Religion Problem

[banana man]

Can someone help me out with Religion. I usually forget all about it at the start and then realise too long into the game that i should have picked one already and be using the religion civics. Sometimes it wont let me choose a religion though and i dont know why. What do i have to do before i can select my religion?

Thanks

 

[michmbk]

You have to have a religion spread to one of your cities (or have founded one), I believe, to be able to adopt it.

Be careful to think about the diplo impact of adopting a religion. If Boudica is your neighbor on one side, and gandhi on the other in different religions, most likely it's better to adopt Boudica's religion - get her to pleased and you're unlikely to face war on either side.

 

[Silu]

You have to have a religion spread to one of your cities (or have founded one), I believe, to be able to adopt it.

An exception to this is if a foreign Civ demands you to adopt their state religion - then you can do it even if you don't have it in any of your cities.

 

[banana man]

Ok, that clears it up. Thanks

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

An exception to this is if a foreign Civ demands you to adopt their state religion - then you can do it even if you don't have it in any of your cities.

A foreign civ can only demand you to adopt their religion if that religion is present in at least one of your cities. If you're Hindu and Saladin is Buddhist, he won't be able to ask you to convert unless one of your cities has Buddhism. Otherwise it would be just crazy. Mansa Musa founds Islam in the middle of the game. No one has that religion, but it's Mansa's favorite religion. He converts and pay everybody to convert with him. That way you'd have a lot of Islamic countries with no Islamic citizens. Run a test: contact an AI with a different religion who doesn't have your state religion anywhere. See if the option of converting appears...

 

[CIV-RAZOR]

I one of these people that just wont settle for anything other than christian religion, however theres several problems with trying to maintain a civilization that adheres to only this religion...

but heres the method to achieving it:

1) from the outset aim to get thelogy as quick as possible, by doing so you will be the first to research christianty and also activate a civic that locks all other religions from spreading to your civilization.

2) at certain points you have to wait for another civ to get other techs that would found a unwanted religion first to prevent you from founding it...

3) The main problem is trying to do that fast enough to avoid some other civs religion spreading to your civilization first.

the benefits if you can pull this off is that no other religion can spread into your civilization unless you take control of another civs city via culture or battle. which is why i always raise the citys. by preventing the spread of other religions they dont have the benefit of spying on your citys via religion status.

of course you can do this, with any other religion, however you cant lock the spread until thelogy..

but if you do manage to lock them all out you can spread your religion via priests, and spy on them, without releasing your religion to the ai, etc... however a drawback to this is you cant alter the religion civics at any point from theolgy.

if somone does manage to spread a porporation of their religon by locking into your choosen state religion you will prevent any further spread of the enemy, but they will maintain the spying ability of any already achieved

 

[Silu]

A foreign civ can only demand you to adopt their religion if that religion is present in at least one of your cities. If you're Hindu and Saladin is Buddhist, he won't be able to ask you to convert unless one of your cities has Buddhism. Otherwise it would be just crazy. Mansa Musa founds Islam in the middle of the game. No one has that religion, but it's Mansa's favorite religion. He converts and pay everybody to convert with him. That way you'd have a lot of Islamic countries with no Islamic citizens. Run a test: contact an AI with a different religion who doesn't have your state religion anywhere. See if the option of converting appears...

No no. They can demand you to adopt their state religion even if you don't have it. In many games I've been dying to adopt some religion, but no one would spread it to me. It's a huge windfall when sometimes someone demands you to adopt it. I don't know if this can happen if you have a state religion, but for sure it can happen if you don't have one. Might not make a lot of sense, but so doesn't a lot of other things in this game from a realism perspective.

AI demanding and your own diplo options don't share common mechanics.

 

[Silu]

I one of these people that just wont settle for anything other than christian religion, however theres several problems with trying to maintain a civilization that adheres to only this religion...

but heres the method to achieving it:

1) from the outset aim to get thelogy as quick as possible, by doing so you will be the first to research christianty and also activate a civic that locks all other religions from spreading to your civilization.

2) at certain points you have to wait for another civ to get other techs that would found a unwanted religion first to prevent you from founding it...

