Going for Gold: Enhancer Beliefs

[Stalker0]

Here my current ACF rankings for Enhancers

A = Solid Pick
C = Situational Pick, rarely taken
F = I never take this

Adobe of Peace (F): I feel like Sacred Calendar does it better. Minimal CS influence is just not all that great a benefit. If it was at least 40, so I get automatic friends and it always resets me back when I get GDed, that would be something.

Inquisition (C): People seem to like this one for conquest, where you conquer and convert for yields. I think the yields are alright but nothing too fancy. Its a decent enough belief if your in religious wars and really want to keep your religion, so its decent enough. I do wonder if the spy bonus is stronger or weaker with the new spy model.... in theory I will put spies in lesser cities more often now (as before it would always be the capital), so perhaps there is more spread synergy now than their used to be.

Mendicancy (C): Can't remember the last time I took this one. The bonus is cheap and easy enough, but its not ultimately very powerful. Its for the religious player not really looking to go religion.

Orthodoxy (C): With the recent nerf, Orthodoxy still has a place, and still does its job, but there is always the balance of spreading more....but without new bonuses what am I spreading for?

Prophecy (A): This one turns holy sites from alright into really good tiles, and has great synergy with holy land, and other GPTI boosters. However, the -1 policy for wonders is the real winner, for a culture light/science heavy civ, this is THE KEY to getting wonders outside of Statecraft.

Sacred Calendar (C+): I like SC, its just symbolism is straight up better.

Symbolism (A): One of the best yields (wide or tall), and the best spread power, as erosion means you can power spread with missionaries without needing GP assistance. One of my favorites.

Syncretism (A): Man, remember the days when this thing was utter garbage and the bonuses super confusing? Its really turned around with changes over time. Against civs with strong pressure/spread, this belief turns your misfortune into a powerful engine. Just keep 1 inquisitor in your holy city in case of loss of religion, and let the heathens come....because your charging them extra

Zealotry (?): Honestly its been so long since I took this one, I don't even know how it stack up anymore. I'll let the warmongers talk about that one.

 

[tothePAIN]

I’d upgrade Mendicancy to (A). It’s a strong early enhance and provides scaling faith. The +2 culture per city is strong with an early enhance. If you get it early, it increases culture by 10-20% for a 7 city empire.

Zealotry’s value changes depending on the other beliefs taken and overall strategy. It’s a fine belief. The recent changes to make local unhappiness not apply to military units made zealotry a little less necessary.

 

[Rosete]

Zealotry + Orders are my go-to most of the time. Orders give you ~20+ for each of your cities for each kill and are era scaling. With orders you will be swimming in .

Faith buy units have full XP and has no cooldown. So with enough faith, you can instantly spawn an entire army out of nothing. Zealotry is a strong faith heavy pick.

 

[pineappledan]

The on missionary spread, if it is to be put anywhere, seems most appropriate as an Enhancer ability.

Many Enhancers boost missionaries in some way, whereas it is comparatively rare for Founders. It would be a more interesting bonus in comparison to the current Abode of Peace.

 

[DeAnno]

Inquisition (C): People seem to like this one for conquest, where you conquer and convert for yields. I think the yields are alright but nothing too fancy. Its a decent enough belief if your in religious wars and really want to keep your religion, so its decent enough. I do wonder if the spy bonus is stronger or weaker with the new spy model.... in theory I will put spies in lesser cities more often now (as before it would always be the capital), so perhaps there is more spread synergy now than their used to be.

There is also a strategy where you have a middle of the road or weak religion with one or even two per-follower beliefs, and use Inquisition to keep them up even in the face of enormous pressure. It's sort of the opposite to the Syncretism + two building strategy. The gold yields are not really worth it on their own but if it's something you already want to do, like keep religion, it makes them good enough. This was actually even better with the 8 Way of the Pilgrim when it existed, it was like having 4 Follower Beliefs.

 

[Stalker0]

The on missionary spread, if it is to be put anywhere, seems most appropriate as an Enhancer ability.

Many Enhancers boost missionaries in some way, whereas it is comparatively rare for Founders. It would be a more interesting bonus in comparison to the current Abode of Peace.

I could get on board with adding that to Adobe's repertoire, assuming the current influence spread doesn't work out.

 

[CrazyG]

I’d upgrade Mendicancy to (A). It’s a strong early enhance and provides scaling faith. The +2 culture per city is strong with an early enhance. If you get it early, it increases culture by 10-20% for a 7 city empire.

