Need help with faith.

[NomadMan284]

Greetings to all. I started my first Gods and Kings game after playing a dozen or so games without Gods and Kings. I chose Atilla/Continents/Marathon and after about 25 turns I had 0 faith while two other civs around me started a pantheon. I'm not really sure how the whole "faith" thing works in this game, but am excited about exploring this new aspect of the game. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for any help you all can provide.

Moderator Action: More a beginner question than a strategy -> therefore moved to "General Discussion".

 

[DagHammarskjol]

The civs who started pantheons early probably either were the Celts or ran into ruins that gave them a faith bonus.

 

[Browd]

To generate faith, you need to:

• build a shrine (generates 1 faith per turn) and (after researching Philosophy) a temple (2 faith per turn) (the Mayans and Ethiopians have UBs that provide greater amounts),
• meet a religious CS to get 4 faith (8 faith if you meet them first),
• befriend a religious CS to get 2 faith per turn (4 faith per turn if you are allied) (amounts rise in later eras),
• build world wonders that give faith (Stonehenge (5 faith per turn) is the earliest; there are others that give faith (like Hagia Sophia--see below), but they come much later),
• found a city near a religious natural wonder and make a citizen work the NW tiles,
• play as the Celts (1 faith for adjacent forest and 2 faith for 3 adjacent forests), and
• stumble across a ruin that gives faith (typically enough to found a pantheon or, if you've already founded a pantheon, usually 60 faith to get you on your way to founding a religion).

At standard speed, faith thresholds for pantheons begin at 10 faith for the first pantheon and rise 5 faith for each pantheon thereafter to 45 faith max. A few of the pantheons also provide faith (depending on terrain), so that can be a later source of faith.

Founding a religion requires that you generate a Great Prophet. There are only a few ways to generate a Great Prophet:

• accumulate faith above the required threshold (200 faith at standard speed for your first GPr, 300 faith for the next, then 500, 800, 1200, etc.) and you will have a chance of spawning a GPr on subsequent turns (random number generator element here, so it may take several turns),
• take a GPr as your free GP with the Liberty finisher or upon completing Leaning Tower of Pisa,
• build Hagia Sophia (get a free GPr, free temple, and some other goodies), or
• play as the Mayans and pick a GPr as Long Count great person (obviously no help for your Attila game).

 

[NomadMan284]

Thank you Dag and Browd for the information this really helps. I haven't had much time to play as I'm currently working 84 hours a week on a special project at work and I only have about a half hour a day to play. I'll probably be back with more questions later Happy Holidays.

 

[Xotite potancev]

Thank you Dag and Browd for the information this really helps. I haven't had much time to play as I'm currently working 84 hours a week on a special project at work and I only have about a half hour a day to play. I'll probably be back with more questions later Happy Holidays.

30 min a day perhaps try a faster speed to get a feel for Faith it would be a pain to spend your weeks play time to discover ok that doesn’t work try again

Try the myans while you experiment you can cover half the world with your religion while everyone else is still working out whether to worship fish or trees.

 

[NomadMan284]

30 min a day perhaps try a faster speed to get a feel for Faith it would be a pain to spend your weeks play time to discover ok that doesn’t work try again

Try the myans while you experiment you can cover half the world with your religion while everyone else is still working out whether to worship fish or trees.

I don't mind playing a game over long periods of time, in fact I have always played the marathon play. Besides, this project is almost over and I will be off work for about a month so will have plenty of time to play

 

[NomadMan284]

As an update though, after realizing that I was not "way behind on my religion" thanks to Dag, I built a shrine and settled a city near Uluru and quickly became the fourth civilization to adopt a Pantheon. I am also about 1/2 way to having enough faith for a great prophet, I think .

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Having fun with those end of year payrolls?

If you want to try something fun religion-wise with the Maya:
+1 from shrine pantheon
ceremonial burial because its best
+2 temples as first follower coz AI loves it so much
+1 shrines second follower
Any enhancer, but I like to take Holy Orders (Be Just or Be Dead) and name my religion Ishiwatariism

You get +1 +2 +1 +2 from a building that only costs 40

You could get feed the world follower belief for another +1 on the shrine, but I find the extra happy from religious community is better. Of course, on higher levels you'd need a faith generating pantheon if you lack a faith generating natural wonder nearby.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

Just something to think about which it took me a little while to realise.

Faith has no boundaries- that is faith is not tied to a religion. So if one of your cities is converted to a religion that enables mosques (as an example) you can build the mosque and it will be contributing faith to your religion. Even if you convert your city back to your own religion the mosque remains and you can get faith from it. (I'm 90% sure this bit is correct- someone will soon tell me if it isn't!) In some ways it is better to build the mosque ahead of your own buildings as once you convert back it is not available to build.

 

[Browd]

^ Agree. Right on all counts. In fact, a couple of times, when I've captured a missionary, I've converted one of my own cities to another religion to gain the benefits of the other religion (once I recall was for Holy Warriors and another time was to get Desert Folklore for one of my cities with a lot of desert tiles and one of the religious buildings).

 

[Cicerosaurus]

Thanks Browd- I wouldn't have thought of that. That is a use for captured missionaries and GP's, although I would have always used the GP to make a Holy Site.

 

[Browd]

Agree on Holy Site, if the GPr hasn't been used to spread yet. If the GPr has fewer than 4 spreads left, he can't be used to create a Holy Site.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

Yes- if they have less than 4 spreads left the best use I can make is exploring- and that runs the risk of them being recaptured.

 

[Browd]

And they don't make the best of explorers, given their maintenance cost. They can go anywhere with impunity, but they take forever getting there (2 movement points, but burdened by full terrain movement penalties, and can't pass through non-enemy units, so they are easily blocked).

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

And they don't make the best of explorers, given their maintenance cost. They can go anywhere with impunity, but they take forever getting there (2 movement points, but burdened by full terrain movement penalties, and can't pass through non-enemy units, so they are easily blocked).

Sweden's UA makes capturing prophets much more alluring.

 

[Browd]

Yep, since you can gift used GPrs. They're not worth much else.

 

[Matthew.]

Rushing Hagia Sophia can be a good idea. I believe I also read somewhere that you don't even need a pantheon before getting the free great prophet, which means you can be very far behind and still "catch-up" with a single wonder.

IMO, from the ~250 hours I've played G&K, shrines and temples are not an efficient way to start a religion. If I start with a non-religious civ, but desire a religion, I will build a single shrine in my capital for the pantheon and then attempt to settle near a faith natural wonder, build a faith world wonder, or befriend a religious city-state.

I build shrines and temples later, for increased faith for great people.

 

[Browd]

As long as another religion can be founded, you can use the HS Great Prophet to found a religion, even without a pantheon belief. If you don't have a pantheon you will be prompted to select a pantheon belief when you found and select your founder and one follower belief.

Agree on shrines and temples. Unless you are playing on lower levels (where the AI takes forever to found), you generally need 8-10 faith per turn fairly quickly to be competitive in founding a religion. Shrines in a handful of cities won't generate enough faith to found, and temples come relatively late (Philosophy) and all religions may be founded by the time they come on line.

A faith-giving pantheon belief, faith from a religious natural wonder, faith from a religious CS friendship or alliance, faith from a ruin, extra faith from the Piety policy Organized Religion are all sources of additional faith.

 

[ZenReputation]

how can i join to you all in this game?

 

[Browd]

Not sure I understand your question?