How do people get a religion?

If you play as Gandhi, it is easier to get a religion

What makes you say that? I think the likelihood is the same as any other/most Civs. India's bonuses are Faith for each civ that has alreadyfounded a religion. Granted you can buy a Great Prophet with Faith it's GPP that are needed and India does not intrinsicly increase Great Prophet GPP.
 
Btw, what would happen if we completely conquer a civ with a religion and then proceed to spread said religion in the aim of religion victory? There should be nothing happening but I'm just curious if we would encounter a bug where we could win a religion victory or hell, the conquered civ somehow was given the victory.

On the same vein, if we then somehow spawn a prophet, will we override the conquered civ's holy city with our own? (since supposedly cities with holy sites get converted to our religion instantly when founding)
 
I've been trying to start a game with the aim of going for a religious win and I keep having to reroll to get a starting area which will accommodate Stonehenge. No rocks. No rocks. No rocks. Rocks but no flat area adjacent to them. No rocks. Grrrr.
 
You don't need Stonehenge (and will never get it on Deity).

Getting a religion is actually pretty easy if you make sure to focus on early holy site and shrine. You can then do a project as needed to guarantee.

You have to remember to protect yourself from barbs if you rush like this, so don't take your first few units too far from home.
 
I've only made one attempt at Stonehenge, at that was a start with three stone and loads of forest and jungle. I built one warrior and then two builders. One Quarry and five chopped forests later: Stonehenge.

This was only possible due to the fact that I was safely hidden in the jungle/forest. Passing barbarians had slower movement and shorter line of sight, so they didn't find me until I had already founded my religion and built a few extra warriors.
 
Getting a religion is actually pretty easy if you make sure to focus on early holy site and shrine. You can then do a project as needed to guarantee.
Let's say this this gives you a good chance to get a Religion but it's hardly guaranteed unless you're playing at the default Prince difficulty.
Even at Emperor i managed to miss the 60 points prophet to a civ cranking 5 GP points/turn (my second prayer ended the turn after he reached 60) so i had to make 3 more prayers project to reach 115 or so points, at which point i was ahead of every other civ. The very next turn there were no Great Prophets left :eek: , so obviously the AI will patronize Great Prophets early, and possibly several per turn.

Also, if you miss the 60 points mark, it becomes prohibitive to keep pushing prayers until 120 as that takes quite some time. Only tried this because it was Emperor and i ended alone on my "continent" (more of a big island) so i had no army to build.
 
So I cant seem to be able to found a religion in time. I am always so close but short. Example, I am playing as Norway on Epic, Huge map, 14 civs on king difficulty.

I always go for the holy site tech right away and beeline it. Next, I choose the +1 faith God King policy. Next, while that city is building the site, (usually takes about 28-33 turns) I found another city and repeat the same thing with the new city.
By this time, I have my pantheon and there are usually 1 or maybe 2 religions founded already. And ill check my great prophet points and ill be at like 1/180 and there are always about 4/5 other civs with 90 points already. I am usually about turn 80 or so, estimated. BY the time I get to 180 all religons are gone. IM like what the heck?
So, any tips on what I could be doing wrong? How do you all ensure you have a religion? Thanks again, I appreciate it.
Sidenote, ive already restarted this game 3x trying for a religion, is important that Norway gets one?
 
religious buildings also contribute to great prophet points. so considering building temples, etc as early as possible (or buy them with faith if you can?). stonehenge would fix everything but that's quite the commitment early in the game. I believe there is also a purple policy for gov't that contributes great prophet points but i don't recall how quickly it is available.

i have yet to go down the path of religion myself so others will likely chime in with more concrete suggestions.
 
So I cant seem to be able to found a religion in time. I am always so close but short. Example, I am playing as Norway on Epic, Huge map, 14 civs on king difficulty.

