How to get someone else to spam your religion.

[Alisdair]

Hey everyone,

most of us know, or are learning how to force the AI against itself. Religion and close borders are a great way to get them to war, and that's what we want. It's like winning the bar brawl after one guy has punched out 100 others and then you go and whack him over the back of the head with a chair, and you're the victor. What am I talking about? Who hasn't piggy-backed onto a war and taken cities with just a few units after your ally AI has done all the hard work? It's AWESOME!

Anyway, I've stopped chasing religions too much, but my current opening strategy is still for oracle - code of laws, and then first GP lightbulb theology. So I have two religions as a gimme every time.

I've noticed that the Spanish are fantastic to give your free missionary to, they'll spread it everywhere they can. I've also noticed that it may be worth while giving it to someone like Tokugawa before he closes his borders, as he probably will.

Who are the best people to spread the religion?

Who are the most likely to close their borders soon?

This will most likely mean the same result, they'll keep the religion you give them. Maybe not always, if they found one, I haven't been able to flip them. My goal is to give all the nearby civilizations different religions and me to have no religion unless needed for influence or theocracy.

 

[Braindead]

The civs with the spiritual trait seem rather more prone to missionary activity. Particularly Isabel. Thje AI is also prone to spread a religion for which it owns the holy city.

The aggressive civilisations are more prone to closing their borders to you, particularly Tokaguwa.

Getting a missionary into a civ that has closed its borders to you is something of a hit or miss affair. You need a civ which has open borders with you and one religion which has spread to all of its own cities, that religion must be its state religion. If you gift another missionatry of that religion it will try to use that missionary to spread the religion. It will convert its own cities first and then seek to convert neighbours wqith whom it has open borders. With a bit of luck it will send the gifted missionary straight to a city of the AI civ you wish to convert. Or it might send it to another neighbour (Including you if you have overlooked converting one of your own cities).

If your target civ is running as a theocracy you can only spread their state religion. Missionaries for any other religion must be gifted to them and they will spread it to one of their own cities themselves.

 

[hoorayforshaka]

Don't even attempt Toku. It isn't worth your effort to try and open borders with him, he only does it at pleased.

Dick's right, look for a religion whore (Izzy, Asoka, Gandhi, etc.)

Also, someone without a state religion will be more likely to adopt your religion, and thus more likely to spread.

 

[Ataxerxes]

If an AI has founded a religion, it's very hard to switch it out of that religion. Even if you get them to agree to it, they switch right back. If you have all your neighbors in your religion, it's sometimes better to go for a peaceful victory because you don't have as much concern about being attacked if you're in a lovefest. You have a bunch of trade partners and get demerits from your friends for attacking your neighbor.

Izzy, with her mad missionary spam, tries to be in the middle of a lovefest. Sometimes she succeeds.

 

[lasombra1984]

Any leader that has "Religion" or "Culture" in XML flavors spreads religions like mad.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Any leader that has "Religion" or "Culture" in XML flavors spreads religions like mad.

You still don't see them spreading those religions unless they actually follow those flavors though. Usually mass religion spam goes to guys who pursue free religion culture (willem, mansa, gandhi, etc) or do mono-religion zealots like sury/izzy/zara if they DON'T have a religion they founded themselves.

Of course, autospread can function as an excellent alternative in situations where the continent doesn't have other religions...probably the only time I'd generally advocate bothering to found one.