Missionary vs. Inquisition?

[Zaimejs]

I don't get when I'm supposed to use Inquisitors. I send missionaries to cities with other religions and convert them to mine. Why waste Faith on an Inquisitor for a 1 shot clean out vs. a missionary who can spread your religion twice?

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Inquisitor removes all non-state religions in a city (maybe even reduces influence?).
Missionary does only convert a few pops.

 

[anandus]

I use them mostly for prevention of other religions in my city

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Missionary - Doesn't eliminate religion
Inquisitor - Eliminates religin

Missionary - No open borders required, thus, the AI will spread their religion into yours
Inquisitor - Removes the pesky rival religion.

What's worse

Great Prophet - Spreads religion AND removes your religion, so Inquistors are very useful in removing their religion from your city, since that can be bit annoying, as Great Prophets are not killed off as they are near your city (Missionaries lose 25% of their strength when nearby the rival Holy City, thus, eventually, they disappear/die).

 

[KevinJK]

Inquisitor immediately removes all foreign religions completely. There will be no trace of them in the city you hit. These are best if you need to stop the spread of a rival religion.

Missionaries convert a percentage of the population to your religion in the city you hit, and can be used twice (three times with Great Mosque of Djenne). They're best for spreading your religion to cities that aren't already religious.

 

[woodshadows]

hm, inquisitors dont seem to work for me. i found my own religion, i have it in my cities, then because i play deity, the ai spams missionaries and converts my cities. i get an inquisitor and use it on my converted city and it only removes +1 of the other religions supporters. not sure why it isn't completely removing the other religion if that's the way it's meant to work. or maybe the city the inquisitor is built in is what's important and it must be built in a city that hasn't been converted yet?

 

[mv10]

Inquisitors also prevent rival missionaries from spreading their religion if you place them in your cities.

 

[woodshadows]

Inquisitors also prevent rival missionaries from spreading their religion if you place them in your cities.

is it 100% resistance, or just weakens the other missionaries?

 

[Gucumatz]

They can't spread religion to your city if your inquisitor is in it - so 100%

 

[Ford]

is it 100% resistance, or just weakens the other missionaries?

They completely block missionaries from being able to convert your cities.
When I see the first one coming, I start getting Inquisitors in my cities and just putting them to sleep. Job done.
I've also surrounded a Prophet with units to surpress his movement until all my cities are safe. They go away then. If you can do that with a missionary, they die after a few turns.

 

[woodshadows]

They completely block missionaries from being able to convert your cities.
When I see the first one coming, I start getting Inquisitors in my cities and just putting them to sleep. Job done.
I've also surrounded a Prophet with units to surpress his movement until all my cities are safe. They go away then. If you can do that with a missionary, they die after a few turns.

nice, i look forward to trying this out in the future, i had all but written off bothering with my own religion as it just seemed too difficult to hold onto, so have been just letting the ai give me their religion (with the pros and cons which come from that approach).

 

[Crow T Robot]

In some cases Inquisitors seem to work like GPs - remove other religion and convert many to your faith, though maybe not directly. If there is a lot of pressure around a city, the vacuum left by teh removal is quickly filled by followers of the high pressure religion (hopefully your own). The higher the pressure, the more that convert seemingly.

I rarely build missionaries - the 1-3 pop they convert dont seem worth the cost.

 

[kaspergm]

Inquisitors rock. If a city has been under another religion but close enough to you that there has been influence for a lot of time, there will be many "dormant" followers - i.e. followers currently of another religion, but if you remove that religion there will be enough saved up influence for them to turn to your religion - not sure the exact mechanism, but that's the result. If you capture a city, popping an inquisitor will not only remove all enemy religion but most likely also give you many more followers than a missionary would be able to even with all his charges under these circumstances.

Missionaries, on the other hand, stink unless it's very early game and cities don't have any followers at all. In late game, a missionary will be able to convert only like 1 of their believers to your religion, even if you use 2 or 3 charges.

