Religion Thread

[bloodysmurf]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to hear some feedback from the board's denizens on what your preferred religion paths. A few issues that I'm particularly interested in:

(1) Do you tend to go for Monarchy right away? I often research straight to Monarchy and fill in the other gaps with trade, but this can sometimes put me at a military disadvantage early on...

(2) What path do you choose if you are engaged in a lot of warfare? I've encountered serious problems with war weariness, but I'm not too found of Communism because of the corruption and the inability to rush with money. Perhaps I should consider flipping between the two if I have a religious civ (i.e. reduced Anarchy)?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts...

ollie

 

[WOPR]

Generally, I go for "strategic resources" techs right away -- Iron Working (iron, obviously) and The Wheel (horses). I've had games where doing so allowed me prevent various rivals from obtaining iron. This makes them easy prey.

The only exception would be an "I'm stuck on a small island" game, in which case I have little choice but to make a beeline for Map Making.

After that's taken care of, Monarchy, certainly.

As for warfare, I played my first successful game as the Persians. Won by U.N. victory (ironically, since I was quite the warmonger), but had serious anarchy problems later in the game. I've played as a Religious civilization since.

My answer to the war weariness problem: Play a Religious civ. In a Democracy you typically get a few "bonus turns" before war weariness sets in. After those bonus turns, switch to Monarchy/Communism, win the war, then switch back to Democracy once you're pretty sure you can enter a period of peace. As for rush building, take your pick -- money-rushing for Monarchy, pop-rushing for Communism.

Good luck!

 

[Jimmicus]

1) I typically take a very non-religious path in my games. I don't find religious civs to be essential, although they are very handy! I normally spend most or all of the BC and up to 500AD as despot. During this time, two of my cities are on pop rush and I build swordsmen or equally good units like crazy to conquer the nearest civ or civs. I also do 'tech trading' strat, upping the tax rate to buy techs from the AI. Once I've bought Republic I go to that, and basically stop warring until I have cavalry. This has the added bonus of creating 1 or 2 leaders for the good old forbidden palace and others.

2) The above strategy generally puts you in a good enough position with luxuries and income to push ahead on tech. This means that I can fight wars with better units than my opponents and can win quickly. You believe you have a twenty turn grace period before serious unrest appears in repub/democ, I find this enough time to win most wars and negotiate a favourable peace. Thus I don't bother changing goverments in most wars.

This strategy works on medium & large, continental maps at Monarch level. I'm too chicken to go higher!

 

[American Prez]

I usually go Literacy so I can build the Great Library. That gets me half way to Republic. I started out going for Monarchy but learned quickly that it wasn't the best strategy. Try going for Republic, it works.

 

[Aesop68]

Aye... I go the same tech route as American Prez does by ensuring I select a Religious Civ. I've been extremely successful playing the Indians or Egyptians on the Emperor Level on a large, continental map using 12 total civs.

I always try to obtain the tech of Horeback Riding for the purposes Jimmicus stated. As the Indians, I hold off all comers until I obtain my feared War Elephants which basically ensures my stranglehold on keeping the hostile warring civs away. Republic all the way---at least until you bet Democracy .

 

[Sarcastro]

I agree about skipping Monarchy. Maybe it's just my style of play, but it seems like the trade increase from Monarchy is pretty much balanced out by the support hit, whereas in Republic the trade increase far outweighs the support cost. So the only advantage of Monarchy is being able to spend money instead of lives to rush, but you don't make the money necessary to do that in the first place.

 

[Dralix]

Don't you find that it takes too long to get to Republic? Maybe I'm still clinging to old notions from Civ 2, where the maximum trade you could allocate to science was based on government type. I just have this desire to get out of Despotism as soon as possible, and Monarchy is the quickest way.

Anyway, I just started a game last night, and I'm going straight to Republic. I'll see how I like it

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

I usually don't worry about switching out of despotism until my core cities are all at 8 or higher population. I make sure the core cities also have markets and libraries in addition to the normal happiness buildings. This sets you up properly IMHO for changing governments.

Having the core cities (meaning the ones that are near the capitol) firmly established money making and science wise before switching to republic is key. If you switch to republic too early you may actually be losing money instead of devoting most of it to research. Hence the proper city setups.

With monarchy you can pretty much switch to it anytime but again to maximize the benefits of the switch you want to set up properly first.

While I'm still in despot I can rely heavily on pop rushing to build temples, courthouses, military units in the outlying cities before switching govts.

For me the switch to republic/monarchy depends on the current game situation. If I see that I share a continent with 2 other powers and I need room to grow then monarchy is it. No war weariness there.

However if my empire is at a good size and everyone is playing nicely then clearly republic is the way to go. Even if you plan on warring later just make sure you get a couple of happiness wonders (sistine chapel, suffrage, etc.) so that war weariness won't be too much of a big deal. You can also adjust your T.S.L rates as well.