Religion hogs...

[NintendoTogepi]

I've been having this really weird situation.

It'll be a fractal map, and most of the leaders will be on one or two continents.

But there'll be one or two leaders on a tiny continent, and they'll hog 4-6 of the religions...it's ridiculous! Anyone experience this? I've had it in about 11 of my past 20 fractal games.

 

[Molybdeus]

Religions are rarely evenly distributed, since some leaders follow the religious technology path and others do not.

 

[Clam Spammer]

Interesting. How many civs are there on the map in total? I can imagine why one or two civs are hogging the religions, but if there are a lot of civs (and therefore a greater number of religiously oriented civs) then it does seem somewhat unreasonable.

 

[NintendoTogepi]

Interesting. How many civs are there on the map in total? I can imagine why one or two civs are hogging the religions, but if there are a lot of civs (and therefore a greater number of religiously oriented civs) then it does seem somewhat unreasonable.

Usually between 7 and 10.

And the ridicolous part, on many of these maps I had set Zara Yaqob, Isabella, Justinian, Saladin and Charlemagne so that the religions were more evenly spread, but I still got "two civ religion hog" most of the time!

 

[Clam Spammer]

Hmm... perhaps these two civs have some high resources (gold, gems, fur etc) that the rest of you don't have access to? Plus they are on a smaller continent and will found more early cities near the coast (and therefore more seafood, and coastal squares give good )

This combined with having Mysticism from the start will give them a considerable boost when it comes to founding religions (especially the first 3) and research in general.

And if they're Financial on top of that, well... I wouldn't mind a start like that

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

I've found Pacal to be one of the biggest religion hogs in the game. At least it's easy to take those holy cities from him.

 

[Lockesdonkey]

Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Having lots of religions is a just plain good idea anyways: you can control them.

 

[NintendoTogepi]

Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Having lots of religions is a just plain good idea anyways: you can control them.

I have tried that but I usually miss the religions.

 

[Point13]

Honestly unless you're hoping for a religion I find that situations like this can be refreshing. Since nations found 2-3 religions each that means that they won't convert to them and cause diplomatic issues.

It makes life simpler when almost everybody is Buddhist and Hindu. (World War anybody?)

 

[NintendoTogepi]

Just had the most ridicolous example of this ever.

Huayna Capac hogged SIX of the religions! I only just managed to grab Christianity.

I was on a very tiny isolated continent (Small enough that my OCC city had covered it fully with culture by the time I found the other civs...it had tons of great resources though so I couldn't complain...I was playing as Tokugawa).

So I find the others civs to find Huayna Capac...and discover that among his ten cities, 4 of them are holy cities! He has six religions!

So I check out the other continent....all...three civs? Wha? Anyway, they're all athiests running Theocracy (Zara, Mao and Churchill)! I then remember that the Native American and Egyptian Civs were wiped out around 200 AD or so!

Noticing that Zara, Mao, Huayna Capac and Churchill were all really behind in tech I started to build up a military. I first invaded Huayna Capac, using cannons and rifleman to attack and destroy, razing everything.

I then beelined Assembly Line for Infantry and Artillery for Artillery....

I then rebuilt my army and then proposed a resolution with the AP I had built long ago "declare war on the infidels"...

So I was at war with all three civs, who were all at war with each other and had been for centuries! I wiped them out pretty easily with my Aggressive/Protective Infantry against their Longbows and Cho Ko Nus..., winning a Conquest victory...anyway, this probably never would have been so easy without stupid HC religion hog.

It was simply far too easy to get rid of them all thanks to their constant warring...

 

[Lockesdonkey]

I have tried that but I usually miss the religions.

You have to slingshot, and it pretty much kills any opportunity for you to win a chiefly military victory. It works well with a Cultural victory (duh) and surprisingly a Space Race victory (getting all those religions that quickly requires a substantial research rate, and gives you juicy techs to trade).

You have to go for Polytheism right off the bat, then Monotheism, get Priesthood so you can research Writing and build the Oracle, research CoL the hard way while getting Theology free with The Oracle. At this point you have Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Confucianism. At this point, you probably have to choose whether you want to slingshot for Islam or Taoism. Taoism gets you cooler things along the way, but the stuff that comes with and immediately after Divine Right is also tres cool.

