Liz, monarch and religion

[ellie]

Hiya guys.

Been playing the game for a while now, generally as a peaceful player on monarch.

Mastered playing ghandi for that level (generally get poly and spread religion like crazy).

Understand romans war strat, and now playing Liz.

One of the things im finding hard to get used to is i cant get an early religion, i go BW, chop but my economy hurts from no religon.

I was wondering what the expert builder types do?. Ive considered taking whatever religion is spread to me, chopping the oracle/stonehenge and using my first prophet to discover a religon..NOT converting to that religion (to avoid having borders closed) , but spreading it under open borders.

Only concern is that spreading to a city already with a religion seems tough.

Anyway id be interested to hear from good builder players of Liz regarding opening strat/religion.

Generally i play islands, although ive just started a huge europe map.

 

[Tomb.]

I have played yesterday on emperor and it worked out fine.

I tried a pyramid grab,but lost with 4 turns left *arghh*. Then i spammed cottages and constructed the GL with the GE. Then i prepared the GL city for spamming Great scientists (with national epic about 80 GPP). I have fought to wars, one with axes, one with catapults and I am Now 2nd score at 900 AD (1. in gnp and mfg).

The biggest problem i have with lizzie is, that i often forget to build a GP City while i am spamming cottages.

 

[ellie]

Did you found a holy city or am i over-estimating its importance?.
As ghandi i could run 100% science thanks to hinduism and get it almost every time..

Also , on cottage spam, i do build cottages where i can no matter who i play because
with the right civics they r great cash.

But surely, you are limited by the land, ie if my land is mostly plains with limited bonus food. The without farms the city wont grow.

 

[Rameau's Nephew]

With Elizabeth, focus on worker techs early and get your land improved. If you're used to Ghandi, you may need to make more workers than you're accustomed to. If you really want to nab a religion, aim for Confucianism (or, if you miss that, Daoism). Food-poor land will hold you back from cottage-spamming (and from GP-spamming, for that matter), so aim to place your later cities in more natually food-rich areas. Or make your capital a production center and conquer the land you really want.

Remember, the real advantage of weaning yourself off of a religion-dependant strategy is that all the production you used to put into making missionaries to convert your enemies can now be put elsewhere (like, say, into military units to invade them). The diplomatic game will also be easier because you can avoid declaring a state religion at all, and nobody will hate you for being a heathen. When and if you do adopt one, you can pick the one that will get you the most friends.

 

[Tomb.]

I havent founded a religion and didnt capture one. I dont even have a state religion.

In general i wont go for any religion when i not start with mysticsm.
There i try for one or two early religions (mostly hinduism and/or judaism).

Im usually too busy researching military and economic techs to go for the later religions.

I've been running my science slider at 80% most of the game, mostly founded by tech trading and pillaging.
I also got 2 great prophets from the oracle, who also provide some money.