3) The main problem is trying to do that fast enough to avoid some other civs religion spreading to your civilization first.

the benefits if you can pull this off is that no other religion can spread into your civilization unless you take control of another civs city via culture or battle. which is why i always raise the citys. by preventing the spread of other religions they dont have the benefit of spying on your citys via religion status.

of course you can do this, with any other religion, however you cant lock the spread until thelogy..

but if you do manage to lock them all out you can spread your religion via priests, and spy on them, without releasing your religion to the ai, etc... however a drawback to this is you cant alter the religion civics at any point from theolgy.

if somone does manage to spread a porporation of their religon by locking into your choosen state religion you will prevent any further spread of the enemy, but they will maintain the spying ability of any already achieved

Sounds like a surefire and efficient way to get the whole world to hate you as a heathen

As someone is sure to point out also, random events can spread a foreign religion to you even when in Theocracy. Can be pretty annoying if this leads to diplomatic lose by AP.

 

[JujuLautre]

No no. They can demand you to adopt their state religion even if you don't have it. In many games I've been dying to adopt some religion, but no one would spread it to me. It's a huge windfall when sometimes someone demands you to adopt it. I don't know if this can happen if you have a state religion, but for sure it can happen if you don't have one. Might not make a lot of sense, but so doesn't a lot of other things in this game from a realism perspective.

Honestly, I'm with Ignorant Teacher on that one. If you have a save where an AI asks you to adopt a religion when you don't have it in any city I'd like to see it. I'm quite sure it's impossible though.

 

[Sian]

@CIV-RAZOR

why gimp yourself by saying that would have to follow a specific religion (which on top of it sits in a somewhat inconvinient spot in the tech tree ... divine right is the only more inconveniently placed tech IMO) ... different religions have nothing differnent between each other ... all religions does completely the same thing and could honestly just as well have been called Relgion A, Religion B, Religion C etc ... futhermore ... theres nothing bad at all about having other religions in your cities (short of prehaps irregular demands for swapping State religion, which is fairly rare)

the bonus the AI gets from spying by state relgion is next to irrelevent, and the least in Theology (you could even argue that it's a bad thing since you are worse at cultural victories without several religions)

 

[Continental Op]

I one of these people that just wont settle for anything other than christian religion, however theres several problems with trying to maintain a civilization that adheres to only this religion...

but heres the method to achieving it:

1) from the outset aim to get thelogy as quick as possible, by doing so you will be the first to research christianty and also activate a civic that locks all other religions from spreading to your civilization.

2) at certain points you have to wait for another civ to get other techs that would found a unwanted religion first to prevent you from founding it...

3) The main problem is trying to do that fast enough to avoid some other civs religion spreading to your civilization first.

the benefits if you can pull this off is that no other religion can spread into your civilization unless you take control of another civs city via culture or battle. which is why i always raise the citys. by preventing the spread of other religions they dont have the benefit of spying on your citys via religion status.

of course you can do this, with any other religion, however you cant lock the spread until thelogy..

but if you do manage to lock them all out you can spread your religion via priests, and spy on them, without releasing your religion to the ai, etc... however a drawback to this is you cant alter the religion civics at any point from theolgy.

if somone does manage to spread a porporation of their religon by locking into your choosen state religion you will prevent any further spread of the enemy, but they will maintain the spying ability of any already achieved

I don't get this one either. Sounds more like a role play challenge than a strategy to me. Not that there is anything wrong with roleplaying if you want to challenge yourself in your comfort level, but I wouldn't be trying this when trying to move up a level.

 

[Willem]

I one of these people that just wont settle for anything other than christian religion, however theres several problems with trying to maintain a civilization that adheres to only this religion...

but heres the method to achieving it:

1) from the outset aim to get thelogy as quick as possible, by doing so you will be the first to research christianty and also activate a civic that locks all other religions from spreading to your civilization.

2) at certain points you have to wait for another civ to get other techs that would found a unwanted religion first to prevent you from founding it...

3) The main problem is trying to do that fast enough to avoid some other civs religion spreading to your civilization first.

the benefits if you can pull this off is that no other religion can spread into your civilization unless you take control of another civs city via culture or battle. which is why i always raise the citys. by preventing the spread of other religions they dont have the benefit of spying on your citys via religion status.

