How to spread religion as India

[Viralvoid]

So I'm playing India on immortal as tradition.
Delhi has 13 population, and the other 4 cities were from 6-8.

My problem is that, I don't know how I can spread my religion to my cities, and to other civilizations next to me that hasn't found a religion. I could lose the spreading spree from other founder, and making me unable or late to reform without building the reform wonder (forgot the name, is that St. Basil?).

The religious pressure is very slow, with only 10 pressure? it is connected to the capital.
And other religion could spread on my own cities, which is weird.
I found the 2nd religion because I chose fertility, I wanted to have some highly populated cities because I'm India.

Stupid me, I forgot that India can't have missionary, and I chose way to transcendence.
Any thoughts?

 

[Stalker0]

India’s a slow burn in initial religious spread. They starts slow but man does it ramp up later in the game.

Since your not spending faith on missionaries you should your next prophet early. You can use him to spread...or to pick up a spread power like ritual that will increase the power of your passive spread.

 

[tu_79]

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/guide-religion-for-dummies.569310/

Small guide. Read about passive spreading. It was written a while ago, so I didn't include the effect of Fealty.

 

[CrazyG]

Try really hard to build either Hagia Sophia or Cathedral of Basil. Your religion is going to only be in your capital for a while, its just part of being India.

 

[Viralvoid]

It spreads like a wildfire without even noticing it

 

[admfischer]

If you want to start a real wildfire, get Ritual and spread out trade routes from your holy city.

 

[Owlbebach]

I think i mentioned that in one of my writeups something like a year ago. There are several unobvious things.

Passive pressure depends on how many STEPS it takes to go from one city to another. This means that road between cities increase passive pressure. Also Forest and Rivers reduce pressure.
What does this mean for India:
1) Build roads ASAP. You really need them.
2) Build roads to AI! Even unfinished road that goes up to AIs borders increases pressure!

Now i was also trying to play Traditon India, but after several attempts i realized that India plays better with Progress. Why?
1) You get free Worker and increase Workers speed and you REALLY need many workers early on
2) You get money it every city and you need this money to pay for roads you build
3) You want to take Fealty because it increases your pressure and helps you with Religion in other different ways and Progress into Fealty is a much better setup than Tradition into Fealty
4) You can take Scripture to increase Pressure, which works much stronger for India
4) With Progress an Fealty Science Victory seems like an obvious choice

 

[Viralvoid]

I just tried the new Tradition opener in the patch.
I thought India was played progress to begin with?

 

[Owlbebach]

I thought India was played progress to begin with?

Sorry, didn't understand you

 

[crdvis16]

I think India can probably be played tall with tradition/artistry/rationalism or thick with progress/fealty/whatever. When thick you could go for religious buildings and trade routes for your passive spread of your religion whereas when tall maybe you focus on things like ceremonial burial or to the glory of god for great person synergy?

I would think tall is the most natural though? India is one of the few civs that could easily take advantage of all those specialist slots from tradition with their massive population. If progress is clearly better for India then in my mind that could indicate that tradition is still underpowered.

 

[Owlbebach]

I would think tall is the most natural though? India is one of the few civs that could easily take advantage of all those specialist slots from tradition with their massive population. If progress is clearly better for India then in my mind that could indicate that tradition is still underpowered.

I think you are oversimplifying. Clearly every civ has advantages and some trees are better for it than others but it is not that obvious. For example Tradition and Diplo seems like the best choice for Austria but i am very confident that Austria plays Authority-Tourism better. Does it mean that Authority or Tourism are OP? Definitely not.

India is definitely a jack of all trades, and it sure can play Tradition. I actually think it can be decent with Authoruty too. I just see how India plays Progress and everything in that puzzle assembles perfectly

 

[crdvis16]

Austria going authority? Any civ can benefit from war of course but I don't see anything in Austria's kit that actually pushes it in that direction. I do see some synergy with tourism for Austria but much more synergy with diplomacy as the win condition. If Austria is much better off going authority and going for tourism then yes, I would argue that authority and tourism are overpowered.

 

[crdvis16]

Which civs would you say are natural Tradition civs? My quick list would be:

Natural Tradition:
Arabia
Austria
Brazil
Egypt
India
Korea

Some Tradition synergy:
America
Babylon
Inca
Maya
Dutch
Venice

 

[CrazyG]

For India I usually look at my starting situation and choose between Progress or Tradition. They are both strong but they want different pantheons. Beauty is a good pick with India that leads you towards tradition. God of the Sea can be really good and leads towards progress. I choose tradition more often (if India shouldn't be biased towards tradition, I don't know who should be).