I agree, it's a consistent choice for a wide-progress empire, which can lack a clearly good choice.

 

[Stalker0]

I agree, it's a consistent choice for a wide-progress empire, which can lack a clearly good choice.

I'd argue Symbolism is still better even for wide....lets you significantly catch up in GP versus tradition, and your missionary erosion works well with several other beliefs.

 

[CrazyG]

I'd argue Symbolism is still better even for wide....lets you significantly catch up in GP versus tradition, and your missionary erosion works well with several other beliefs.

Symbolism has a pretty low short term impact as progress and I often want that 2 culture per city right now.

With that said I'm still on the nerf symoblism train. I guess I disagree because Mendicancy is an 'A'. Symbolism might be overall better, but that's because it's an 'S' or A++ ( I never understood why S was higher).

 

[tothePAIN]

I'd argue Symbolism is still better even for wide....lets you significantly catch up in GP versus tradition, and your missionary erosion works well with several other beliefs.

Symbolism is good but Mendicancy may provide enough faith for your religion to survive neighboring religious pressure. I prefer symbolism as tradition but Mendicancy has its situations where it’s good. (It’s a surprisingly good early enhance with Progress Maya for instance.)

 

[Kim Dong Un]

Mendicancy is definitely a solid faith foundation, but I'd like it if the culture started at 1 and scaled with era instead.

 

[Floats your boat]

mendicancy was the strongest enhancer for wide for a long time now IMO and i take it 60-70% of the time as my enhancer as progress/authority, especially since grand temple nerf. it's just stronger inspiration/churches at better timing. orthodoxy used to be strong. now it is a joke in need of buff/redesign. symbolism is a wasted one for progress specialists strategy usually but OP for tradition. zealotry and syncretism can be very powerful. others are just meh and deserve a buff. i don't even have two buildings here, synagogues and mastery. orthodoxy can't cope and couldn't if it was at previous strength.

Spoiler :

 

[andersw]

Here my current ACF rankings for Enhancers

A = Solid Pick
C = Situational Pick, rarely taken
F = I never take this

Adobe of Peace (F): I feel like Sacred Calendar does it better. Minimal CS influence is just not all that great a benefit. If it was at least 40, so I get automatic friends and it always resets me back when I get GDed, that would be something.

Inquisition (C): People seem to like this one for conquest, where you conquer and convert for yields. I think the yields are alright but nothing too fancy. Its a decent enough belief if your in religious wars and really want to keep your religion, so its decent enough. I do wonder if the spy bonus is stronger or weaker with the new spy model.... in theory I will put spies in lesser cities more often now (as before it would always be the capital), so perhaps there is more spread synergy now than their used to be.

Mendicancy (C): Can't remember the last time I took this one. The bonus is cheap and easy enough, but its not ultimately very powerful. Its for the religious player not really looking to go religion.

Orthodoxy (C): With the recent nerf, Orthodoxy still has a place, and still does its job, but there is always the balance of spreading more....but without new bonuses what am I spreading for?

Prophecy (A): This one turns holy sites from alright into really good tiles, and has great synergy with holy land, and other GPTI boosters. However, the -1 policy for wonders is the real winner, for a culture light/science heavy civ, this is THE KEY to getting wonders outside of Statecraft.

Sacred Calendar (C+): I like SC, its just symbolism is straight up better.

Symbolism (A): One of the best yields (wide or tall), and the best spread power, as erosion means you can power spread with missionaries without needing GP assistance. One of my favorites.

Syncretism (A): Man, remember the days when this thing was utter garbage and the bonuses super confusing? Its really turned around with changes over time. Against civs with strong pressure/spread, this belief turns your misfortune into a powerful engine. Just keep 1 inquisitor in your holy city in case of loss of religion, and let the heathens come....because your charging them extra

Zealotry (?): Honestly its been so long since I took this one, I don't even know how it stack up anymore. I'll let the warmongers talk about that one.

I've been varying a bit with conquest and:
Symbolism, yes this feels useful even as pure warmonger if I also have ceremonial B.
Syncretism is great even better if you conquer a syncretism holy city.
Mendicancy is sort of , oh "well there's nothing better" its still fine for wide.
Zelotry can be really nice, the full exp on purchase and instant reinforce all over the map makes it very handy if defense lines are a bit shaky, ofc need orders with this.

One of the main issues with Inquisition is that the Prophecy religion tends to be very dominant and this directly nerfs inquisition.
Is Abode addative or multiplicative with other CS multipliers? I should probably test Austria with Abode ...the other bonuses feels crap but maybe some use?