I just wanted to ask the people who play deity/immortal here do you think religious community is a good idea to get? I mean the production bonus can be pretty large, but if you are spreading your religion then the AI gets it too. And given how buffed they are already, do you guys think this is worth getting or no?
Is it worth it to get Religious Community?
- Thread starter Morses
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Unresolved
King
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Yes, Religious Community is a staple for me. The only reason I won't take it is if I need 2 happiness Follower Beliefs. The AI generally has their own religion, so their capitals likely won't be getting the bonus of RC anyways.
Deau
Emperor
Always my second follower belief for tall defensive games, even if I am to spread religion. AI has too much hammers for what its capable to use anyway on deity. It plays on settler growth is absurd it works a crapload of tiles and thus has absurd production rate prior to RC. It just doesn't put them to good us
For Wide/warmongering, obviously I prefer happiness follower beliefs but if I can spare a happiness belief, I tend to go for Guruship instead. It is significantly weaker in the late game but it allows small cities to work the scientist slots from Universities really early and not overly suffer for the rest of their infrastructure by having to work only food tiles (like cities size 4-7 get significantly cripped by working dbl scientists).
For Wide/warmongering, obviously I prefer happiness follower beliefs but if I can spare a happiness belief, I tend to go for Guruship instead. It is significantly weaker in the late game but it allows small cities to work the scientist slots from Universities really early and not overly suffer for the rest of their infrastructure by having to work only food tiles (like cities size 4-7 get significantly cripped by working dbl scientists).
Yea most of the time I can't manage to spread my religion too much, but then you know there are the times where you get like desert folklore ethiopia and stuff. But I was always wondering if I was benefiting or screwing myself by dominating religion with all the ai's having religious community.
Unresolved
King
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Even if you spread your religion far, you probably won't have the enemy capitals under your religion. Their internal pressure will always convert them back to their religion and they will prophet bomb themselves if possible.
Yes; this one is one of my standard three follower picks. (Sometimes I want Feed the World or a happiness one more)
I don't spread religion outside my empire much; I normally don't have high enough faith to spam large numbers of missionaries.
Deau
Emperor
I adore food but I can't seem to find any reason to pick feed the world. In most wide games, I just don't build shrines and temples - even in many tall games, I can't seem to fit the hammers in my infrastructure rotation since culture provides so much more benefits. I could only see it being worthwhile if paired with another temple bonus, be it +2 culture or +2 happiness in the extreme unlucky scenario that I have a good religion but awful faith output pantheon making pagodas unlikely to be purchasable before industrialization.
In tall games, even on deity, I seem to get more out of either the +15% growth at peace (depending on neighbors) or, as my general pick, +2 faith per wonder or some high culture boosting follower like +8 culture from hermitage/cathedrals/pagodas/mosques (although since I shoot for GMD on tall games, I try to avoid mosques.
The Pilgrim
Deity
I think it's my #1 choice in at least 75% cases. Great synergy with Tradition.
I tend not to pick any beliefs that is based on the number of followers. Instead, I would based on something I added myself like specialists (Guruship for production) or can buy with faith (Holy Warriors, Pagodas, etc.). I believe it is more important to build up faith to buy units, buildings and great persons and not missionaries, prophets or inquisitors (which may or may not be a waste of faith points except for city-state quests).
Deau
Emperor
It highly depends on how much faith you can produce and especially how important your founder belief is to your strategy. On any tall empire with DF or +2f per quarry I will generally shoot for an extremely strong spread faith and use Pilgrimage so I can spam purchase great people upon industrial so it is much better not to have faith-spender pre industrial so I can spread the hell out.
I don't know what difficulty you play though. At lower difficulties, just 2-3 missionaries + IP or RT will generally get you to dominate religion spread.
I never play a wide game (too painful due to the national wonder mechanic) nor do I ever go for cultural victories (boring). I instead always go for 4 city science.
And Temples are a must building for me; its how I enhance the religion in a reasonable timeframe. In addition, the Grand Temple is extremely useful for both passive defense and also helps give more faith based great people.
I don't trust the AI and never pick a religious belief requiring peace. (In event of a war, I'll be at war a long time since the AI doesn't really care how many of their units you slaughter if your purely defensive.)
Unresolved
King
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I'm also a 4-city player, but I almost never build shrines and temples. I just feel like the faith gains are too small. 3 faith per city for building two buildings doesn't seem worth it to me when I could be building others things with those hammers. I do build a shrine in my capital though to ensure a pantheon. And I'll build shrines if I happen to take Asceticism.
I don't think there is much danger of your religion spreading on the higher levels. In my last game on deity I had multiple large cities 3 squares away from another civ without a religion and my religion still didn't spread there. Their cities just grow too fast.
This. I play 3-5 cities on Immortal and never seen much of a positive cost/benefit regarding spread. I am perfectly ok with religion being minor bonuses because there are much more important elements to work on instead.
Seabastian Civ
King
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Agree^
When I go tall, I almost always take RC. Those hammers really start making a difference when you get up to 10+ followers, which is pretty easy mid-game. If there aren't any aggressive religions around, RC helps immensely in a late-game war of survival.
Falconiano
Prince
That belief is a must for me, the times AI doesn't get it first that is.
Say your lvl 15 city has 100 production it's +15 production for free.
Say your lvl 15 city has 100 production it's +15 production for free.
And if it has 200 production its +30 for free, +15% is still +15%
However, this +15% stacks ADDITIVELY with other modifiers like the +10% from workshop. So if you have no other modifier, religious community and 15 followers, then you get +15% from what you had previously, but if you have workshop (+10%), factory (+10%) and railroad connection (+25%), then the total modifier will be +45% without religious community and +60% with, meaning you have "only" gained ~9.375% more production by getting religious community.
It's still great though.
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