Faith healers

[Olleus]

My god this belief is good. +30hp healed when adjacent to a friendly city.

Might sound 'meh' at first but in G&K this is huge. Units rarely die, and fight for a couple of turns before being withdrawn to heal. Being able to heal 3 times faster than anyone else means that when fighting comes to a war of attrition/meat grinder, you will win. Simply more stuff to throw more often at the other side until they die. On the offence, it means that when you capture a city, you're entire army will have healed back to full strength in about 3 turns. Gives a lot of momentum.

Using this at the moment as Sweden and the synergy with the Caroleans (free march) is awesome. A unit on the front line, at half strength simply has to take 1 turn off to be back at full strength. I feel like I have twice the army of anyone else.

Only thing bad I can say about it is that it doesn't work with allied city states (or, I assume, allied nations). Also, it's a pantheon rather than a follower belief so you don't have to worry about spreading your religion for it to work.

Has anyone used the other combat orrentated beliefs (Just war, goddess of protection, ect...), how do they compare?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I've been trying to spread the word about Faith Healers too. It is awesome.

 

[Waywocket]

I presume this only takes effect when the unit would heal that turn anyway, not being automatic? Does it stack with march/repair?

 

[Monthar]

Since the Byzantium UA lets you choose any belief for the bonus how does this combo sound?

Pantheon - Faith Healers (+30 HP healed per turn if adjacent to a friendly city)
Founders - Initiation Rites (100 gold when a city first converts to your religion)
Follower 1 - Pagodas (+2 faith, +2 culture, +2 happiness)
Follower 2 - Holy Warriors (buy per-industrial units with faith)
Enhancer - Just war (+20% combat bonus near enemy cities following your religion)
Bonus -Religious Texts (religion spreads 34% faster (68% faster with printing press))

Since you get the bonus when you first found the religion this means it'll spread like wild fire all over the map. I have run this one a lot and found that if I use that 3rd prophet to seed some foreign cities, it doesn't take long before all that civ's cities are following my religion, thus letting me use faith to buy the Pagodas in all my cities instead of spending it on prophets/missionaries to spread it.

The Pagodas let me generate faith and fill out the social policies I want faster while also letting me grow my cities larger or puppet/annex more cities. Unlike the other beliefs you can get the Pagoda's bonus even if the city only has a population of 1.

Since you'll have lots of extra faith that's not needed for missionaries/prophets after the first 2 prophets, you can also spend it on units with the Holy Warriors belief.

All that gold from converting the cities can be put to good use for whatever your needs are.

Now when you attack an enemy city that's following your religion, since your units are 20% stronger, they'll deal more damage while taking less themselves. So once you've captured the city the Faith Healing probably wont' need more than 1-2 turns to get the troops back to full health so they can move on to the next city.

Alternately, instead of Holy Warriors, add Mosques for an additional +3 faith, +2 culture and +1 happiness. Then when you annex a city, you can immediately buy both the courthouse with cash, and a Pagoda and Mosque with faith for a net gain +3 happiness per city annexed in this manner.

 

[Polycrates]

Yeah I kinda dismissed it, but then I captured Islamic Istanbul after some nasty losses and oh my, my army was fighting fit again in no time. I can only imagine how much better it would be on the defensive as well. Seems like probably the best of the military-oriented pantheon beliefs.

Does it also add the bonus for units in the city itself?

 

[Calouste]

Does this stack with the Immortal's double healing ability? 60 HP healed in one turn wouldn't be half bad.

 

[Ulven93]

Does this stack with the Immortal's double healing ability? 60 HP healed in one turn wouldn't be half bad.

It only counts when you are actually in healing mode, not standing beside your city. = When you are first healing in an adjacent cell to your city you are healing 50 HP with faith healers without any stack. I'm, not sure if it can stack or not.

 

[Olleus]

To answer the questions:

It works on the city tile too
It stacks with the base friendly tile/city tile healing
It stacks with the medic promotion (which has been hugely nerfed, disappointingly)
Only applies to units that would normally heal that turn. So always for march/repair units, otherwise only if stationary for the previous tern.

 

[Calouste]

To answer the questions:

It works on the city tile too
It stacks with the base friendly tile/city tile healing
It stacks with the medic promotion (which has been hugely nerfed, disappointingly)
Only applies to units that would normally heal that turn. So always for march/repair units, otherwise only if stationary for the previous tern.

That makes it look like that Immortals that are put in healing mode and are next to a city when you have Faith Healers heal 100XP per turn, which would make them truely immortal, unless you manage to kill them in one turn.

 

[S.K. Ren]

I like to combine this with Defenders of the Faith and just be at war all the time. Nanana, can't kill me!

 

[Peacemongerer]

I usually go with Defender of the Faith w/ Byzantium... it was so powerful combining that with Faith Healers that I repelled a WWII-tech army with a late Renaissance army and took no casualties. The bonus to spreading from Religious Texts is good, but I usually go so missionary-heavy (Mosque of Dejene helps) that it would be neglibile.

 

[CaptainKapow]

If your enemy converts to your religion do they get Faith Healers along with it?

 

[Peacemongerer]

If your enemy converts to your religion do they get Faith Healers along with it?

I've used it at least 3 times and have yet to see an enemy heal the extra HP in cities of my religion. Pantheon doesn't expand beyond your borders apparently, even as part of a full-blown religion.

 

[black213]

I think this could have awesome synergy with Ethiopia, however I would still choose a pantheon that benefits me culturally or religiously as Ethiopia. I just find combat bonuses when there are economical/cultural bonuses available kind of bad.

 

[Thibaulthc]

you only share FOLLOWER's beliefs I think; please confirm.
you don't get enemy's bonus if you capture his Holy City. Almost sure. Really sad about that!

 

[Babri]

That makes it look like that Immortals that are put in healing mode and are next to a city when you have Faith Healers heal 100XP per turn, which would make them truely immortal, unless you manage to kill them in one turn.

Immortals -> Pikes -> Lancers. Lancers healing in one turn with march + faith healers + near friendly city would be unstoppable. I think they should nerf faith healers as it seems very powerful compared to other healing abilities.

 

[Vidszhite]

Yeah I kinda dismissed it, but then I captured Islamic Istanbul after some nasty losses and oh my, my army was fighting fit again in no time. I can only imagine how much better it would be on the defensive as well. Seems like probably the best of the military-oriented pantheon beliefs.

Does it also add the bonus for units in the city itself?

Nope, only the ones next to it. The units in the city get the benefit of not being attackable, though, so it evens out.

I agree that Faith Healers is amazing. However, it won't give you any benefits to a city without a lot of defenders, and if you spread it to other civs, it can bite you in the ass, because they get the benefits too.

 

[dexters]

Does this mean i can take a city and heal up my damaged units with +30 hp bonus? Or does the city also need to have my religion?

 

[Vidszhite]

Does this mean i can take a city and heal up my damaged units with +30 hp bonus? Or does the city also need to have my religion?

Has to have your religion/pantheon.

Note that if the enemy takes your city before you officially found a religion, it will lose its pantheon believers, and those do not spread, so it will be lost for good until you found a religion proper.

 

[RealHuhn]

Ok, I don't want to start another thread about this.

But wow, Faith Healers is amazing on Immortal. You can easily defend against any kind of rush.

Just fortify a promoted spearman or something in a forest or on a hill adjacent to a city and the problem's solved. +50 HP healed per turn. This is ridiculous.

Wars are much easier as well when you have a dominant religion. You often have to wait several turns to heal up your troops before moving on. With Faith Healers, you are ready after two turns max.

Or with March. Just end your turn near a city and boom, +50 HP. Should be fun as Sweden! xD