Odd Strategy To Try - Religion Monopoly

[Wlauzon]

OK, for a change of pace from the usual warmongering I am trying something .. well, STRANGE.

Start with Ghandi (Asoka would probably work also), make beelines for ALL the religions (you can get 3 really fast, even before you build a barracks), so that you have (at least in theory?) tons of income coming in from everyone else that has adopted any religion.

On about my 6th try at this, so still TONS of refining going on, but wondering if anyone else has tried something like this?

I have managed to start all but one religion 3x now, have yet to get a total monopoly, but come close a couple of times.

I have tried it a couple of times on Pangea, but usually on custom continents where the other civs don't bother me for a while - mainly to get the build and research orders optimized.

I am not even sure if this can work, as you might be somewhat defenseless for the early part of the game, but so far it looks like it has some good possibilities.

 

[Bierp]

I'm playing a multiplayer team game with a buddy of mine. We're one team, and we have 5 other AI teams of two (noble setting.)

In this game I started as the Celts and he was Roman. We snagged the first two religions quickly and decided to try for the monopoly...and got it. We took some time off before Divine Right to backfill some necessary techs and we had a REALLY fortunate start getting techs from huts.

I have 7 religions in each of my cities and monestaries for each. My science output is nicely inflated.

We took our first prophet (that didn't give us a push to a new religion) and made a shrine for the religion that had the highest percentage of followers, which was buddhism. It wasn't long before 5 other civs were buddhists and pleased with me.

I ended up switching to no-religion pretty early. 7 happies and the science boost was worth it. (the extra culture on a pangea is nice too.)

Not sure how this game will turn out, but it was an interesting start.

B

 

[wioneo]

A financial leader who starts with mysticism would be best for this. I can't think of one at the moment. Spiritual wo'd help slightly speed up your teching.

 

[brianbenedict]

At decent levels (monarch or greater), religion monopoly probably isn't something you pursue--it just happens. I actually achieved it in the Incan GOTM recently. I grabbed Hinduism first thing and then went for a CS slingshot (picking up Confucianism on the way). By chance, nobody bothered to find Judaism, so it only took me 6-7 turns with a really good capital under bureaucracy to grab it late. The late religions aren't hard to get after a start like that. And it turned out that Ghandi, my neighbor, founded Buddhism, so I let him build me the shrine and took it. Unfortunately, the payoff isn't as high as you might hope. You are ultimately going to be limited by how many great prophets you can pop out. Ghandi built a shrine for me, and I eventually built three more on my own.

Also, having a religious monopoly doesn't guarantee that people will like you. If you have open borders, you don't control which religions will spread. I was Buddhist, but Judaism spread to the other continent spontaneously and no amount of missionaries could really suppress it. I built the Jewish shrine to get some cash, but eventually had to adopt free religion to get along.

Overall, if you want to focus on religious fundraising, the best strategy is to get 2-3 shrines in one city and focus on spreading those religions. You can build markets, grocers, banks, and eventually wall street in that one city and balance your budget under 100% research. Let other civs found the other religions and build the shrines, and steal them if you can.

 

[QuoVadimus]

The classic (vanilla) start for this is Spain on a lake, like Cuban Isolationists. The +3C from the lake gives you a big leg up on Meditation/Polytheism to shoot for both Hinduism and Buddhism. Getting those two tends to be the hardest part of a religious monopoly. The only way to replicate it with another civ is Finanical + river + commerce resource.

However, shooting straight at Meditation and Polytheism costs you early-game development and early-game defense. No axemen/archers, no farms or mines or cottages, no chops. You better be lucky popping huts to get something to dig you out of the early hole you dig yourself. Personally, I would go for Huayna Capac in vanilla--he's Financial, Quechuas are better than warriors for early defense, and he starts with Mysticism. Have a commerce resource (preferably gold or gems) in the fat cross, preferably in the first ring. Hope for a mining pop, work the commerce resource, and head for Meditation. Your first worker mines the gold to help with research after Polytheism to get you back in the game quicker, and your starting Quechua explores the immediate area and then guards the capital.

 

[Datian]

I did it once and it leads to strange results. Saladin was on a continent on his own, with theocracy but no religion... and couldn't convert to anything since religion spreading was forbidden in his cities

 

[automator]

I can only imagine how much cash you'd have if you had all the religions spread to all the cities in the globe and the shrines for each. Good god. If I get one of the early three spread around it's worth a good 40+ gpt ... multipy by six? Oh, snap!

Then again, that'd include getting all the religions, dedicating a city to each religion's missionaries, then getting six great prophets and using them all for shrines. That's an awful lot of GP points wasted on shrines.

But, you'd be able to rock a 100% science while expanding and building units like a crazy person!

