Religion benefits

[liandy]

I'm new to CIV 4 but not to the CIV series. I'm just trying to understand how to use religion to my benefit.

If I have founded Christianity, I believe I get gold for every city that practices it, correct? So it would be good for me to keep sending out missionaries and spreading my religion to not just my cities, but all cities across the globe.

How do I get a nation to adopt my religion?
If they adopt my religion does that mean that all other religions are banned in their civ or does it just make my religion (Christianity) the more likely to spread?
Does a leader's view of me effect the chances of my religion spreading? For example at first I was peacful with everyone and trading and 6 out of 8 civ had adopted my religion as their state religion with no doing on my part (other than sending a missionary or two to spread the religion to 2 of their cities and that's it). Then I went to war with a civ. Once the war was over there are now only 2 out of 8 civ adopting my religion.

Thanks!

 

[njorls]

You need a great prophet to build a shrine in your holy city to get +1 gold per turn for every city that has it.

To get a nation to adopt a religion, they usually do it automatically for the 1st religion to spread to them. If you spread it to enough of their cities they will convert for a fee, usually a tech.

If they adopt your religion, other religions can spread. If they're running Theocracy then only their state religion will spread. I'm not sure if it makes your religion more likely to spread.

I don't think relations factor in religion spreading. Obviously if they don't like you enough to open borders than you'll have a harder time.

 

[madscientist]

Welcome to the Forum.

Religion 101

1) Religions are founded by being first to the tech that unlocks it. Some can be discovered by using the lightbulb(bulbing) from a great person. Popular methods are free tech from building the oracle (Code of Laws=Confuscism), bulbing theology from a great prophet, bulbing philosophy from a great scientists.
2) Many factors contribute to a religion spreading to a city, but generally each new city (looks) fo a religion, then usually will not spontaneously take another. To get a second religion in a city requires a missionary (requires the civic organized religion, or a monestary). BTS sometimes provides random events that allow religion spread.
3) A religion in a city provides +1 Happy and +1 culture, if it is your state religion. You also get these benefits if you have NO state religion or switched to the Free Religion civic. A holy city (where the religion is founded) gets +4 culture. Once the religion is in a city you can build a Temple for +1 culture (allows 1 priest specialist, +1 happy, remains all game), a Monestary for +2 culture(+10% the science, but cannot be built after discovering scientific method).
4) You can convert to a state religion (required for effects of Organized religion, theocracy, pacificism civics) by going to the praying hand icon at the top of the screen.
5) If you control a religions holy city, you can found the religion shrine with a great prophet. This gives you +1 gold for every city that has that religion (regardless if the AI claims it as the state religion), plus you can run 2 or 3 priest specialists.
6) Once you have Music and at least 4 temples in different cities (changes with map size) you can build a catherdral which gets you 50% culture yield and +2 happy with insence. This is very powerful for cultural victories.
7) Relations with the AI has nothing to do with yoru religion spreading to them. Best is to build missionaries and send them out. Once an AI has a significant number of cities with your religion they will either convert, or can be bribed to. IF they are cautious or annoyed they won't give you the option to bribe them to convert.
8) Usually when an AI has no religion then one of their cities get a religion they immediately convert. If later on more cities convert to a different religion, they will convert to that religion.
9) Generally the early religion spread more (Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism) than the later ones (Christianity, Islam, Taoism), with Confuscism going one way or the other. If you found Hinduism chances are there will be little converting to do, hence the benefit to getting an early religion. If you found Christianity, it take's some work to spread it arround hence shy the game gives you 1 free missionary.
10) If your playing BTS, the AP Palace is an early, powerful version of the UN. IF all AI's have at least one city with the AP religion you can get an early diplomatic victory. Also if you have the AP religion as your state religion, your temple get a +2 hammer bonus.
11) Certain wonders favor religions: Spiral Minerat give +2 gold per state religious building, the University of whatever (the name escapes me) gives +2 beakers per religious building, Ankor Wat gives +1 hammer to each priest turning priest specialists into engineers with +1 gold, Sisteen chapel gives +5 culture to each state religiuos building (+2 to each specialist also).

I am certain I missed something, somewhere.

 

[xanadux]

Having the shrine also doubles the rate the religion spreads. If Buddhism and Hinduism are founded far away from you (usually another continent), building an early Great Prophet wonder and founding Judaism or Confucianism later and using the Great Prophet for the shrine can be a good way to get your religion to spread quickly.

Religion is one of the biggest factors in diplomatic relations. Different leaders value being of the same religion differently. Isabella is one of the true religious zealots. She will love you if the same state religion, and hate you if different.

With the Apostolic Palace, religion can now be leveraged even more. If you have the majority of the cities with a religion, and buld the AP, you can pretty much push around any other civs with that religion. This can be a good way to sow discord on another continent. Just send a missionary to a city of the civ you want on your side, and then vote to make them go to war with some heathens.

 

[danthechan]

going deep in the thread archives. just to be clear, are there any bonuses related to picking one religion over another, or are all deemed equal by the game devs?

in a current game my beserkers just capped madrid. she had made it a holy city 3 times over, and had already built one holy city wonder. i have since added the other 2. it is one sweet gold producing city. should i be making missionaries in all 3 faiths to maximize output, even spreading multiple to my own cities?

 

[Cam_H]

danthechan,

Further to the posts above ...

The only difference between the religions is the bonus from resources when building a 'Cathedral'-type building: Buddhist Stupas, Confucian Academies, and Taoist Pagodas receive a +100% bonus when the cities have access to Copper, Christian Cathedrals and Jewish Synagogues receive a +100% bonus when the cities have access to Stone, while Hindu Mandirs and Islamic Mosques receive a +100% bonus when the cities have access to Marble.

In terms of your question on your game, it would depend upon your specific game circumstance and objectives, but spreading the religions and eventually building the Wall Street national wonder in Madrid could well be a successful tactic.

 

[Fippy]

Your best way of learning religions, on standard maps, would be ignoring them until an AI spreads it for you All other infos are good too, but first thing you should know: They are mostly traps for players who still learn, including shrines and great prophets.

 

[Patchface]

CAre to post a screencap of the city? I've never seen 3 shrines in a city before. Can't even imagine what sort of gold output that would be.

 

[Kjotleik]

going deep in the thread archives. just to be clear, are there any bonuses related to picking one religion over another, or are all deemed equal by the game devs?

in a current game my beserkers just capped madrid. she had made it a holy city 3 times over, and had already built one holy city wonder. i have since added the other 2. it is one sweet gold producing city. should i be making missionaries in all 3 faiths to maximize output, even spreading multiple to my own cities?

If you capture a city which is a triple holy city (!!!) you would very much like for all religions to spread throughout the world...

Three shrines (holy city wonders) each gives one (1) per city with that religion present. So if you spread all three religions you will earn (in Madrid) three (3) per city worldwide with all three religions present.

Add a Market (25%), Grocer (25%), Bank (50%) and Wall Street (100%) in Madrid to increase your gold income in that city to 3 + 3*(0.25 + 0.25 + 0.50 + 1.00 = 2.00) = NINE (9) per city with all three religions present. You don't have any more monetary problems with a city like that. Really, you do?

The question is not if you should train missionaries, but if you can afford to? By that I mean: Are you in war, or in danger of getting declard war on? If so, you should focus on military instead. But if you're at peace (and everybody loves you)...



Yours Sincerely

Kjotleik of Norway