jayron: Here's an alternative plan: Get open borders. Build jewish missionaries. Spam all of the other countries with Jewish Missionaries. Get them to convert to Judaism. Now YOU are the coolest kid on the block. It costs less to build missionaries than troops, and will hurt your relations much less than going to war.
I like that, I'll have to see how deeply ingrained Buddism is with Saladin and Peter (Athualpa has the Buddist HC and probably won't convert). I didn't even think of it. But I do like the idea of the Persians (Iranians) converting the Arabs to Judaism.
mjs ==Spontaneous spread of religion only happens to cities that have no existing religions; once a city has a religion it can only get new religions through missionaries.==
I know, that's why I was sad to see Confucism and Judaism spreading to my newest cities.
==As to your problem, if you don't want to do as the previous poster suggested and focus on spreading your own religions then the only thing I can suggest is to identify the bordering city that is culturally the weakest and focus all your efforts on flipping it. It's a long shot but as military action seems out of the question I can't think of any other options.
Oh wait, I guess the other thing you could do is to build a sacrificial city near the border and not connect it to your trade network only the AIs and see if Buddhism spreads there, maybe worth a shot.==
Maybe I'll give those a try, although it's my first Prince game and I'm worried about dedicating resources to things like those. I'm hoping that Saladin will hit me with a missionary before too long, I need to pick a religion before my people get antsier. Also, are Saladin, Peter and the Athaulpe particularly fanatical? I know Isabel will have your infidel hide, but Victoria doesn't really care (-2 for heathenism). Monty of course is my favorite guy to start next to when I'm playing an aggressive civ or one with a strong early UU. He's like a hitman, no matter what you do to him you don't feel bad, and I already neutered that rabid dog. Then there're the Confucian Chinese who already don't like me. I've never played a game where the Chinese didn't attack me, and our relations are already strained because the Emperor (name eludes me) liked Monty, so converting to Confucism doesn't seem worthwhile. In fact I'd like a war with China before the crossbow age.
Edit: I wonder if the Chinese have any Buddist cities?