Maybe you take authority if all of your neighbors are extremely aggressive? Generally I'd go for one of the other two.

Natural Tradition:
Arabia
Austria
Brazil
Egypt
India
Korea

Both Egypt and Austria can work with any social policy to start. Austria may skip tradition because her early game is weak, and tradition's early game is pretty weak too.

 

[crdvis16]

Yeah, taking into account the in-game situation could certainly bump a civ in a different direction. I guess I meant just going strictly by their kit and assuming an agreeable start.

 

[Stalker0]

I think i mentioned that in one of my writeups something like a year ago. There are several unobvious things.

Passive pressure depends on how many STEPS it takes to go from one city to another. This means that road between cities increase passive pressure. Also Forest and Rivers reduce pressure.
What does this mean for India:
1) Build roads ASAP. You really need them.
2) Build roads to AI! Even unfinished road that goes up to AIs borders increases pressure!

Now i was also trying to play Traditon India, but after several attempts i realized that India plays better with Progress. Why?
1) You get free Worker and increase Workers speed and you REALLY need many workers early on
2) You get money it every city and you need this money to pay for roads you build
3) You want to take Fealty because it increases your pressure and helps you with Religion in other different ways and Progress into Fealty is a much better setup than Tradition into Fealty
4) You can take Scripture to increase Pressure, which works much stronger for India
4) With Progress an Fealty Science Victory seems like an obvious choice

Clarifying what you mean here.

The way I understand it is that the pressure from a city "travels". So either a city's pressure reaches another city....or it doesn't. Now what you implied is that a city's pressure can reach another city but be "reduced" by the distance it had to travel.

As far as I know its binary. Either a city is throwing its full pressure into another city, or its throwing no pressure. @Gazebo, which interpretation is correct?

 

[Owlbebach]

The way I understand it is that the pressure from a city "travels". So either a city's pressure reaches another city....or it doesn't. Now what you implied is that a city's pressure can reach another city but be "reduced" by the distance it had to travel.

Yes thats right. Things like Forests, Hills, Rivers can reduce pressure, but not kill it. Haven't you notice that when you found a religion - cities that are closer to your capital can have ~+15 pressure and those that are farther away may have something like +5 pressure

 

[Viralvoid]

Sorry, didn't understand you

Sorry If my statement is vague
I just thought it was natural for India to play Progress.

 

[Owlbebach]

Which civs would you say are natural Tradition civs? My quick list would be:

Natural Tradition:
Arabia
Austria
Brazil
Egypt
India
Korea

Some Tradition synergy:
America
Babylon
Inca
Maya
Dutch
Venice

Austria has ZERO bonuses in the early game. If you play Tradition Austria - you are just so much behind of everyone that i doubt you'll ever catch up. Believe me, i played dozen of games with Traditon Austria befire i understood that it is a wrong idea. Austria need Authority to stay alive and develop its economy, after that it skyrockets with ridiculous amoutn of Great People it can generate. I think only Arabia can have more, and maybe Byz with Glory of God

I do not remember all the civs that good but from the civs that you have:
Arabia is Tradition-a-must,
Austria is 90%-Authority, can be ridiculously strong with Progress if you can survive early-game
Brazil is 70%-Tradition because of UA, but works good with any tree
Egypt is 80%-Tradition simply because if its UA. It CAN work good with other trees, but i don't see any reason to do that
India i'd say is 70%-Progress, but can work with Tradition
Korea is 70%-Tradition but can work with other trees
America is 80%-Tradition, can work good with Progress, but Smithsonian is just asking for Tourism-play
Babylon is 80%-Progress, don't see much reason for taking Tradition...
Inca is 80%-Progress, Tradition can work because you can be greedy as hell, but i don't see any reason to do it
Maya is 90%-Progress, don't see any Tradition synergy
Dutch is a special olympics one-city-challenge festival lover civ
Venice is 80%-Authority cruel Henry Morgan The Scary Pirate civ, but it really does work good with Tradition too

 

[pineappledan]

Gonna second the Babylon for progress. Forbidden Palace, Expertise and Organization are absolutely core. Any other pick is self-sabotage.
Maya needs that early science, HARD. Progress is really important to get Kuna and long count running ASAP. Nothing else matters. Maya, Iroquois and Songhai are the only civs I even consider rushing Fraternity on, over Expertise.