How do people get a religion?

[PyreStarite]

I'm going to ask here as well as I'm a little pressured and torn and want opinions, sorry for being such a wh**e.

This is my starting Island thingy, I have a lot of resource mines and fishies, but don't know which Pantheon to get, rivers are also abundant, opinions? Idols or Sea God?
This is a Island Plates map btw.

 

[Frank327]

^ I'd go for divine spark or religious settlements depending on if you're attempting to get a religion or not. You've got a lot of resources, but not enough of the same type to make it worth it for a pantheon.

I think a good summary of this thread is:

- The divine spark pantheon and prayers project are key to getting religions on higher difficulty.
- If you don't have a really good reason to get a religion, don't bother.

One last thing to mention is that finding an early religious city state is also an important consideration. Lets you get an earlier pantheon to ensure divine spark, gives a bunch of faith to your holy sites and once you've got a religion they can give very useful unique bonuses. In my Norway game I didn't find one early which meant I couldn't get the divine spark pantheon.

 

[Lord Yanaek]

I've gotten a religion on all my deity games when going for it. Method:
...

And i will repeat it, i failed once on Emperor following the same strategy. I suspect Arabia was in the game because 2 prophets went out in a single turn, but i was far ahead so one AI definitely patronized a Prophet. You can't rely on it 100%.
Still the best way to go for religion, much more reliable than Stonehenge (this one is unreliable even on Prince!) but not guaranteed.

 

[lamaros]

And i will repeat it, i failed once on Emperor following the same strategy. I suspect Arabia was in the game because 2 prophets went out in a single turn, but i was far ahead so one AI definitely patronized a Prophet. You can't rely on it 100%.
Still the best way to go for religion, much more reliable than Stonehenge (this one is unreliable even on Prince!) but not guaranteed.

Well, if you're playing on a low civ count then yes, Saladin is a risk as that means there are two religions you wont get, but you're usually aiming for the second religion anyhow, so it's not a big thing.

 

[Lord Yanaek]

Yes, with the game defaulting to "small" maps i started this one on small. As i said (in a previous post), i missed the second prophet to some crazy +5 or +6 GPP AI (second prayer ended the very next turn after this prophet was gone). Only occurred once so far so your strategy is overall very solid but i tend to be somewhat picky about "guarantees" and "100%" when it's actually 99% Might have something to do with playing XCom!

 

[lamaros]

Yes, well I can't promise 100%, I did get wiped out in my example by a Monty rush, after all.

 

[Lord Yanaek]

But you got your religion so at least you knew who to recommend your soul to
Eagle Warriors are pretty strong early, especially with the Deity combat boost.

The safest move on Deity is to crank units early and take some settlers/cities by force but this opens another interesting question (relevant to this thread), what happens if you capture the Holy City of an AI? Do you become the new "head" of the religion and gain the benefit of the founder belief? Can you evangelize new beliefs (if you wipe them before their religion is complete)? Can you win a religious victory with a "captured" religion? Did anybody actually test this?

 

[lamaros]

Yeah they are absurd, especially given the AI boost to getting a government first; when they get Oligarchy and you're still scratching around in the dirt you can't do much about it.

You can only win a religion victory with your own religion.