natural rights vs divine mandate

Karmah

Emperor
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Mar 3, 2011
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So this is my third game. So far I keep picking divine mandate as I don't see how else you can gain faith and start a religion. But it seems people aren't keen on religion and the 'good way' to play is natural rights. Which I will now pick.

But there is internet to gather opînions and then there is my fellow civ fanatics !

which one do you pick and why ?
 
I don't think founding a Religion requires any Faith output, just reaching a total population of 10 in the Ancient era, as per https://humankind.fandom.com/wiki/Religion#Founding_a_Religion
Having Faith output will definitely help with propagating the Religion though.

I don't think I've ever chosen Divine Mandate. Natural Rights gives more Influence, so it can pay itself off and give more Influence later on, but I also tend to prefer pushing Progress over Tradition on that particular Ideology track.
 
I almost always choose influence over faith, and progress over tradition. However, I’ve also done the opposite on purpose 2-3 times and this was quite fun and something different. They way religion works currently requires to have some faith early on to maximize the shamanism/polytheism output as fast As possible. Other sources of fame that come later , like the non-first holy site don‘t matter much. With this first civic, however, things are a bit different as it unlocks even before shamanism/polytheism. So it‘s very valuable faith early on if you want to go that route.

the game is also pretty flexible, so you can go full faith and turn 180 degrees in early modern to go full science.

that sweet early influence though… so tempting…
 
Thanks , indeed I had a wrong impression and you really don't need this early faith , thank you for this answer. As it turns out I'm playing currently a war against Siptah :)
 
I took food on coast tenet for the first time during my last game as Phoenicia > Carthage and it was like having all the benefits of an early food culture on top of those for a money culture. I took Natural Right and didn’t even get a holy site up that quickly, so don’t know how I got first choice of tenets, but I could see playing faster on faith for first choice, as I often get the leftovers. Getting divine mandate plus tradition lv1 for +6 extra faith per region would certainly help beat out a religious rival to ensure you get a powerful early game tenet. I might consider this more seriously in the future seeing how little that second city does in its first 5 turns compared to if it had a strong tenet.
 
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