I always go for the holy site tech right away and beeline it. Next, I choose the +1 faith God King policy. Next, while that city is building the site, (usually takes about 28-33 turns) I found another city and repeat the same thing with the new city.
By this time, I have my pantheon and there are usually 1 or maybe 2 religions founded already. And ill check my great prophet points and ill be at like 1/180 and there are always about 4/5 other civs with 90 points already. I am usually about turn 80 or so, estimated. BY the time I get to 180 all religons are gone. IM like what the heck?
So, any tips on what I could be doing wrong? How do you all ensure you have a religion? Thanks again, I appreciate it.
Sidenote, ive already restarted this game 3x trying for a religion, is important that Norway gets one?

Do you realize when you posted this this thread discussing exactly the same subject was on top of the page?

Moderator Action: Threads merged.

Won't repeat what's been posted there. As for your last question, no it's not important for Norway. It's not important for any civilization unless you want to go for religious victory. Of course Norway has a unique temple so you probably want to have your own religion but you can just take any other religion and use your faith to Patronize Great People, buy Naturalists later or go Theocracy to purchase units with faith.

Slightly off topic but do you reroll a lot to get a decent start with Norway. It seems like i either end up on the coast with neither fresh water nor any production tile, or completely land-locked.
 
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You don't need Stonehenge (and will never get it on Deity).

Getting a religion is actually pretty easy if you make sure to focus on early holy site and shrine. You can then do a project as needed to guarantee.

You have to remember to protect yourself from barbs if you rush like this, so don't take your first few units too far from home.

Lol, this is exactly what happened to me, I had two beautiful set up cities and my GPP towards religion was flowing. I sent my two warriors and slingers off to hunt barbarians. Once my force was far away, 5 barbarian units raided my lands. Messing me up pretty bad. It took a very long time to recover. Lesson learned!!
 
So I cant seem to be able to found a religion in time. I am always so close but short. Example, I am playing as Norway on Epic, Huge map, 14 civs on king difficulty.

I always go for the holy site tech right away and beeline it. Next, I choose the +1 faith God King policy. Next, while that city is building the site, (usually takes about 28-33 turns) I found another city and repeat the same thing with the new city.
By this time, I have my pantheon and there are usually 1 or maybe 2 religions founded already. And ill check my great prophet points and ill be at like 1/180 and there are always about 4/5 other civs with 90 points already. I am usually about turn 80 or so, estimated. BY the time I get to 180 all religons are gone. IM like what the heck?
So, any tips on what I could be doing wrong? How do you all ensure you have a religion? Thanks again, I appreciate it.
Sidenote, ive already restarted this game 3x trying for a religion, is important that Norway gets one?
Just tried it with the same settings and I have to say it's really painful. The big number of civs and the fact that Norway has no boosts to getting a religion makes it difficult. It didn't help this game that I had 3 barbarian horse units around my city around turn 10 either and it definately took a lot of focus to get the religion in decent time. I got it at turn 122 and I was the fourth civ to get a religion. The good beliefs like feed the world and jesuit education were already gone though so I don't know if it's worth it, I got the belief with +1 housing for shrines and temples. By this time I had 6 cities (one of them conquered, one of them from a stolen settler) and no world wonders.

With Norway I'd say if you can get Stonehenge then try and get that. With feed the world, the stave church becomes really strong. Otherwise just let religion go. Even if you do get one then the beliefs that make it worth it are probably long gone. Better to focus on getting an early navy (2 galleys into shipbuilding into a quireme (?) then conquer a city state or something).
 
Ive gotten a religion twice now on immortal, both times ive bought the last prophet with faith.
 
Just tried it with the same settings and I have to say it's really painful. The big number of civs and the fact that Norway has no boosts to getting a religion makes it difficult. It didn't help this game that I had 3 barbarian horse units around my city around turn 10 either and it definately took a lot of focus to get the religion in decent time. I got it at turn 122 and I was the fourth civ to get a religion. The good beliefs like feed the world and jesuit education were already gone though so I don't know if it's worth it, I got the belief with +1 housing for shrines and temples. By this time I had 6 cities (one of them conquered, one of them from a stolen settler) and no world wonders.

