Holy Warrior - cool or not so cool?

[Greasy Dave]

So I took HOly Warrior as a follower belief this play through. And its been great for popping out units to get me off the rack when the AI comes a knocking.

BUT.....being very slow to work things through, the penny finally dropped for me about its implications as a follower belief. Am I right in assuming that if I start to spam missionaries to the AI's cities and convert them, pretty soon I'll fighting the AI's own holy fanatics?

If that is the case then I really like the way they designed this belief. POwerful, but a double edged sword. Lets you do some things, but at the same time you need to be careful how you use other aspects of religion or the AI will "get the power" too.

That's pretty cool, in my book.

 

[Polycrates]

Take it with the Just War enhancer....that way if it does accidentally spread to an enemy city, you know just what to do!

 

[AriochIV]

To really get a lot out of Holy Warrior, you'll need to be spending Faith on military units instead of missionaries and prophets... so the Follower aspect of it ideally shouldn't be that much of a problem.

 

[Lyoncet]

Yeah, I agree with Arioch. Just build a religion that doesn't focus on benefits from spreading to other civs' cities, and pick an enhancer that gives you a wartime boost, or go Messiah and build a couple holy sites as you gear up.

 

[Draskar]

Holy warrior is great IMO!
In my first (and only) game, playing as Celts focusing on Faith I builded 3/4 of my pre industrial army with Faith! And few turn after Industrialization, i fielded 4 crossbowman for upgrading them int Gatlings

 

[Volapyk]

In a recent game of mine I must admit I abused the 'double edged' part rather badly, I had founded my own religion, focused mostly on hapiness and faith generation through the buildings. I noticed the AI had founded a religion with the Holy Warrior belief, so I settled a city close to them and waited for their religion to inevitable spread to it, once there I could buy units freely even though the far majority of my religion didn't have acess to it.

Haven't tested out if this belief is commonly taken by the AI, but if it is, perhaps one should consider not taking it yourself and just get it spread to a minor city of yours, assuming you would be fine with just buying one unit per turn.

 

[Big J Money]

Yep, you can even build a missionary in one of those religious cities and take responsibility for spreading Holy Warriors to any of your own cities that you desire (or your enemies' neighbors).

 

[ahawk]

Holy warrior is great IMO!
In my first (and only) game, playing as Celts focusing on Faith I builded 3/4 of my pre industrial army with Faith! And few turn after Industrialization, i fielded 4 crossbowman for upgrading them int Gatlings

Holy Warrior and the Celts are a great mix. Pump out the Pictish Warriors as much as you can before you hit the mid game, and if you provide them a Great General and some tender loving care, you can have an army that essentially reinforces itself until the Industrial Era, earning faith to buy replacement units. Played a few games as Celts and chose Holy Warrior each time.

 

[Lyoncet]

Do units purchased with Holy Warriors follow the same cost curve as missionaries/inquisitors/buildings (pagodas etc.)? Trying to judge the various ways of leveraging religion into an army (money vs. happiness vs. Holy Warriors vs. Mosques into Holy Warriors).

[edit]Just answered my own question: faith cost = 2x hammer cost. Pretty damn spammable. Me likey.

 

[AriochIV]

Yep, you can even build a missionary in one of those religious cities and take responsibility for spreading Holy Warriors to any of your own cities that you desire (or your enemies' neighbors).

I guess there might be a use for captured Missionaries after all...