Religion, what does it do?

[Forcystus]

I understand religion makes people happy/grants culture.
Does it do anything else or is that it?

 

[Mylon]

If you get the holy city, it also gives you line of sight (pre-BTS), the shrine gives you money, (+1 per city with the religion, an excellent way to get the economy moving), and post-BTS instead of LOS it grants a discount on espionage.

 

[zeolite]

Having the same religion as an AI player will cause them to be more friendly towards you. Conversely, leaders such as Isabella become very unfriendly if you "fall under the sway of a heathen religion".

 

[gdgrimm]

I understand religion makes people happy/grants culture.
Does it do anything else or is that it?

Oh, it does far, far more than that. Well, not 'much more' than that', but it does that soooooo well that it's pretty incredible.

Religion in a city gets you 1 happy and 1 culture as long as it's your State Religion or you have NO State Religion. Late game, with Free Religion, it'll generate another happy.

Having the religion will allow you to build Temples (with the right Tech) which generate an additional 1 happy and 1 culture. Also Monastaries (with the right Tech) which generate 2 culture and +10% research. And with enough Temples built (and the right Tech) you can build the Cathedral level buildings with generate +50% culture, +1 Happiness with Insence, and (if it's the State Religion) another +2 Happiness.

The State Religion in a city coupled with Organized Religion gives a +25% production boost to all buildings and Wonders. It's about as good as a Forge, and it can be gotten earlier than Metal Casting.

The State Religion in a city coupled with Theocracy will give +2 experience to all military units built there. That generally means an additional promotion to newly built units.

So let's see.... That makes an early and mid game potential of +4 or +5 Happy, +4 culture with a +50% multiplier on top, +10% research, and (+25% production or a combat promotion ).

And that's for a general city. Holy Cities and Shrines generate benefits on top of that. Needless to say, religion is quite powerful.

The only downside is that to get the maximum benefit, you have to name a State Religion, which will upset all the civs who have a State Religion different than yours.

With NO State Religion, the best you can get is +2 or +3 Happy, +4 culture with a +50% multiplier on top, and +10% research. That's still very good.

Having a religion that is not your State Religion, you can still get +1 or +2 Happy, +3 culture with a +50% multiplier on top, and a +10% research. Even that's quite good.

 

[Forcystus]

I always knew religion was good, I just wasn't quite of all the possibilities, I don't have all but one holy city in my game now do I?

 

[T'hain Esh Kelc]

I can recommend buildiing missionaries and sending them to your own cities as quickly as possible. That +25% building production or +2 exp points is worth a lot. I usually wait until my capital can produce them in 2-3 turns on normal speed.

 

[Civfan333]

two words. BUILD MISSIONARIES If you spread your religion a lot, you get a LOT of money. Especially if you've built the holy shrine of that religion

 

[liandy]

How do you build the holy shrine?

 

[Walliard]

two words. BUILD MISSIONARIES If you spread your religion a lot, you get a LOT of money. Especially if you've built the holy shrine of that religion

Only if you've built the shrine, actually.

How do you build the holy shrine?

Send a Great Prophet to the religion's holy city, and it will be one of the options available.