 

[caketastydelish]

Just had the most ridicolous example of this ever.

Huayna Capac hogged SIX of the religions! I only just managed to grab Christianity.

I was on a very tiny isolated continent (Small enough that my OCC city had covered it fully with culture by the time I found the other civs...it had tons of great resources though so I couldn't complain...I was playing as Tokugawa).

So I find the others civs to find Huayna Capac...and discover that among his ten cities, 4 of them are holy cities! He has six religions!

So I check out the other continent....all...three civs? Wha? Anyway, they're all athiests running Theocracy (Zara, Mao and Churchill)! I then remember that the Native American and Egyptian Civs were wiped out around 200 AD or so!

Noticing that Zara, Mao, Huayna Capac and Churchill were all really behind in tech I started to build up a military. I first invaded Huayna Capac, using cannons and rifleman to attack and destroy, razing everything.

I then beelined Assembly Line for Infantry and Artillery for Artillery....

I then rebuilt my army and then proposed a resolution with the AP I had built long ago "declare war on the infidels"...

So I was at war with all three civs, who were all at war with each other and had been for centuries! I wiped them out pretty easily with my Aggressive/Protective Infantry against their Longbows and Cho Ko Nus..., winning a Conquest victory...anyway, this probably never would have been so easy without stupid HC religion hog.

It was simply far too easy to get rid of them all thanks to their constant warring...

"athiest running theocracy"

 

[Dida]

You can run theocracy under Paganism, nothing with that. By default a civ is Pagan, not Atheist.

 

[Sonereal]

I find it easier to wait until someone gets two religions, than take one of their holy cities and give it someone without an Holy City.

Atheists running theocracy....owned. But yeah, Paganism is the default apparently.

 

[Krug]

The only way I get religions is through Oracle slingshot, usually into Christianity or Confusicanism, depending on when I've built the Oracle.

 

[Ekmek]

This is why I'm working on a mod where great prophets found religions, not techs. I have a preliminary version that works and played around with it. it changes the way you look at techs and the religions get distributed better.

 

[Balderstrom]

This is why I'm working on a mod where great prophets found religions, not techs. I have a preliminary version that works and played around with it. it changes the way you look at techs and the religions get distributed better.

That sounds interesting, but wouldn't getting one religion and a wonder or so put that CIV on a fasttrack to founding the rest of the religions?

 

[Ekmek]

I play tested the version i had and it didn't play out like that. The AI first found thereligion then the next prophet went to the holycity. In some playtests though the AI opted to have a Great Priest in the city instead of founding the religion.

To help in this mod I made it so the palace lets you set one civilian to a priest. Some AIs go for it otheres focus on growth. So it played out well. I'm loking to release version 1 soon, the downside is that religion chooser or favorite religion doesn't work in it. I'm working on trying to get that going.

 

[slobberinbear]

If I start with Mysticism and have an early commerce tile to work, I will try for Buddhism through Meditation. This is feasible at Monarch difficulty and lower.

Otherwise, I will try for Confucianism by taking Code of Laws from the Oracle. If I built Stonehenge, I will usually use the Great Prophet to "lightbulb" Theology and get Christianity.

If I don't build any early wonders or get Buddhism, I will usually end up not trying for a religion at all, though I still sometimes pick up Taoism accidentally by getting to Philosophy first.

Judaism and Islam are the hardest to found, IMO, unless you are already pursuing religions. They often feel like the "consolation prizes" for missing out on Hinduism and Christianity.

EDIT: I just realized I'm a bit off-topic here. To the OP: See if you can be buddies with the religion hog and let him spread his religions to you, then get Free Religion working.

 

[Skaithak]

I play tested the version i had and it didn't play out like that. The AI first found thereligion then the next prophet went to the holycity. In some playtests though the AI opted to have a Great Priest in the city instead of founding the religion.

To help in this mod I made it so the palace lets you set one civilian to a priest. Some AIs go for it otheres focus on growth. So it played out well. I'm loking to release version 1 soon, the downside is that religion chooser or favorite religion doesn't work in it. I'm working on trying to get that going.

You do realise that in this system it would be the philisophical leaders who are the only ones with a chance of founding a religion? And in the absence of philisophical leaders, it would probably be Rome with their UB that had the religious advantage?