Religion mechanics in Civ 6 GS

[Espartaco1]

Would you please explain the mechanics of religious? or which thread is already posted? I was playing Saladin, Prince, founded a religion very early and I was dedicated to build destricts and units when almost all my cities were converted to other religion by Spain. I built some apostles but I didn't understand the actions to take with him, the map changed to a red color, I didn't know what to do, I gave up at the moment. tks

 

[Saxo Grammaticus]

I'm not sure whether there is an existing thread, but I would direct you to the wiki.

https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Religion_(Civ6)

From what you said, maybe some basics here can help. Missionaries and apostles come with a "spread religion" button which is the bread and butter of early religion. Passive spread (trade routes, proximity) is unreliable. The other major way to spread religion is through religious combat. Apostles can attack missionaries, inquisitors, and other apostles. If they kill another religious unit, the victor's religion gets a boost to nearby cities, and the defeated religion suffers a loss. When at war, you can move a military unit over an enemy religious unit and use the "condemn heretic" button to kill the unit and reduce their religious pressure.

Now for some strategic tips, which you may have discovered from your game. The AI can be very overzealous spreading their religion. There are many ways to combat this. If you have an early enough religion with strong faith, you can camp other AI with few holy sites to extinguish an early religion, though this mainly helps with religious victory as it incurs some steep grievances. If your defenses are trustworthy, you can can simply declare war on a neighbor (like Spain) and condemn all their religious units. They will likely withdraw and then proselytize when next at peace, but some AI like Spain simply will not forgive your heretical ways.

Another strategy is to delay founding your religion (particularly easy as Arabia) until you have holy sites in most of your cities. This costs you early adopter bonuses, like choice of religious beliefs or potentially faith, but can prove economical. The mass conversion when founding a religion can offset the cost of spreading it with religious units but also prove competitive when you consider how much faith the AI will spend on early religious units.

Several civilizations, including Arabia, have unique interactions with religion.

IF you have an interest in mods (and platform functionality) I would recommend two almost fundamental ones: Tomatekh's Historical Religions and Religion Expanded, which I've linked below.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=870850597

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1178185727

 

[Socrates99]

In V there was a lot of passive spread so if you founded, your religion would quickly spread near your holy city without any real effort.

In VI they had to slow that way down because of the religious victory. AI spam missionaries early and will attempt to wipe out your religion if they can.

You kind of need to watch for this to determine what your defense is going to be. If they're swooping in before you can get an apostle it's a good idea to use missionaries to at least convert a ring around your holy city. Then go for inquisitors as soon as possible. They're the cheapest way to defend your cities from those evil heretical AI missionaries. The inquisition is launched with an apostle.

Apostles are also how you reform your religion. Oftentimes it's a decision whether you want to reform before the inquisition so you have a better chance at strong beliefs or launch your inquisition. It usually depends on how many enemy missionaries are coming at you.

Once you've reformed and launched the inquisition Apostles can initiate "theological debate" with enemy religious units. Essentially just combat. That let's you go on the offensive. I often avoid using their last spread and just run them around like a bunch or robed debate bros attacking any and all enemy religious units. If you "kill" a unit in theological debate their religion takes a hit in nearby cities and yours gets a bump.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

If you happen to purchase missionaries or apostles in a city, they will be of whatever majority religion is established in the city, not necessarily the one you founded. Therefore you were probably spreading Spain's religion instead.

 

[Espartaco1]

If you happen to purchase missionaries or apostles in a city, they will be of whatever majority religion is established in the city, not necessarily the one you founded. Therefore you were probably spreading Spain's religion instead.

Oops, yes I was buying missionaries/apostles with faith but what a dumb I was, maybe I was buying their units. wtf. Thanks to all for your help.

 

[Victoria]

but what a dumb I was,

Not dumb at all, I have bought units in my own cities that have been converted recently. It seems like they are useless but they are not.

For a start you can sacrifice them near cities they have a majority religion in and therefore lessen that religion.
If they are apostles you can use them for attacking the opposition units, as long as they do not kill them.
They can be used for flanking and support
They can block the opposition with ZOC and also when attacked damage the opposition.

so they are not useless.

 

[General_Sahib]

Not dumb at all, I have bought units in my own cities that have been converted recently. It seems like they are useless but they are not.

