Help me win my 1st Religion Victory.

[Fahim]

Just won my 1st SV, thanks again for all who helped me out with tips and suggestions in my previous thread.

I am now planning to go for my final Victory type, Religious Victory. I could use some nice tips and suggestions again to look forward to enjoy a nice smooth religious victory game.

1. What districts do I need to focus in my Capital and my other following cities?
2. What government should I aim for and any specific cards that could be of great use to me?
3. Will trade routes have a big impact going for a Religious victory?
4. What are the best wonders to build if your going for a RV?
5. What are the best City States to be the Suzerain of, and what about the others?
5. Should I focus on any military apart from fending of barbarians?
6. Should I play more offensive style (attack other civs or city states) or defensive ( try to make peace with everyone)?
7. Anything else you might think of.

 

[Mr. Shadows]

Well, the most obvious thing you need is a lot of faith, which implies a lot of Holy Sites. There is a policy that doubles your faith production from Holy Site buildings that (I think?) comes at the same time Theocracy becomes available. By the time you get that you want to be ready to start pumping out religious units. Other than that you just need to be strong and balanced enough to hold your own while you convert the world. Be aware that Apostles have (at least for now) limited promotions. That means you need to keep the ones that have the debater around to fight AI units, and you should keep the ones that eliminate other religions to crack extremely tough (usually Holy) AI cities and so forth. You also want to plan for some mid-game expansion far from your territory either by conquest or founding. The reason is that it takes a ton of missionaries to flip a mid-size city that has an enemy religion. If you don't have a convenient city to make them in you could wind up spending ages marching literally dozens of missionaries and apostles across the map. I have to say, although I like what they're trying to do with religion I found it to be an extremely tedious VC. You end up having to make- and then micromanage WAY too many religious units. It's a lot more obnoxious than moving a large army because you constantly have to produce new ones, and then move them into place.

 

[Onii-chan]

1. Well obviously you need to found a religion first of all so a quick holy site is a given (unless you go for Stonehenge or you're playing Arabia). Then in general you'll need a lot of faith so building more holy sites in several cities is definitely recommended
2. Theocracy is the obvious go-to for religious victory. As far as cards go, the +100% holy site adjacency may be good depending on your start, but either way the +100% faith from holy site buildings is pretty much mandatory. Should have that on 24/7 as soon as you unlock it. Then once it's time to finally make an aggressive push with apostles, turn on the +5 theological combat strength card as well, just in case
3. Ehh not really, you need tons of faith but you won't get that from trade routes. Just use trade routes like you normally would
4. Hagia Sophia is excellent for religious victory, otherwise nothing really. Mont St. Michel is alright too but it's better trying to keep your apostles alive in the first place so I wouldn't think too highly of it. There's also the Mahabodi Temple but that one really isn't very useful
5. Getting extra faith from religious city states in general is always helpful. As far as Suzerain bonuses go, Yerevan is unbelievably powerful for a religious victory. Like almost free-win level if used correctly. Other than that, nothing in particular comes to mind
6. Either works really, though remember that you can kill enemy missionaries/apostles/inquisitors instantly with military units when you're at war. So you can't really convert anyone you're currently warring with. On the other hand you can use this to your advantage as well if someone is sending a ton of apostles into your land; if you just declare war on him first and kill all his apostles with your army, your own apostles won't have to suffer any casulties. Then counterattack religiously right after making peace again (though this approach will give you a ton of warmongering penalties but otherwise it's effective)
7. Try to get the 30% reduced missionary & apostle faith purchase cost belief (Holy Orders I think it's called) in your religion if possible, it'll help you a lot. Also some civs are obviously better than others for this so picking something like Russia or Spain will definitely make things easier. Finally, for some reason apostles seem to stop getting promotions after a certain number of them have been purchased, which severely reduces their utility. Therefore trying to keep them alive as much as possible is very important. It's also recommended to try and finish the game during the mid to mid-late game rather than delaying it too long for this reason (and also there is no tier 3 government that boosts religious activity, which is a bit awkward in the late game)

 

[Zenstrive]

1. Play as rome. Free culture will get you first government fast, and choose God King as economic policy.
2. Get holy sites up and running for Great Prophet and Faith generations. Get beliefs that give you faiths (+2 from quarry, +2 for every city and city state that is not yours but following your religions, faith building).
3. Be Suzerain for Yerevan (all Apostle promotions are availabe. Get Prosetilyzer) and Kandy (relics when discovering natural wonders)
4. Get Mont St. Michel world wonder for free Martyr promotion.
5. Use your ever growing faith to spam apostles. In later time, when you can generate one apostles every turn, try pairing two apostles together to invade cities.

 

[Fahim]

Should you still build normal military units when going for RV? Or just missionaries, apostles and inquisitors?

 

[Zenstrive]

Just build some, like archers-type and horsemen-type.
AI usually are peaceful to player during renaissance era forward, while they busy killing each other.
And religious units are purchased by faith, not built/gold.

 

[Fahim]

Just build some, like archers-type and horsemen-type.
AI usually are peaceful to player during renaissance era forward, while they busy killing each other.
And religious units are purchased by faith, not built/gold.

Alright, thanks for the tips.

 

[Onii-chan]

Building military units won't affect your religious production since it's not faith-based, so it's fine

 

[Fahim]

Have a question regarding "Divine Inspiration: All world wonders provide + 4 Faith" when choosing your Religion beliefs. The +4 faith it provides counts for the wonders that I build too?

 

[Zenstrive]

I think it is only for wonders you built.

 

[Genghis_Sean]

I got my first religious victory by choosing the benefit that granted me half the power of defeated enemies in faith. I was under massive attack from barbarians at the time, and each one I killed gave me a double digit faith bonus. I had one of those camps that spat out a swordsman every single turn and they kept charging my capital and died under the walls of my city from my archers. This was on deity. It got me a very quick religion and the added faith allowed me to rush his capitol with missionaries and convert it very quickly after its founding.

 

[manu-fan]

5 and 6: When I'm going to go for Religious Victory, I'm going to play fairly aggressively, and take on a lot of close Neighbors. Then, mid game, if there's someone else with 2 or 3 Civs converted, maybe go after them so they can't spread any further.