Divine Inheritance vs Theocratic Rule

[Stalker0]

In general, I feel that Theocratic Rule is the clear winner here...even with Tall play.

The reason is WLTKD can be maintained for large stretches of the entire game...including the early game. The golden age bonus may be stronger, but its much less frequent until the late game....and yields early are always stronger than yields late. Combine that with the fact that TR works with all of your cities, not just one like DI does. Again even if you only have 5ish cities, that's a lot of yield left on the table.

That aside, Theocratic rule gets a +5 culture bonus to its holy sites vs +5 faith from DI. In general I would say the culture bonus is stronger. Now granted you aren't getting tons of holy sites, but still every bit helps.

 

[CrazyG]

I assure you that Divine Inheritance is extremely good. One of the really important things is the extra production which helps to build wonders. +5 faith from holy sites is a pretty bad bonus though.

My point is to say that I don't think Divine is too weak, but maybe Theo is just too strong?

 

[Stalker0]

My point is to say that I don't think Divine is too weak, but maybe Theo is just too strong?

I could believe that. Ultimately I don't see the two as equal, TR seems overall superior. So its got to be one or the other, either DI is too weak, or TR too strong.

The counterpoint with my argument is...are there builds that can give exceptionally long periods of Golden Ages, especially more in the early game? It maybe that DI requires a more optimized play to get the most out of it...but if you do that play, the belief is as strong as TR. In that case, than I think its fine...being more niche doesn't make it weak.

 

[Omen of Peace]

I don't find WLTKD that easy to get in the early game?
I'll often get different luxuries for each city, some of which are owned by civ I haven't met (and in some cases won't meet until I can cross the ocean), some by City-States.

I've actually taken Theocratic Rule in my current Immortal (Carthage) game. From mid-game on, I've indeed been able to be in a near-constant WLTKD. So, it's something to take into account when balancing it.
I haven't felt it was too powerful up until now, in all honesty.

DI is fine - I take it with 3-to-5-cities Tradition and it makes a strong capital even stronger.

 

[CrazyG]

I don't find WLTKD that easy to get in the early game?

This was my thought. Golden Ages are pretty consistent and predictable, and getting a total bonus of 40% to production means you can beat others to wonders.

15% culture early on is misleading. It rounds down at a city level and doesn't include bonus yields. Most of your cities will get an extra 1 culture at most if you took progress or authority. Its a great belief for a civ without big late game bonuses such as Carthage to help finish the game. I don't really compare them against each other very often because they do different things.

 

[swapoer]

After three tradition CV games, I think DI is stronger than TR. WLTKD is just too random and unreliable.
It is very hard and almost impossible for me to get permanent WLTKD in my capital, let alone my satellite cities.
And I don't find I could easily get WLTKD earlier than my first golden age.
Great Merchant gives you only 5 turns of WLTKD, which is just too small for a tradition empire.

Overall, I think DI is the way to go for tradition opening game.

 

[andersw]

I think I've only tested it as china with divine inheritance+churches and as I recall I wasn't too impressed but maybe small authority cities also made it worse.

 

[ridjack]

Great Merchant gives you only 5 turns of WLTKD, which is just too small for a tradition empire.

Does this scale with map size or something? I'm like 80% certain it starts at 10 turns without any Towns.

 

[Stalker0]

Does this scale with map size or something? I'm like 80% certain it starts at 10 turns without any Towns.

its 5, was changed a few versions ago