 

[BuzWeaverCiv]

Sometimes it can seem like a constant battle to keep from getting converted. I'll have to either make units to block certain Hex/Tile access or make a few Inquisitors and park them in my cities. It is kind of amusing at times.

 

[joncnunn]

This ends up being my normal plan for faith pre-Industrial era unless able to buy buildings with faith.

1. Found Religion
2. Save Great Prophet to enhance (otherwise AI may take your desired enhancer and/or second follower belief)
3. Missionary : Usually you need to jump start your own religion.
4. Inquisitor
5. Inquisitor: In BNW the AI is far more aggressive about sending Great Prophets in your lands than it was in G&K. With two Inquisitors you can station them to secure all four cities in your core empire.
6. Great Prophet. At this point there's some religion everywhere so you need to remove the old one at the same time as adding yours to make head way. I normally use this on city states that have requested my religion.
7. Keep on save for Great Prophet but really hope to be in Industrial era and change to another great person such as a Great Engineer or Great Scientist. If it looks like I would spawn that Great Prophet I'd probably buy a 3rd Inquisitor given how aggressive the AI can be spreading its religion.

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

One of the best things about parking an inquisitor in a city is that it can stall AI prophets or missionaries. Quite often they'll just move their missionary/prophet back and forth waiting for you to move or use your inquisitor. It's a great way to catch prophets unprotected when you DoW too.

 

[Jampine]

Hmm, this is some useful information, problem is I don't focus too much on faith, so sometimes an AI with HUGGGEEEE amounts of it likes to spam endless missionary on me, and I don't often have enough faith to buy inquisitors. In my current game, Theodora is next door, and has just about all the spreading bonuses, like cheaper missionaries and more influence, and currently likes to send them out in batches of 4 :/
I do wonder if they put too much into spreading bonuses, that the base bonuses are kinda lacking? (AKA, it spreads fast, but doesn't have any bonuses like extra happiness or gold)

 

[Rohili]

I don't get when I'm supposed to use Inquisitors. I send missionaries to cities with other religions and convert them to mine. Why waste Faith on an Inquisitor for a 1 shot clean out vs. a missionary who can spread your religion twice?

An inquisitor is more useful for cities with a significant number of people following a foreign religion. With a missionary, even after converting twice, you often will fail to convert the city to your religion, but with an inquisitor, removing the heathen influence is often enough to let your religion become the majority.

As others have mentioned, inquisitors also stop other missionaries/GPs from converting your city. You don't have to waste gold/hammers on 6 units just to ring-fence your city.

Needless to say, inquisitors are only useable in your own cities because of how powerful they are. It is also why GPs are worth so much more than missionaries - they spread religion far more effectively because they remove foreign religions as well.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

The way religion works.

There is a Partially Hidden amount of influence each religion has in a city that builds up over time.

The number of followers in a city is based on the amopunt of influence

So a city with pop 10 and
300 "no religion" influence
600 Protestantism influence
100 Catholic influence
(1000 total influence)
Will have
6 Protestant followers (600/1000 * 10 pop)
1 Catholic follower (100/1000 * 10 pop)

The influence accumulates over time from
1. normal pressure (from other cities or in the holy city)
2. population growth (dominant religion gets more influence whenever the pop grows)
3. founding a new religion/pantheon

4. Missionaries and prophets

Since a missionary adds a fixed amount of influence, they are less effective at getting followers)
1. later in the game (there has been a lot of "normal pressure"
2. in cities that have had a lot of missionaries used on them already

in those cases Inquisitors/prophets are better (unless you have evangelization, the Missionary acts as a partial inquisitor)

of course After you use an inquisitor, you still have to add some of your religion if it wasn't already there (not necessary for prophets.. they do both)

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

I'm pretty sure I have seen situations where my inquisitor flipped the city back to my religion, so it must be converting some portion of the influence it removes.