Religion

[KazumaQB]

I keep reading on the forums about how good religion is, but I have a real hard time spreading my state religion and keeping the neighbouring civilizations happy. At times, the game becomes such that I am the only one having that state religion and it forces me (in the name of peace) to convert to a state religion in which I don't have a holy city in.

Can someone please give me a few pointers? Should I be building missionaries? When is a good time to spread religion?

 

[Rustypipe]

Hey,

Your best bet is to get one of the early relgions if you want to spread it throught the world becuase its easy that way or less work if you where to try it with one of the later ones.

The best and easyest way is this. Race to one of the early reglions or try and snag all 3 early reglions giving you time to conver the rest of AI over while they run up the tech tree trying to get a later one.

Once you have a reglion and its the primary one in your state get a road built with open boards to your neighbors and it will spread like wild fire. Also build lots of missionaries and spread it to all your cities then to the AI's, sometimes you will go through a few missoinaries untill the comp coverts, but it works.

Also if you want almost a perment friend as an ally with on of the AI's rush the early relgions and try to get it spread to one of the comps captials before they found a relgion. In most of the games I did this they never turned one me and did most of what I asked of them

hope this helps.

 

[stagnate]

It depends what religion you have; later religions are going to be harder to spread. However, you want to first hit civs that do not have a state religion. If you get a single city with a religion they'll switch, and any other religions will have a hard time converting them. Start building missionaries as soon as you have a chance at open borders, one per civ that doesn't have a state religion.

I haven't really gone beyond that, but if you have a neighbor that you want to remain peaceful with that has a different state religion (but NOT a holy city) try to hit every city. Missionaries are fairly cheap so mix them in with unit builds.

Also not that a shrine and temples will help spread your religion, and that your religion will not spread to someone that you don't have open borders with (IIRC). Even if you can't get a missionary, having a temple and open borders gives you a good chance.

I've lately been trying some heavy religion starts, and managed to get hindu and judaism(sp?) even without Mysticism; you take a hit on the military and dev side but limiting the number of other state religions out there helps a lot with happiness.

Also, it is good to focus on a few civs that will be your allies. Try to get ones in the middle of the pack, and well placed (can help you in wars, but not so close that borders will piss them off). Getting religion to the guy across the continent is good, but not nearly important as a nearby neighbor.

 

[Vosje]

A good time is as soon as possible from my experience. It spreads a whole lot easier if civilizations don't follow a faith yet. Some civilizations also switch to Theocracy at some point later in the game, which means that you can no longer use missionairs to spread religion into their cities.

Be sure to make trade routes between your cities and it shouldn't require you to spend your missionaires on it to let them convert. This'll also work to an extend if you trade with foreign nations. Though I usually just open borders and dump a missionair right in their capital and watch it spread out to all their cities over time.


I'm not very experienced with the game yet though, so I'm hoping someone else can give you (and me) some better pointers.

 

[KazumaQB]

A temple helps you spread religion? I never read anything like that in the description.

I was reading in the forums that even after you learn an early religion, you don't convert that to your state religion right away. Why is that?

 

[ombak]

I keep reading on the forums about how good religion is, but I have a real hard time spreading my state religion and keeping the neighbouring civilizations happy. At times, the game becomes such that I am the only one having that state religion and it forces me (in the name of peace) to convert to a state religion in which I don't have a holy city in.

Can someone please give me a few pointers? Should I be building missionaries? When is a good time to spread religion?

Don't worry too much if you feel like you need to convert. Money from shrines comes in regardless. Each shrine takes gold from each city that practices that shrines religion regardless of whether it is your state religion or anyone else's.

So, let's say you have a shrine to Buddhism but convert to Hinduism. Your shrine is still collecting gold from every city on the globe that practices Buddhism. You can also continue to spread Buddhism, and, who knows, if you are succesful enough end up switching back.

 

[TheDervish]

Don't worry too much if you feel like you need to convert. Money from shrines comes in regardless. Each shrine takes gold from each city that practices that shrines religion regardless of whether it is your state religion or anyone else's.

Although, if you really needed the money, you could switch to theocracy and build a lot of state religion money collector buildings

 

[hahntsak]

go found any religion you can as early as you can.

you can spread by temples, cathedrals, and with missionaries in your realm. outside your nation, you can rely on the effect of temples and cathedrals or be aggressive and use missionaries like in real life. the only defence they have is theocracy but only if they already have a different faith and use theocracy at that time.

however if you really want to convert - you can.
if you get feudalism, and build barracks in each city and all cities contain your state religion: +8 xp points upon being built land units. build lots of missionaries. invade, and upon taking a city convert it to your state religion with missionaries. then build the appropriate buildings [ monaster, temple, and barracks] before making new units in conquered city that is now also your faith. it's called conversion by the sword. theocracy prevents peaceful spreading but unless they build the units, it doesn't protect them from military attack by another theocracy.
if you build the pentagon later, you get another +2xp in all cities. those add up.


hope this helps.