Prophets and holy wars

[skallben]

I normally play as a passive-aggresive builder, my early wars used to be started by the AIs declaring on me. G&K changed it all.
I like to found religions, my neighbors like to send Great Prophets into my borders. This is since G&K a very common reason why I declare war. My neighbor in my current game got religious texts and on top of that spreads it like wildfire with prophets and missionaries.
I wish diplomacy would include things like asking brothers in faith to go to war or at least the same option as the AI; to be able to tell them to stay the hell away.

So how many holy wars do you start?

 

[nefloyd]

Generally speaking, none. I almost always get either religious texts or itinerant preachers, plus enough prophets to seed my religion around the world and knock opposing religions around.

I've declared war maybe once or twice to stop an opposing GP, but more often I have just had/bought an inquisitor.

However I have used up a prophet's spread usage back-to-back at an opponents city : go there, convert it, his own GP converts it back, I convert it again, etc. etc. til one of our gp's is gone. That's kind of a holy war.

 

[Dogmouth]

None. I usually use inquisitors to block them or other units to trap them with 1UPT. Recently I've been trapping a lot of units with 1UPT. It can get expensive, but if you need troops to be on standby anyway...

 

[skallben]

Generally speaking, none. I almost always get either religious texts or itinerant preachers, plus enough prophets to seed my religion around the world and knock opposing religions around.

I've declared war maybe once or twice to stop an opposing GP, but more often I have just had/bought an inquisitor.

However I have used up a prophet's spread usage back-to-back at an opponents city : go there, convert it, his own GP converts it back, I convert it again, etc. etc. til one of our gp's is gone. That's kind of a holy war.

Normally get texts aswell but AI snatched it so this time I got preachers, I can tell that religios texts beats itinerant preachers, especially after printing press. I'd argue it's slightly overpowered.

Inquisitors are interesting but how do you use them?
Run back and forth to whatever city the prophet approaches?

Maybe a theological battle
Yes, I do that aswell sometimes but I am slowly losing this one, war is the last and only resort.

 

[Alrin Kharr]

Inquisitors are interesting but how do you use them?
Run back and forth to whatever city the prophet approaches?

Pretty much. AFAIK, if there is an Inquisitor close to the targeted city (within 2 tiles, I think), the AI will not be able to convert that city. Additionally, Prophets and Missionaries cannot move through other units, so you can block their paths with military units, or even Workers if necessary.

 

[Piousflea]

Thanks to some combination of "Defender of the Faith" and/or "Just War", I'm usually the one doing the prophet-bombing. What's weird is that some AIs will stack up loads of inquisitors to keep me from prophet bombing them, while others don't seem to care. The +20% combat bonus is amazing for domination games if you can get it.

 

[NotSure]

I do it often. It's the most efficient way to save/spread your religion. Sack a couple of nearby opponent Holy Cities and convert them with one GP and then flip as many cities as you can with Missionaries. Many of the founder beliefs are weak to useless if you don't spread your religion aggressively -- which probably explains why the AI spams GPs into your borders. There's no diplomatic option for the player and rising faith costs for inquisitors/missionaries make this clearly the best approach.

 

[Peacemongerer]

I've only started one, and honestly I just used his Great Prophet as an excuse. Greece backstabbed me and double-teamed me really early in the game, so when I saw his prophet in my territory while I knew I had him ridiulously outgunned, I jumped at the oppourtunity.

 

[Lakissov]

In my last game, Ethiopia declared war on me for a similar reason: they've been trying to send their missionaries to convert me, while I was blocking.

I actually wasn't planning to have a religion initially, but then accidentally befriended a religious city state, which soon got me to pantheon; planing to go wide, I chose +2 science per city, while Ethiopian religion just didn't have good enough benefits, so I founded my own with my Liberty GP, with happiness benefits for going wide even better.

So, I'm protecting my faith, and the Ethiopians declare war. Some 20 turns later, I conquer their capital and purge their faith from there with an inquisitor. Initially, I was planning to leave them with one city, but there was one problem: he had religious texts, so I knew that Christianity would come back to my lands... Solution: I take his last city and raze it to the ground, simply to prevent his religion from spreading.

So, yes, religion can sometimes become a reason not only for war, but also for very cruel decisions; that is, when you are able to found a religion that benefits you much more than another religion nearby, while you lack peaceful means of protecting your religion. In retrospect, I don't think I'd even bother with founding a pantheon if the religion of Ethiopians had beliefs that are better suited for me, e.g. if he had taken the +1 happiness per city; as it was, his religion was mainly geared towards benefiting the founder, not the followers.

 

[skallben]

So, yes, religion can sometimes become a reason not only for war, but also for very cruel decisions; that is, when you are able to found a religion that benefits you much more than another religion nearby, while you lack peaceful means of protecting your religion. In retrospect, I don't think I'd even bother with founding a pantheon if the religion of Ethiopians had beliefs that are better suited for me, e.g. if he had taken the +1 happiness per city; as it was, his religion was mainly geared towards benefiting the founder, not the followers.

Yes, I am going to lay siege to, occupy, and let loose the inquisition in my worlds largest city, Constantinople. Everyone loves them, even I am friends with them but in secret I hate their missioning and plan genocide on the infidels.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

I have had trouble with Ethiopia and Christianity in my current game. I have taken Addis Abbaba and converted it. I'll convert their two remaining cities and hopefully end the religion. If not I'll take the cities but at the moment they are a buffer between me and more aggressive countries.

 

[footslogger]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the best thing to do with an 'enemy' GP in my territory? I've taken one over with a military unit but notice that it still has its original religion. I can see nothing better to do with it at that point than delete it. Am I missing something here

 

[AriochIV]

None. I usually use inquisitors to block them or other units to trap them with 1UPT. Recently I've been trapping a lot of units with 1UPT. It can get expensive, but if you need troops to be on standby anyway...

Right. It can be tedious, but it only takes two or three units to block a Great Prophet indefinitely. The AI's pathing when blocked is terrible, so the Prophet will run in circles even if you don't have six units to completely trap it. Also, civilian units are just as effective as military ones at blocking.

The same tactic works against foreign Settlers, as well.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the best thing to do with an 'enemy' GP in my territory? I've taken one over with a military unit but notice that it still has its original religion. I can see nothing better to do with it at that point than delete it. Am I missing something here

I've only ever once captured a GP once that was of any use and it was sheer accident. A CS had asked for a GP and the capture of one was as good as creating one. Otherwise I delete unless you can use it to spread the religion- perhaps to a CS that has requested it?

 

[Lakissov]

Otherwise I delete unless you can use it to spread the religion- perhaps to a CS that has requested it?

They usually request your religion from you, not some other. Making the captured GP useless for this purpose.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

They usually request your religion from you, not some other. Making the captured GP useless for this purpose.

Good point. I wonder if you would see a request for a religion if you captured the Holy City? Probably not.

 

[Lakissov]

Good point. I wonder if you would see a request for a religion if you captured the Holy City? Probably not.

I've never seen anything like this. Probably the best way to check that would be to make a game with no religion, letting your neighbor convert you and capturing his holy city, and then see if city states make quests like that during the game. Although my gut feeling tells me that it's tied to a civilization being the founder of the religion (which is a status you don't attain even when capturing another holy city).

 

[booyachris]

have you ever captured a great prophet? They will only spread the religion they were stolen from. Stupid, but in the right situation you can still use them. I like to send captured gp from a weaker religion into the heart of my highest competition to slow their spread down for a little while.