With Norway I'd say if you can get Stonehenge then try and get that. With feed the world, the stave church becomes really strong. Otherwise just let religion go. Even if you do get one then the beliefs that make it worth it are probably long gone. Better to focus on getting an early navy (2 galleys into shipbuilding into a quireme (?) then conquer a city state or something).

You know after restarting like 4x trying to get the religion, this is exactly what I am realizing. You really confirmed this. That's while I am spending 100 turns trying to build to get a prophet I could use that to build up my army and production. My main concern was not getting anything out of our UB being a faith, will I be? Will I be able to build it without finding a religion?
 
If it looks like it'll be close can always chop a forest to rush both the holy site and the project to speed things up. Sure it be better to save those for other things but it's better than going for religion and missing entirely. My games seem to go better overall when holy sites are delayed until after commercial /industrial districts.
 
If you want to get a religion on emperor+, you should really pick the pantheon with the +1 gpp to holy sites. Another possibility, especially with civs like egypt or china is the oracle because it adds +2 gpp to all the districts in that city and allows you to buy great persons with less faith. Oracle + holy site + shrine + aforementioned pantheon = 5 great prophet points per turn, 7 if you also manage to get a 2nd city with holy site without shrine.

The real question is: Is it even worth it? I think it's useful if you go for Tithe and plan a renaissance or late medieval war. Holy War is by far the best casus belli. I've seen warmonger penalties of only -5 with it on standard settings. Other than that, I don't think it's a good idea unless you play as a civ with lots of faith bonuses.
 
I've gotten a religion on all my deity games when going for it. Method:

First research is for holy site - very much helped with you find that wonder.

Build holy site straight away once researched.

Check great person points. If at all close build the shrine.

Get pantheon with +1 to holy sites if at all close.

Save faith and gold to buy if still at all close.

Do site project if at all close.

Chop wood to speed up production of all the above as possible if needed. Especially if you have a chance at oracle and include that.
 
Demonstration.

Started new game, all random settings. Got Gandhi.

Poor starting city site. Oh well. Build warrior first while researching astrology. No natural wonder found :(.

Builder second up, on turn 10.

Builder finished on turn 19. Choice between rushing Stonehenge, or going for holy site. Will compare the two via saves at this point:


1: Stonehenge

Listed at 23 turns to complete with max production.
Down to 19 next turn with city growth.
Turn 22 - mining complete, chopping takes the time to complete down to 15 turns.
Turn 23 - unmet civ completes stonehenge.

Even with a rush to astrology via a natural wonder we'd only knock 8 turns off this, and would still be short. So with two further chops you'd be looking at around 1-3 turns to go.

With a good starting site this might, might work. But it'd be a very close thing.


2: Holy site

Turn 19, 10 turns to complete holy site.
Turn 23, chop (went further from the city to chop), down to 2 turns.
Turn 25, checking Great People and religion. 1 religion founded, one civ with 4 GPP and 1 GPP per turn. Shrine to build in 8 turns, chopped down to 5.
Turn 30, shrine complete, only two other civs getting GPPs, at 2 and 1 a turn. Feeling ok enough to concentrate on other things for a bit.
Turn 37, pantheon, I take divine spark for extra GPP and etc.
Turn 40, Monty accuses me of going toward bankrupcy, though I have 140 gold and +3 gold per turn. I have 28/60 GPP and 3 per turn, other player has 38/60 GPP and 3 per turn, and third has 10 and 1 per turn.
Turn 42, Monty declares war and attacks with about 9 Eagle warriors. And he has Oligarchy. Oops. They smash my army up over the next few turns and pretty much end the game.

So well, this example didn't go so well either. but as you can see it's much better than trying to get Stonehenge.

I could have held off Monty better - I was building settlers and builders instead of more warriors and archers. Either way the path to religion was well on track, and didn't significantly hinder any build order or research.

3: Religion all out rush.

As above through to turn 30.
Turn 30, holy site project.
Turn 35, holy site prayers complete, I have 28 GPP to 20 for next civ.
Turn 36, get pantheon, as above.
Turn 42, second holy site prayers complete (built an archer also, as it didn't effect timing), I get the second prophet and second religion in the game. Monty declares war again, etc.
 
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