a quick response; I'll stick with FH on defensive playthrough then.

 

[claudiupb]

That is actually a more defensive than offensive pantheon. You can fortify some melee units near the city and they will get the fortification bonus and +50hp/turn. If you have some terrain advantages they may be impossible to kill, and with ranged support you can basically destroy a carpet of doom and go on the offensive. If you want to use it for an offensive heal you need a religion and get some missionaries/prophets to follow your army. This will go well with the Just War enhancer, you convert the city first and get the 20% attack bonus(but that may be tricky to do).

 

[Souwaylier]

I might try that in future, unfortunately this time I missed my opportunity to found a religion. Thanks guys a lot.

 

[shaglio]

I might try that in future, unfortunately this time I missed my opportunity to found a religion. Thanks guys a lot.

Ouch! "The best laid plans of mice and men . . ."

But, for future games, the best way of using Faith Healers on the offensive is to either a) bring some Prophets/Missionaries along with your army to convert the cities you capture (or are attacking, when coupled with Just War), or B) attack cities to which your Religion had already spread.

 

[Souwaylier]

That sounds like an effective and unorthodox tactic, my favourite type of solving things (like wars for example). It's probably the closest way to convert city religious way, crusader style.

 

[reddishrecue]

This is similar to war of god pantheon, to get the faith healer bonus to work, your unit needs to be 4 tiles away from the friendly city that is converted.

 

[beetle]

You can fortify some melee units near the city and they will get the fortification bonus and +50hp/turn.

Yikes! I am always so focused on matching my pantheon to the dirt that it never occurred to me how strong this is!

This will go well with the Just War enhancer, you convert the city first and get the 20% attack bonus(but that may be tricky to do).

Careful, this could backfire, as any AI units you don’t kill heal 30 hp -- which of course works to negate the +20% attack bonus! Still, the AI is pretty stupid, so this could be win/win.

 

[SeedenGreedens]

Careful, this could backfire, as any AI units you don’t kill heal 20hp -- which of course works to negate the +20% attack bonus! Still, the AI is pretty stupid, so this could be win/win.

How? Enemy units that survive near you city with faith healers heal too?

 

[beetle]

Enemy units that survive are the not the problem! But until you take the city, defenders would get an extra 30 hp heal each turn. If you don't convert the city prior to attacking, then Just War does not help.

Faith Healers can safely be combined with Defenders of the Faith enhancer (+20% Combat Strength near friendly cities) -- but Just War is a lot more fun!

 

[SeedenGreedens]

I was reading your post over and over for awhile and now I finally understand because just war gives +20% attack increase to your units attacking a converted city to the religion that has just war.

 

[killmeplease]

does faith healers work for an enemy city if your religion isnt his state religion?

 

[Strategia]

One other way of using Faith Healers offensively is with aircraft. You don't have to put Missionaries or Prophets on the front lines, keep them behind your units to convert cities you have already captured, then move aircraft there. With Air Repair, they will heal 55hp/turn, like any other unit actually in the city, which could give you a tremendous advantage, unless the enemy brings out large amounts of AA (which should make the ground war easier in turn). Again, it's even more useful when defending, but the range of Bombers and Stealth Bombers makes it very viable offensively as well. However, this does require you to be in the late-game of course.

 

[reddishrecue]

One other way of using Faith Healers offensively is with aircraft. You don't have to put Missionaries or Prophets on the front lines, keep them behind your units to convert cities you have already captured, then move aircraft there. With Air Repair, they will heal 55hp/turn, like any other unit actually in the city, which could give you a tremendous advantage, unless the enemy brings out large amounts of AA (which should make the ground war easier in turn). Again, it's even more useful when defending, but the range of Bombers and Stealth Bombers makes it very viable offensively as well. However, this does require you to be in the late-game of course.

So you'll be making +25 hp per air repair promotion plus the 30hp you get from faith healers then, right?

 

[beetle]

I was reading your post over and over for awhile and now I finally understand...

Please do let me know how my post could have been phrased better. I certainly don't mean to confuse people!

does faith healers work for an enemy city if your religion isnt his state religion?

Pantheon beliefs benefit any city that follow the religion associated with the pantheon. If the city does not follow your religion, but the civ owning the city has unlocked Religious Tolerance from the Piety tree (and your religion is second most popular religion in the city), then the city gets your pantheon benefit.

 

[Strategia]

So you'll be making +25 hp per air repair promotion plus the 30hp you get from faith healers then, right?

Yes. Any unit inside a city that is eligible for healing heals 25 HP, like any unit in friendly territory heals 20 HP and 10 HP in neutral territory. Faith Healers adds 30, so 55 HP per turn. Ofc, this also works for normal military units (and wounded civilians too, or at least it should), but since aircraft cannot even move outside the city (except on a carrier), it'll be very useful for them. With the right planning, you could absolutely devastate an enemy, even with a relatively small airforce.

Of course, this goes both ways - an airforce on the defensive from Faith Healers cities will be very hard to break.

 

[reddishrecue]

Yes. Any unit inside a city that is eligible for healing heals 25 HP, like any unit in friendly territory heals 20 HP and 10 HP in neutral territory. Faith Healers adds 30, so 55 HP per turn. Ofc, this also works for normal military units (and wounded civilians too, or at least it should), but since aircraft cannot even move outside the city (except on a carrier), it'll be very useful for them. With the right planning, you could absolutely devastate an enemy, even with a relatively small airforce.

Of course, this goes both ways - an airforce on the defensive from Faith Healers cities will be very hard to break.

So faith healers dont need to have your units resting to heal? Do faith healers heal units that have moved, too?

 

[Strategia]

So faith healers dont need to have your units resting to heal? Do faith healers heal units that have moved, too?

No, that's why I said only units that are eligible to heal. Units which haven't acted, or units with March or Air Repair. That's why Air Repair is so powerful in conjunction with Faith Healers; without it, you still have to hold back your aircraft every so often for them to heal up, even though that'll happen much more quickly, but with Air Repair, you can just keep hitting targets and your planes will keep healing, and you only need to hold them back if they're REALLY badly damaged (which mostly only happens when hitting cities with high combat strength or getting hit by enemy AA).

 

[reddishrecue]

No, that's why I said only units that are eligible to heal. Units which haven't acted, or units with March or Air Repair. That's why Air Repair is so powerful in conjunction with Faith Healers; without it, you still have to hold back your aircraft every so often for them to heal up, even though that'll happen much more quickly, but with Air Repair, you can just keep hitting targets and your planes will keep healing, and you only need to hold them back if they're REALLY badly damaged (which mostly only happens when hitting cities with high combat strength or getting hit by enemy AA).

Would you recommend using faith healers with air battle (may intercept twice) promoted fighter units, too?