Religion

[kkapalk]

I would like a couple of pointers from you guys if possible. I am keen on getting a religion in my games, and like to see it prosper. A few times I have experienced a battle between the AI and myself religion wise, obviously with our close cities. One of my cities will for instance have my religion but will be slowly getting chipped away by pressure from another one. My question is, what is the best policy to strengthen my religion and get rid pressure from others? Is it missionaries, inquisitors or is it best to wait for a Great Prophet? I usually obtain religious texts which helps a lot, but just want a pointer as to which religious unit to use to stem enemy pressure. I usually use a combination of said units but am sure there is a more in-depth strategy to use.
Thanks,
Kev

 

[King_Course]

The pressure comes from having several cities all applying pressure. So this means it's actually the early race that determines who will have the upper hand. It can therefore be a good idea to get a missionary out quickly. He can turn 2 cities (chose big ones close by, usually your second city and elligible Citystates). This will start the snowball effect for you and help your Religion Dominate.


It's a choice if you should go for missionary or enhance your religion. If someone close by also has made a religion, a missionary may be the best option. If you got high faith income and no closeby threats, enhancing and taking a more efficient religion spread might be the best option.

If you are on the receiving end, where the other religion is dominating you with pressure, a Great Prophet is basically the only option.

 

[kkapalk]

Thanks king Course, very helpful. I honestly never thought of buying a missionary as opposed to waiting for the enhancement. I always have saved my faith for enhancing. I wasn't too clear in my first post. The sitiations I am talking about are usually when I have an established religion (enhanced) and gradually find myself next to an AI border, where the religion clashes begin. I realise a Great Prophet is ideal for combatting enemy religion, I just thought waiting to obtain one meant the enemy religion would set in further. I am gonna try one in my next game, rather than use my faith on missionaries and inquisitors.
Kev

 

[Ryoga]

Spreading your religion before the enhancement is situational and it's a bit of a gamble, postponing the enhancement of you religion might pay off but it can also backfire.

From one side it ensures an early dominance on the area, and therefore you might want to do so if you think your neighbor is going to be a problem, however at the same time you want to get "religious texts" and you don't want your enemy to get it. "Itinerant preachers" is the second best choice and it's almost comparable in strength.

That being said if your neighbor founded its religion before you, he will most likely enhance it first, so at that point it's not a bad idea to counter that by converting already a few cities.

Also if you think you can get a free prophet through a liberty finisher, hagia sophia or mayan long count, then you can use your faith for an early proselytizing.

 

[sendos]

In my current game, I managed to get my religion to spread quite fast without using missionaries. It is all a matter of founding your religion ASAP. Stonehenge is useful for this. If this is successful, aim for Just War in enhancer.

 

[kkapalk]

Thanks for the replies guys. Killbray, if you had an established religion and during the course of the game found yourself expanding next to an AI where the religion of yourself and the AI was fairly equal pressure wise, some of each in close cities, would you use faith for missionaries, inquisitors or wait for a Great Prophet?

 

[Miravlix]

Itinerant Preacher is actually stronger than religious texts, until you get the mid game tech that buff religious texts. After that it's a lot harder to say what is stronger.

RT is kinda useless if the city you want to effect is 11 tiles away, where IP would effect it.

I find that the 13 tile range of IT is more effective for most players, unless your game style is close to The Iroquois that places cities so close together that RT has an advantage.

I always go with IP because being in range and that it simply is much stronger in the early game is more important.

Only with Byz do I get RT, because Byz can get both.

 

[Ryoga]

Thanks for the replies guys. Killbray, if you had an established religion and during the course of the game found yourself expanding next to an AI where the religion of yourself and the AI was fairly equal pressure wise, some of each in close cities, would you use faith for missionaries, inquisitors or wait for a Great Prophet?

Depends. You should look at the cost of the prophet and the age you are in.
Missionaries' and inquisitors' costs increase whenever you reach a new era
Prophet's costs increase the more you spent faith to buy prophets.

This means that you can potentially find yourself in the situation where a missionary costs 800 faith and a prophet costs 900.

Consider that prophets are more powerful than 2 missionaries but also consider that you don't want to take prophets too early. You'd want to take advantage of the lower cost of missionaries when they are still cheap.

If a city isn't religious or has just a few followers you can use missionaries. If you want to convert a major city with 20ish followers then a prophet is better.

I personally build an inquisitor only in the following 2 cases:

1) My neighbor is aggressively trying to convert me.
2) I conquered a city with more than 10 followers of another religion or an holy city and I want to convert them in one go.

Itinerant Preacher is actually stronger than religious texts, until you get the mid game tech that buff religious texts. After that it's a lot harder to say what is stronger.

I've made several tests, including playing hot seat with myself taking IP with one civ and RT with the other.

According to my findings when cities are closely packed together the two beliefs are almost equal before printing press.

It is true that IP influences cities further away, but a 12 influence does nothing if that city has +48 from its main religion.

Meanwhile with printing press you might not have influence at all with that city further away, but you'll have stronger pressure on the closest city so you'll have better chances at converting it and faster. Once converted then you'll still reach that city further away but with stronger pressure.

In other words a focused conversion on closest cities is better than a weaker conversion on a larger area.


There are however exceptions to this rule, and that is the case with sea based maps, where you might not have closest cities at all and therefore it's better to spread your religion further away than not affecting anything at all.