PS: Not having foreign religions spreading is meant to be a penalty, not a bonus. The benefit of Theocracy is the extra XP points that you get for units, with a Barracks you can start your units out as level 2. Plus if you use the Free Religion civic, you get the happiness bonus for all religions that are present in a city, not just the one you're running as your state religion. So you're limiting the advantages of that civic with your approach. Not to mention severely limiting your options by always going down the same tech path. You want to stay flexible in this game, sticking with one set strategy each time is going to cost you some games.

of course you can do this, with any other religion, however you cant lock the spread until thelogy..

but if you do manage to lock them all out you can spread your religion via priests, and spy on them, without releasing your religion to the ai, etc... however a drawback to this is you cant alter the religion civics at any point from theolgy.

if somone does manage to spread a porporation of their religon by locking into your choosen state religion you will prevent any further spread of the enemy, but they will maintain the spying ability of any already achieved

So I'll chime in here as well to say that this is a really bad approach. There's absolutely nothing wrong to having multiple relgions, in fact you benefit from them. It means that you can now build 2 Temples, and other religious buildings, instead of one and make your citizens that much happier. Plus improve your culture. And spying really isn't that much of a factor as of BtS. That's all handled by espionage, not religion. Having your religion in a foreign city only gives you a minor bonus to the espionage points you need.

 

[Lone Wolf]

CIV-RAZOR,

Turn "Choose Religions" option on.

 

[wades]

@CIV-RAZOR

why gimp yourself by saying that would have to follow a specific religion (which on top of it sits in a somewhat inconvinient spot in the tech tree ... divine right is the only more inconveniently placed tech IMO) ... different religions have nothing differnent between each other ... all religions does completely the same thing and could honestly just as well have been called Relgion A, Religion B, Religion C etc ... futhermore ... theres nothing bad at all about having other religions in your cities (short of prehaps irregular demands for swapping State religion, which is fairly rare)

the bonus the AI gets from spying by state relgion is next to irrelevent, and the least in Theology (you could even argue that it's a bad thing since you are worse at cultural victories without several religions)

I'm guessing that @CIV-RAZOR is a Christian in real life, and is uncomfortable with the notion of being in charge of a society that is called something other than "Christian."

 

[mechaerik]

I'll usually end up with Confucianism through the Oracle-Code of Laws thing. In choose religions, I'll generally first pick Christianity, then Islam, then if both are gone, whichever one has the cooler icon (usually Taoism or Judaism).


I actually find Theology quite useful (Theocracy).


Also there is a way to spread your religion to an AI in Theocracy (a little exploitive, but whatever). As long as you have open borders, move a missionary into their territory and gift them the missionary. They'll spread it themselves.

 

[Silu]

Honestly, I'm with Ignorant Teacher on that one. If you have a save where an AI asks you to adopt a religion when you don't have it in any city I'd like to see it. I'm quite sure it's impossible though.

Well I finally realized why I was so sure this can happen - in team games if your ally has it but you don't, it can happen. You can see an example here, I have refused to accept a state religion even though none of my 3 glorious cities have any religions:

 

[Bushface]

Why not get what religions you can but don't adopt a state religion until you have Christianity available ?

 

[dirtyparrot]

Why not get what religions you can but don't adopt a state religion until you have Christianity available ?

Nothing wrong with getting other religions, but not adopting one. Just make sure that you have OB to get religions spread to you. I have found that if they found a religion, they like to spam missionaries, which is better than them building an army (and hence easier to rush if that's what you choose to do). But, all of this is highly situational. For example if you share borders with 2 different warmongers who have different religions, I would go without a state religion until I decided who I wanted to take out first. In that case, you are liable to become one of their worst enemies, which is likely to significantly increase the probability of being DOWed on.

 

[whitelaughter]

Why not get what religions you can but don't adopt a state religion until you have Christianity available ?

[nods] I like "No State Religion" early on for the extra culture bonus - those extra squares doubles the usefulness of outlying cities when grabbing resources.

When religions really matter is when you've got the Spiritual Trait - casually changing religions for diplomacy bonuses, or for building, or leaving units in the build queue and then flip to theocracy at the last minute and have them popping out one a turn.