Found every religion?

[curls2007]

I'm brand new to the Civ games so I've only played a couple of games of Civ4on the Settler and Chieftan settings just to get to grips with the concepts of the game.

In my latest game I thought I would test out a strategy of making a beeline for every religion, taking a few turns to discover worker enabling techs along the way. My theory is that I will have the holy city for each religion and can make a bit of money since everyone I meet almost instantly converts to one of my religions. Obviously military has taken a back seat to religious buildings and stuff which I know I probably won't get away with in any higher settings since even at this level I have suffered a bit at the hands of some barbs (hey, I'm learning!).

What do you think of the strategy per se, is it worth it or am I wasting my time. My overall aim was to keep the peace as much as possible since I like the idea of the cultural imperialism the game allows!

 

[Tee Kay]

If you're going for cultural (and maybe diplomatic) victory you could try it, but it's not really necessary. If you're aiming at any other types of victory you're probably wasting your time.

It's very difficult to found every religion. You could spend 50 or so turn researching Philosophy for example to be the first to found Taoism, for example, but then you can lag behind in other tech.

For cultural victory Ramesses II (warlords only), Gandhi, Saladin or Louis XIV are ideal.

 

[tycoonist]

founding all of the religions on higher levels is impossible if you dont start with mysticism. the only uses it has are:

1. shrine income (but you need lots of GP)

2.cultural victory (building cathedrals gives +50% culture)

 

[mice]

It's a fun strat. The benefit isnt so much the shrine income, but that you can feed only one religion to the other civs ,and they will be at peace with you mostly.

You can then sneak a missionary of another faith out to an aggressive civ, or a religious nut like Isabella, and watch the fun as the Ai rips itself to peices.

Religion is a key factor in diplomacy. See the diplo modifiers when you mouse over another leader. Often you can have +5 for "we value the brothers and sisters of our faith" (or something like that)

than you can get - 4 for being of a different religion. It causes wars.

 

[curls2007]

yes i did imagine it to be impossible on higher levels but so far seems usefull to found as many as you can before the AI's without lagging to far behind on other techs. It's all about balance I suppose.

As for culture, I've got cathedrals coming out of my a*s and I've been steadily flipping. I'll try to send a few missionaries round to the AI's who aren't best pleased with me.

BTW I've only played with Saladin so far and think the starting techs are ideal for my style. Can't help thinking though that if I move up a difficulty level I'll get my ass kicked before I even get polytheism!

 

[tempuraki]

It's fun to get all the religions, but I wouldn't beeline for every one of them, there are better things to research while you build up your empire. My suggestion is to beeline for Buddhism and Hinduism and Judaism, then research other things (like alphabet), while building the Oracle wonder to get Confucianism, and then use the great prophet you get from the Oracle to lightbulb Christianity. Now you got 5 out of 7, build the Great Library to boost the research, and beeline for the remaining two. I would go for Islam first then Taoism, since AI usually prioritize Islam first, and you can lightbulb Philosophy using a variety of great people (I think prophet, artist, and scientist can all do that).

That's how I almost got them all on emperor difficulty, I didn't start with mysticism so I missed out on Buddhism, but I got the rest

 

[Rancid Sushi]

I did it once with Asoka. I also built all the shrines too. I was rolling in cash, and easily won a cultural victory.

 

[LucyDuke]

This is great to play with when you're sticking with lower levels and feeling things out. Quadruple holy cities are a lot of fun, but very, very expensive. The strategy simply does not pay off at even middle levels (where I play). You're bound to miss a few, and neglecting more important techs will cost you. As long as you're still just playing around, it's great to take advantage of. You'll be able to missionary spam and set the AI on whatever course you like. You'll also get a feel for what it takes to flip a rival's state religion (it's not always easy!). Just don't get too attached to it, or Isabella will eat you.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

Tried it many times, succeeded once, on Noble. The hardest part is rerolling until you get both Hinduism and Buddhism. Other than that, yes, I once had all the 7 religions with the 7 holy shrines too. It was hilarious being able to make all your neighbours different religion, easily bribing everyone into war multiple times, and pulling in like 120 gold a turn in shrine income.

 

[KMadCandy]

It's a fun strat. The benefit isnt so much the shrine income, but that you can feed only one religion to the other civs ,and they will be at peace with you mostly.

You can then sneak a missionary of another faith out to an aggressive civ, or a religious nut like Isabella, and watch the fun as the Ai rips itself to peices.

i've done that on lower levels than normal just to watch the effects. hella fun. spread my own religion to "friends for now" and 2 different religions to people i want to harass each other. manipulate things behind the scenes, never having to bribe anyone. was educational to see the power of religion. i often learn a lot by playing lower level games purely to key in on one aspect that's new to me.

 

[Gaius Octavius]

I tried this once when I played as the barbarians in vanilla. Actually, I didn't intend to start out this way, but my research was so much better than the AI that I kept founding all the religions! So I just decided, hey, let's go for all of them. In the end, I got 5 out of 7. I couldn't help but think of Edward Gibbon's famous statement: "the triumph of barbarism and religion"!

 

[uberfish]

OCC, emperor, gandhi (warlords)

 

[KMadCandy]

this is a monarch game that i found interesting, and played my own version of. post 4 is way cool.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

And did you get any unhapiness from "we demand free religion"? I heard it exists, but I never got it. Does having 7 religions in your city meet the conditions?

 

[KMadCandy]

And did you get any unhapiness from "we demand free religion"? I heard it exists, but I never got it. Does having 7 religions in your city meet the conditions?

no, you just get unhappiness from "we demand emanicpation", which isn't related to religion at all. it's only related to which ummmm i-forget-type civic the other civs are running.

 

[LucyDuke]

no, you just get unhappiness from "we demand emanicpation", which isn't related to religion at all. it's only related to which ummmm i-forget-type civic the other civs are running.

That would be the labor civic, I believe. How does that unhappiness add up, anyway? Is it flat-rate one, does it go up with time, does it go up with how many other civs are running emancipation?

 

[KMadCandy]

emancipation unhappiness goes up and up and up and UP. it increases for each civ that uses it but it gets be far more than, say, 5 in your largest cities (i like large cities) even if only 5 leaders are running it. i can't remember if it goes up linearly with time or if it jumps. generally the games that i'm nowhere near democracy myself when the other guys start using it are OCC (where i have globe theatre) or cultural (where i'm running the culture slider) so it isn't an issue i keep track of.

it gets reallly high even if you're playing future start/duel map/one opponent. it is labor civic, thank you! i pick it as my labor civic from the start on future start games no matter how i intend to play it out, just to prevent unhappy faces. my opponents, even if there's only one, are guaranteed to use it.