Monks, Warriors for God

[CaptainPatch]

They're quasi-religious units. So why can't they attack opposing Apostles, Gurus, and Missionaries? You would think they would go out of their way to suppress "heresy" and apostates. [It wouldn't be much different from the way religious units can be killed by barbarian units.]

 

[Victoria]

Guru’s are sought out, they do not seek out.

 

[Deggial]

I completely agree. Warrior monks are cool (by their theme and their promotion tree), but they are also such a time limited unit.
Basically, they are faith-purchasable rather than gold-purchasable combat units that lose their value in modern times - and there are other means to get secular combat units with faith.

As they are of such a time-restricted use, much more could be done with warrior monks:
- Interaction with other religious units, as CaptainPatch suggested.
- Heal faster and fight harder near holy sites.
- Be healed by gurus and gain the "guru general" buff due to that wonder I currently can't remember.
- The 'religion spread after victory' should be a basic ability and not tied to a promotion.

Havin all the mentioned buffs might be too much, but some at least of them would be nice ...

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Given that the term 'Warrior Monks" could cover military/religious units as diverse as the Knights Templar, Kali Cult Thugs, Shaolin fighters, or the Hashashim 'Assassins', much, much more could certainly have been done with them. At the very least, a method (Civics Card, Religious Pantheon, Apostle/Guru interaction?) to allow specialization or differentiation of your 'Monks' into one of the very different groups mentioned above would be appropriate.
They can never be Game Winners, because they are bound to be superseded in the Modern Era and later - although, in an Economic Victory DLC/Expansion, perhaps Warrior Monks could morph into a Corporate Assassin/Sabotage group of hirelings in the Atomic/Information Era. . .

After all, the game has never been completely historical, and the GDR is proof enough that the late game is essentially Fantasy, so why not a Shaolin Warrior Monk training facility that starts teaching Hacking of Corporate Data Bases or international financial thuggery? Or is International Financial/Corporate Thuggery already being well-taught at the Harvard Business School?

 

[Kmart_Elvis]

I really wish the AI didn't try to snag that belief first all the time, so we could actually have a chance to get it. In that case, you could always have the AI spread that belief to you, but that can be unreliable.

I also like the spread faith on kill promotion, but that's also a chore to get. It's pretty damn powerful and can spread your religion to multiple cities at once.

 

[Infixo]

Do you often see AI using Monks in a fight? Because it seems to me that they only get them via a wonder (forgot the name), and then they just wander around. And that's it.

 

[Halcyan2]

I really wish the AI didn't try to snag that belief first all the time, so we could actually have a chance to get it. In that case, you could always have the AI spread that belief to you, but that can be unreliable.

I also like the spread faith on kill promotion, but that's also a chore to get. It's pretty damn powerful and can spread your religion to multiple cities at once.

Eh. Warrior Monks aren't that good. I always get 4 from Kotoku-in and they always get obsoleted too quickly to be useful.

As a result, I'm kinda glad the AI favors the Monk belief because that gives me a better chance at the good beliefs.