[G&K] Religion: How Does the Religion System Work? (G&K)

[Atlas627]

So just today I was playing hotseat with myself and looked very closely at the religious pressure being implied, and Browd is indeed correct that pressure is applied only by the majority religion in the city. My mistake, I don't know what gave me that impression before.

 

[essmene]

I think you should mention holy sites in How to generate faith - even though they will only become available after your religion has been founded - or you capture a fresh prophet - quite a few times I became confused and converted with the wrong prophet - or worse bought an inquisitor to regain my holy city, that was just bombed by a different religion. And the prophet from my capital will remove the holy city status as it is always the current city religion - bought prophets do not.

I also noticed that the Mosque of Djene gives a free spread. I can use the 5th spread and still create a holy site as long as the prophet has 4 religions spreads available. This could be a bug.

 

[Miravlix]

That was a great write up. However I remain unconvinced that religion, apart from minor bonuses, allows you to win more easily, esp compared to adopting someone else's or even ignoring it. I can and have seen short-term bonuses (like the extra units holy warriors can provide) but not sure about longterm benefits apart from generating faith for Great Persons. That was what I meant by diminishing returns. I think it's a great addition to the game but I believe its opportunity cost/benefits are not that great.

Tithe +1 gold pr. four follower. It's TOTAL followers in all towns divided by four. It's millions of extra gold during a game, same goes for culture or whatever bonus you pick. It's insane amount of bonuses, even if you have to "waste" time building faith buildings. (Except for a faith civ or with a natural wonder, where you get the faith for free.)

Have your resting point with citystates be friendly... Huge map defauls to 24, so 24 citystates giving you at least friendly bonus, some allied, since you can't avoid completing some quests once in a while with that many.

Combine expanding border, with russia and wonder and have your towns area cover max range. (All your towns Six titles from center I think?). Combine it with the great wall and anyone attacking you is doing slow motion dance towards any of your towns, you can prolly build an army to defend before they arrive.

Diplomacy bonus, have that big bad neighbor, be your best friend for the entire game. While you OOC an insanely easy culture win.

The extra possibilities is endless with all the options religion comes with.

Do you need religion to win? Uhm, no we won in vanilla without religion and the AI doesn't play religion well enough to hurt, but that's a silly point. The question should either be, is it easier to win with religion and/or is it more fun.

As I understand the game both is true and that brings up a breaking point with the difficulty level... You only have a short window for religion starting in the early part of the game, since the AI get bonuses on higher difficulty levels, it kills any chance you had of racing to compete. You might as well just enable ancient ruins, it's total luck if you get a religion and total luck if you get any good options.

 

[_alphaBeta_]

When you found a pantheon, your pantheon automatically appears in your capital and in any other city you have founded. Your pantheon will also appear automatically in any city you found afterwards. However, once you have founded a religion, your pantheon will be absorbed into your religion and will no longer automatically appear in newly founded cities (but will persist in cities that already have your pantheon). Pantheons will not spread to other civilizations or City States.

Do Pantheons spread to annexed/conquered cities?
Are Pantheons actually spreading (like the religious pressure system) or do they simply show up in all cities at founding and subsequent cities built by a settler? This would imply annexed cities will not receive them.

 

[Browd]

Conquered cities never get your pantheon; only cities that you settle before founding your religion get your pantheon. Pantheons do not exert pressure on other cities and therefore do not spread.

 

[_alphaBeta_]

Conquered cities never get your pantheon; only cities that you settle before founding your religion get your pantheon. Pantheons do not exert pressure on other cities and therefore do not spread.

Thanks. Great articles.

 

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Pros and cons to eradicating a religion (from a holy city) by using an Inquisitor?

 

[Browd]

Can't think of any cons (other than the opportunity cost of the faith used to buy the Inquisitor, which could perhaps be used for a different faith purchase).

Main pro is to prevent more spread of that religion. Also, once the holy city character is extinguished, neither the Grand Temple nor Borobudur can be built by that civ (even if the former holy city is recaptured by the original religion sponsor civ).

 

[vorlon_mi]

If I conquer an AI holy city, can I do anything to spread that religion?
Or can I only build missionaries/Great Prophets for the religion I founded?

Does that religion lose followers, naturally? Certainly, if I go around spreading my religion with missionaries or scrubbing with inquisitors, I can hasten its demise... but maybe I don't want to, if it has some convenient beliefs.

 

[Plumfairy]

Missionaries, Inquisitors, and even prophets always spread the faith of the dominant religion where they were purchased. So you can intentionally spread foreign faiths, if you want to.

Prophets that are spawned automatically (i.e. you didn't buy them somewhere) are always of your faith.

 

[Browd]

You can spread that other religion if you buy missionaries in a city where that religion is the majority religion. Any Great Prophets that spawn or are bought, regardless of where they appear, will always be of your religion. That religion does not lose followers "naturally"; it is subject to the same inter-city pressure mechanics as other religions. You can hasten that religion's demise by eliminating its holy city's holy city character (use an inquisitor from your religion, not a Great Prophet) and then use misionaries, inquisitors and great prophets to convert other cities that hvae that religion as a majority.

Once you have killed the holy city, converted every city that had that religion as its majority, and killed every missionary and Great Prophet of that religion on the map --- you still aren't done, if the AI civ that founded that religion is still alive. If that civ is still alive, it can still spawn a Great Prophet and start reconverting cities to its old religion.

 

[Conspirator]

So let's say I settle 2 new cities very quick and my capital as well as the two cities all receive the +4 faith from natural wonders pantheon. X turns later all these cities convert to someone else's religion giving them the +1 desert tiles pantheon (as well as other bonuses of course). Would these cities have both desert faith +1 and natural wonders +4 pantheons at the same time?

 

[Browd]

No. Each city only gets the beliefs associated with whatever religion is majority in that city. As long as the pantheon stays majority, you get the One With Nature benefits. Once the city "flips" to another religion, you get that religion's beliefs.

Unless the city flips in one fell swoop (e.g., missionary or Great Prophet spread), there may be a period where neither your pantheon nor the new religion is a majority -- during that period, the city gets no religious bonuses.

 

[clif9710]

I'm late to this thread - here it is 2016 and I am still playing GK, but the information given here on religion is very helpful. I am so fond of religion that I always go for it, primarily to give myself a happiness boost. I have not used the tithe option and from what has been said here, I have been passing up a great opportunity. Thanks to all.

 

[beetle]

^^ In GnK (as compared to BNW), Ceremonial Burial is better than Tithe IMHO. But BNW left Tithe alone while making Ceremonial Burial half as effective.