How do I deal with missionary spam?

[Pengui6668]

King level game, playing MP with a buddy of mine. I've only met Kamehameha and Haille Selassi. Polynesia is easy enough to deal with, but Ethiopia has been SPAMMING missionaries like no one's business. I sold him OB early on for the gold, but every 10 turns or so, he'll send 4-5 missionaries to my cities and he's got everything but my capitol converted to his religion. I'm not making nearly enough faith to stop him, so do I have to go to war and capture/disband his missionaries?

Are there any other options since I'm behind on faith?

 

[Scorpionleader]

I had this problem with Iroquois on a prince level game. I call them Irritating-quois now. Other reasons as well, but really applies here.

 

[Hieschen]

Depending on what beliefs he has chosen, i let him convert and use his religion. Outside a war where you conquer him, there is not much you can do.

So either beat them and if you can't beat them, join em

 

[Miravlix]

Inquisitors simply standing around near a town stops GP and Missionaries.

You could move a single Inq around to keep blocking his attempts, problem is it requires insane micro management to keep on top of where his missionaries is.

 

[The Pilgrim]

You'll be always behind Ethiopia in faith. Well, almost always. That's why it's a top tier civ. One little building makes all the difference. The only effective way to deal with that is to kill it sooner rather than later. Keeping inquisitors in all of your cities and trapping the missionaries where they can't move is less efficient but also viable. But I guess lesson learned: never sell OB to religious beast unless you want to be converted.

 

[Pengui6668]

So stationing an inquisitor in cities will prevent their convert from working? Or will they simply not even do it?

Would that inquisitor prevent my city from making military units? (As far as I know, it shouldn't but I'm not positive)

 

[Browd]

Their missionaries will go elsewhere.

Inquisitors, by the way, do nothing to combat pressure, just missionaries and Great Prophets.

 

[Hieschen]

Inquisitors are a meh solution in my opinion, they cost faith better spend elsewhere.

I really like using their religion if his choices were ok.

 

[Scorpionleader]

You'll be always behind Ethiopia in faith. Well, almost always. That's why it's a top tier civ. One little building makes all the difference. The only effective way to deal with that is to kill it sooner rather than later. Keeping inquisitors in all of your cities and trapping the missionaries where they can't move is less efficient but also viable. But I guess lesson learned: never sell OB to religious beast unless you want to be converted.

They don't need open borders

 

[Browd]

They don't need open borders to enter, but they need OB to avoid missionary attrition. Becomes a game of can they convert your cities faster than they attrit and die?

 

[The Pilgrim]

Would that inquisitor prevent my city from making military units? (As far as I know, it shouldn't but I'm not positive)

No.

They don't need open borders

No, but entering foreign territory without open borders leads to attrition which eventually kills them. It's a simple and effective way to get rid of pesky missionaries without DoWing anyone. Block them by few units and just wait. Of course it's hard with Ethiopia spam, but still something to keep in mind.

 

[Pengui6668]

Is the missionary spam a common Ethiopian tactic?

Also, how can I view what bonuses his religion has? (I'm kind of a moron, guide me plz)

 

[The Pilgrim]

Ethiopian, Mayan, Persian, Spanish etc... Pretty much everyone's who can pump some decent faith, but Ethiopia is always a religious beast, thus this is constant.

To view all the bonuses, IIRC, click on your faith counter and go to the 'World religions' tab.

 

[Browd]

On World Religions, click the Beliefs tab (far right) and sort by religion.

 

[Scorpionleader]

I just played a map where Spain and Inca both spammed. First Spain, no open borders, and they never took attrition. I killed them off, then the Inca started up, no open borders and no attrition. I couldn't keep up with them. It was like trying to catch 1000 greased pigs. My new belief about civs spamming prophets is kill the civ off.

 

[Browd]

Great Prophets do not suffer attrition. Just Missionaries.

 

[The Pilgrim]

Great prophets can be captured though (DoW is required) and planted for holy sites but only if they are haven't used any spreads. As Sweden they can be gifted to CS for free influence.

 

[Scorpionleader]

Great Prophets do not suffer attrition. Just Missionaries.

That's crappy But good to know for next time

 

[The Pilgrim]

That's crappy But good to know for next time

It's actually pretty useful. You can steal AI's GP (even a 'used' one) and scout rival's land without buying open borders. But starting close to faith spammer is yeah... a pain...

 

[Miravlix]

Inq is a counter for GP's, it's simply not cost efficient to try to counter missionaries with INQ's.

An Inq just need to be near a town to make AI avoid trying to convert. I'm not sure at what Ring from a city the Inq stops working, but it works in Ring 1 for sure.

If you take a holy city, the Inq can remove the holy city status, but you really need to destroy/convert most of the spammer civ cities, to have a real effect.

Converting is a less than optimal approach, since GP's is always of the spawning nations religion and a high faith nation would just get GP's to convert back towns.