How to spread religion?

[Ramjack]

Hi , just wondering which is the best way to spread religion or a corporation? Is it best to manually take your unit to a city and use it so it's consumed, or use the spread religion or corporation automatically button ? Only just started playing civ 4 and can't believe how good the game is!

 

[BarbarianArcher]

If a city has a religion and is roaded to another city, then the said religion will likely spread to the roaded city without missionaries.

In other words, i'm Japan. I have a road to Osaka from Kyoto, and I fount Judaism in Osaka. After a while (idk how long, but never less than 20 turns in my experience) Kyoto will have Judaism in it.

It's probably a "chance per turn" or something for the religion to spread. It's faster to use missionaries, especially when you want to convert a city of another Civ.

 

[Gwynnja]

I don't think corporations auto-spread.

 

[T-hawk]

If a city has a religion and is roaded to another city, then the said religion will likely spread to the roaded city without missionaries.

Religions can only spread from the *holy* city. An atheist city must have a trade route connection to the holy city in order to get a free random religion spread.

 

[Fleme]

Religions can only spread from the *holy* city. An atheist city must have a trade route connection to the holy city in order to get a free random religion spread.

Not so. Try putting yourself on an island with no outside connections and give one city Islam (don't make it a holy city, just give it the religion). It won't take too long for every one of your cities to be islamic eventhough they're not connected to the holy city.

Furthermore, you can and will get religions from foreign civilizations even if you have closed borders with them and have no trade routes.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Religions can only spread from the *holy* city. An atheist city must have a trade route connection to the holy city in order to get a free random religion spread.

The holy city does make the religion spread faster, true. But religions do autospread, especially if nearby cities don't have any religion (As Fleme said). IIRC, I believe roads and Open Borders help the spread, but aren't essential.

Misstated - it is the Shrine that makes the religion spread faster.

 

[T-hawk]

Furthermore, you can and will get religions from foreign civilizations even if you have closed borders with them and have no trade routes.

This much is true. Religion can spread through closed borders and Mercantilism. It's more accurate to say that an atheist city needs a valid trade path to the holy city, not necessarily an active trade route.

Not so. Try putting yourself on an island with no outside connections and give one city Islam (don't make it a holy city, just give it the religion). It won't take too long for every one of your cities to be islamic eventhough they're not connected to the holy city.

I'm pretty sure this is not true. Be careful that the worldbuilder or game does not automatically make your city into the holy city even if you didn't set it that way. Do you have any example saves where this happened?

The holy city does make the religion spread faster, true. But religions do autospread, especially if nearby cities don't have any religion (As Fleme said). IIRC, I believe roads and Open Borders help the spread, but aren't essential.

Misstated - it is the Shrine that makes the religion spread faster.

Holy city - Must exist for any autospread at all.
Nearby cities - Do not matter. All that matters is the city in question and the holy city.
Distance to holy city - Does matter, closer distance increases the autospread chance.
Roads - Matter in that a trade path to the holy city is required.
Open Borders - Does not matter at all. A state of war does block autospread.
Shrine - Doubles the chance for a random spread (checked every turn.)

 

[Hortulanus]

If a city has a religion and is roaded to another city, then the said religion will likely spread to the roaded city without missionaries.

This is true only if the second city has no religion. If a religion is already present, other religions will not automatically spread to it.

 

[Liquidated]

Adopting the Theocracy Civic will block the spread of all non-state religions in much the same fashion as how Mercantilism blocks corp spread.

As an interesting aside, if you have one of the serious religious nuts nearby (Izzy or Justinian anyone?) just open borders and they will flood you with missionaries. Can save you a lot of hammers

More seriously, early in the cycle there are towns you want to get converted specifically. For religion, maybe it's a town that can hammer out more missionaries, or maybe a new town that needs the culture to pop borders, or even another Civ you want to convert to your religion. After you stop caring who exactly gets infected, auto spread is fine, just look at the religion tab to see how many towns still need the creed, else you'll start converting other civ's (which you may or may not want). That Auto Spread action really helps in larger Empires.

Corps are similar in that the first few you want to place into towns that can really hammer out more, then the towns that can benefit the most. Keep in mind though that food corps can really throw a town into chaos (if powered up enough) if they spread before they can deal with the added population's sickness and unhappiness. There is no corporation auto-spread thankfully.

Otherwise, just listen to whatever T-hawk says, he knows

Cheers!
-Liquidated