For a start you can sacrifice them near cities they have a majority religion in and therefore lessen that religion.
If they are apostles you can use them for attacking the opposition units, as long as they do not kill them.
They can be used for flanking and support
They can block the opposition with ZOC and also when attacked damage the opposition.

so they are not useless.

Can I revive my dead home religion this way? Gran Colombia - of all civs - just wiped my religion out while being my "friend", but I still have some minority followers in my cities.

 

[Victoria]

Can I revive my dead home religion this way? Gran Colombia - of all civs - just wiped my religion out while being my "friend", but I still have some minority followers in my cities.

Unfortunately there is not many ways of getting your religion back.
If there is a city state following your religion still, you could settle a new city next to it and build a holy site there quickly while it convert, but it still takes time and the enemy is sometimes wise in its stupidity.
If you have any missionaries or apostles left they can convert a city back if the city is not too badly converted
If you had a belief where any new city got your religion when founded that would also do it.
Otherwise, sadly, you are forever a minority, learn to live with it, everyone in the world is a minority in one way or another.

for future reference, if you think you are going to be converted, make sure you have a way back. So for example on deity I may get a religion but expect it to be destroyed and so get some inquisitors in advance. Another is defensive apostles around a healing holy site with defensive belief.

a couple of key things about an RV from a very old hand at it

1. speed of victory counts, the longer it takes the more powerful other religions become and harder to convert. Getting out early and spreading religion with missionaries first is cheap to convert non religious cities.
2. The most powerful thing you can do for RV is kill enemy apostles with yours, it reduces their religion in a city and increases yours in a city, so twice the power of a charge used. If there are 4 cities within 10 tiles that would be like expending 8 charges, and as long as your apostles survive and heal they can do this forever.

I always intended to write an RV guide, never got round to it.

 

[kaspergm]

Another tip that I learned from someone and found extremely helpful - borderline cheating:

If you want to found a religion but is worried that it may get wiped out (i.e. if your neighbor is Russia/Poland/Spain/Ethiopia/Indonesia/India (Gandhi)/...) then recruit a great prophet and then wait to found your religion until you have a lot of holy sites up and running. Here's the key to why: When you found a religion, all existing followers get wiped in any of your cities that has a holy site, and these cities immediately convert to your religion. This gives you a huge internal pressure of your religion and saves you a ton of faith.

The downside? You will likely found last and have last pick for follower beliefs. BUT, and here's another tip/cheat: There are three follower beliefs in the game that are really powerful: 1) Choral Music, 2) Feed The World, and 3) Work Ethic (ok, 4) Jesuit Education is also very useful, but anyway ...) - so, AI will always pick 1) and 2) first, so unless you are either first or second to found a religion, those beliefs will be gone anyway; and AI never pick 3) (and I'm not sure they pick 4) either - they used to, but I don't think so anymore, at least not on standard size maps). Point is, even if you wait forever to found your religion, you can always get Work Ethic, so you don't have to worry you'll be left with some trash follower belief like Religious Community or Warrior Monks.

For the record, this goes for the other belief classes as well, most notably founder beliefs, where the really hot cuts (Tithe, Cross-Cultural Dialogue, World Church, depending on your needs) will always sit untouched by the AI, while in Worship, you'll always have the juice choice of Stupas (+1 amenity) or Pagodas (+1 diplomatic favor) sitting back at the end.

 

[Victoria]

Holy orders is left and is also my go to, even if I get first pick. During an RV quantity early helps and you do not want an enemy getting 30% more apostles than you anyway (weirdly, not that they bother) What is the point in getting a few faith a turn when you get 30 extra faith for your first missionary and this soon ramps up to hundreds of faith per apostle.

 

[kaspergm]

Holy orders is left and is also my go to, even if I get first pick. During an RV quantity early helps and you do not want an enemy getting 30% more apostles than you anyway (weirdly, not that they bother) What is the point in getting a few faith a turn when you get 30 extra faith for your first missionary and this soon ramps up to hundreds of faith per apostle.

Holy Orders is good, but often I find FPT is not my main limiter, and unless I have Yerevan as early suzerain, I rarely bother to go for religious victory, and will only need a limited number of apostles, after which holy orders serves no point. I often favour either Religious Colonisation (new cities start with my religion, which can be very helpful if you found before spreading through monumentality) or Crusades, which is just a huge help in getting a bit of lebensraum.

 

[Victoria]

I rarely bother to go for religious victory,

This was a discussion about RV primarily despite the title. If you are not going to build many religious troops then sure, don’t bother with holy orders.