religion problem

[elonin]

How can i push another civ's religion out of my cities? I don't have much of a religion game though i did found one. I had used some missionaries to flip some cities but Hinjo came in with a number of units that my regular military can't attack. They also use this ?electric? attack to take out my missionaries.

 

[walkerjks]

It's been a while since I've founded a religion, but when I used to do it as a defensive mechanism to prevent AI religious victories while I was going through the science slog, I found that 3 apostles stationed in my own territory would almost always do the trick. 3 working together is much like 3 archers working together in defense - none ever get damaged enough to be under any real threat to die and you are close to your holy site for healing when needed. Plus, religious combat victories do a wonderful job of pushing out opposing religions.

 

[topsecret]

Build Apostles. Promote them. Attack enemy religious units. Use Gurus to heal them.

 

[Buktu]

Apart from fighting back with your own religions religious units you can also declare a normal war. When you are at war you can kill enemy's religous units by walking on top of them and condem them.
Another option is an inquisition. This costs a little more faith but you can use inquisitors without enemy religous units around. Once inquisitors have just one charge left you can use them to fight as well since they get a pretty nice buff in your own territory (+35 up to 105 iirc) making them nearly as strong as apostles (110) without the debater promotion.

 

[wesplaysciv]

If you want to remove existing pressure from your cities:
This is what inquisitions are designed for. Use an apostle to start an inquisition (the tool tip is a little scary, it doesn't reduce science unless you use the policy card), then you can use faith to buy inquisitors, which have 3 charges of removing 75% of outside religious pressure.

 

[playshogi]

Is the religion worth defending? Playing as Russia with the work ethic belief, I sure want my tundra cities defended, but my non-tundra cities--let them convert if they want to. I found that the AI is not terribly persistent and will often 1) pass through with their apostles and not convert anything 2) only convert 1 or 2 and move on

 

[Buktu]

If I found a religion, I try to defend it. What is the point in having one and not keeping it? Also there is more than one belief (and even WE will grant you bonusses in non tundra cities) and some of the others need followers to function, like science/cultre per 4 followers, gold per following city and so on.

 

[fiish]

If you can spare the faith, having 3 (or 4-5) apostles should be enough, even better if at least one of them has Debater and another Proselytizer (which effectively adds an inquisitor charge to each spread religion charge). If you station the apostles in your border cities, you can attack enemy religious units as they enter your territory without them being able to hit you back, or slow them down as they have to route around your cities (and thus not be able to use roads).

 

[GunsGermsandSteel]

If you found a religion you should be prepared to defend it. If you find defending it to troublesome then don't both with religion. The AI will ultimately try to convert your cities. They can be weird about it - as some people mentioned they will sometimes just bypass your cities. I wouldn't rely on that though, because they will eventually try to convert.

Apostles with debater, Theocracy Government (+5 religious combat strength), there is a policy that also gives +5 religious combat, Inquisitors are cheaper and very good at defending religion. Unless you are quite sure your religion is not under threat of mass conversion always keep apostles/inquisitors around to defend. Moshka (Religious Governor) has some major religious defensive promotions if there is a choke-point city that regularly sees religious combat. To be honest though I rarely need to use him for that.
One other thing, while Gurus can heal I use them more for out of territory healing. You can heal religious units in a holy site you control in your territory.