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Fred of Spain

One city, seven religions.

 

[weimingshi]

If you manage to get most of the religion, it means its time for you to play at higher difficulty.

 

[Wlauzon]

....the payoff isn't as high as you might hope. You are ultimately going to be limited by how many great prophets you can pop out. Ghandi built a shrine for me, and I eventually built three more on my own.

Overall, if you want to focus on religious fundraising, the best strategy is to get 2-3 shrines in one city and focus on spreading those religions. You can build markets, grocers, banks, and eventually wall street in that one city and balance your budget under 100% research. Let other civs found the other religions and build the shrines, and steal them if you can.

The Great Prophet aspect is one I had not considered, and that would definately be a limiting factor. I have gotten 5 max with 5 religions started, so that means I would never have gotten the last two. And usually I only get 4.

I think I will try modifiying my strategy a bit and just go for the fastest/easiest 3 or 4 (which are pretty easy to get early in the game), and then try some variations on the fundraising strategy you mention.

It is also apparent after a couple more games that this almost HAS to be played on Pangea in order to spread your religions asap.

 

[Wlauzon]

I did it once and it leads to strange results. Saladin was on a continent on his own, with theocracy but no religion... and couldn't convert to anything since religion spreading was forbidden in his cities

HAHAHA.. that is funny.

But I guess it shows one of the hidden dangers of trying "all or nothing" strategies of this type.

Fun to play with, and sometimes you learn a few new tricks, but probably not good as a real basic strategy - just something to maybe grab onto if things go just right and you happen to luck into it, such as getting a couple of just the right goody huts early on for a fast start.

 

[Wlauzon]

Fred of Spain

One city, seven religions.

That is neat, I will have to try it out and see what the best I can do is.

 

[voek]

Hmm this has been tried multiple times before (with succes IIRC). Just search the threads.

 

[tomaalimosh]

how can you get both buddhism and hinduism at the same time?

I play on huge maps, with the default number of opponents (about 10), and I even have a hard time founding one of these (if I start with mysticism ofc).

A strategy that works like a charm for me, is to have 2 religions really early. However it only works for India, and it's best if you have ghandi (industrious).

it's like this:

India starts with mysticism and mining, so you go for polytheism, then masonry, and then monotheism, and you have 2 religions. if at polytheism you may not be the first (losing that one), you can be 100% sure thet nobody gets to monotheism faster than you

I couple this with building stonehenge from 4000 BC, but rushing the city to grow to the angry limit (depending on the difficulty), and then going for "stagnant". this helps me get those two prophets really early, and spreding the religions really fast. It's also nice when you expand (the new cities are almost like when you are creative - expanding their borders faster).

and money-wise, you don't really need more than 2 religions to keep research at 100% and still earn a lot of money.

If you REALLY want a challange, then use this strategy playing "raging barbarians" and "aggresive AI". It's quite an adrenaline rush x-)

 

[carl corey]

You can get both religions if either you select your opponents, or go for Meditation first since many will try that and then finish it and go for Polytheism. IIRC some tried and managed it in the "Lust for Gold" challenged. I went for Poly first and Mansa Musa founded Buddhism. I still founded 5 religions and could have probably got 6 with a more careful planning. I lost Confucianism to the other continent, but I could have delayed Alphabet and a couple other techs and got it too I think.

 

[TehVolcanic]

I'm actually in the middle of a game like this right now. I've sucessfully founded all seven religions playing as Gahndi. At the beginning I was struggling since I didn't have enough tech for my workers to improve any tiles so my economy struggled big time. Once I got Monotheism I went back and quickly caught up. The big boosts came each time I got a Great Prophet and was able to build the religious wonders. I currently have a perfect self sustaning economy thanks to the holy cities. With all of my income going into reserch and culture but still making a profit of about 120 gold per turn. And the number keeps going up as each religion spreads.

 

[pigswill]

Getting 7 prophets for 7 shrines ain't that hard; once you've got the first shrine you can run 3 priests if you have the food, next shrine you can then run 2 prophet factories. Main problem is you miss out on GS, also you have to think about the slingshots you might be missing. (check out 'lust for gold' in this subforum).

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

how can you get both buddhism and hinduism at the same time?

Well, you aren't getting them at the same time, you are getting one, and then the other.

Perfect storm: a civ that starts with mysticism, and a tile or two that produces extra commerce. The textbook example is Spain on a Lake, although as Fred demonstrated Spain on a seafood tile is also effective. And you have to get a bit lucky.

 

[Sisiutil]

Kylearan also did something kind of similar, except his main goal was to win nonviolently, without building a single military unit (!); getting all the religions (he managed 6/7) was a key part of his strategy.

You can read about that game here: http://www.compoundeye.net/civ/nonviolent/