Religious Community

[ContraryPoke]

I'm still baffled at the change to Religious Community from the June update. Other beliefs got significant buffs while Religious Community went from bad (+1 housing for each temple or shrine) to worse (+1 gold for international trade routes for each temple or shrine in the origin city). Am I missing something here? I suppose it was done on purpose to further separate strong beliefs from weakers ones with this belief joining Zen Meditation in the basement.

 

[Myomoto]

Yea, I have to join you in utter bafflement.

Even if you're last in line to pick beliefs, there are still several other choices superior to the new version of Religious Community.

If they would change it to work like Rome's ability where you get the additional gold for each of your cities with shrine/temple the trade route passes through, I could MAYBE see it being decent by mid game. That would in my opinion also fit the name of the belief better. You're keeping the communication/trade inside of your own religious community by linking the cities with trade routes.

 

[ContraryPoke]

I like that idea. It's funny to think that if you fulfill it's conditions, it's essentially just a Caravansaries policy card. Pretty damn underwhelming.

If they do buff it, they may as well buff Zen Meditation too. That would put all the follower beliefs at a somewhat equal footing.

 

[Timberdoodle]

Overall I'm a fan of the June patch religion changes, but Religious Communities does feel pretty unpickable. I appreciate that not all beliefs can be S tier, but I just don't see how it can really be of much benefit, it could use a buff for sure.

I think a neat change for it could be that your trade routes gain stronger religious pressure, as well as the gold bonus applying to domestic trade routes. So setting up a playstyle where you focus on trade routes to spread your religion.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

No it isn't that bad.

It allows you to gain full bonus of your religion even if only 1 city believing it has a holy site, as you can gather trade routes all over your country to one city.

If you have 10+ trade routes but only 1 city with Holy Site and follows the religion, this is the strongest belief you can take.

 

[hhhhhh]

No it isn't that bad.

It allows you to gain full bonus of your religion even if only 1 city believing it has a holy site, as you can gather trade routes all over your country to one city.

If you have 10+ trade routes but only 1 city with Holy Site and follows the religion, this is the strongest belief you can take.

But this will seriously restrict where your trade route originates. So it is still bad. And even in the one HS has shrine and temple + 10 trade routes, it only gets you 20 gold which is so much worse than things like Choral Music.

 

[ContraryPoke]

No it isn't that bad.

It allows you to gain full bonus of your religion even if only 1 city believing it has a holy site, as you can gather trade routes all over your country to one city.

If you have 10+ trade routes but only 1 city with Holy Site and follows the religion, this is the strongest belief you can take.

That's a good point, but it doesn't seem worth it to invest in getting a religion if I'm just going to build a single HS the whole game. If I were to do a one city challenge, it's not a terrible idea I suppose. Although I'd probably still prefer Feed the World, Choral Music, or Work Ethic if I have good adjacency.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

But this will seriously restrict where your trade route originates. So it is still bad. And even in the one HS has shrine and temple + 10 trade routes, it only gets you 20 gold which is so much worse than things like Choral Music.

Well, base gold from trade routes can be multiplied by waters, railroads, colonial tax, kilwa ksiwani, casa de contraction and amenity bonus.

For trade routes, 1 base gold can eventually turn out to be 3~4 gold.
20 gold is not as interesting as 6 culture, but how about 60~80?

 

[monikernemo]

The other reason that it is underwhelming because you need to invest in significant amount of infrastructure (comm hubs and harbours) for the ability to work.

 

[kryat]

Well, base gold from trade routes can be multiplied by waters, railroads, colonial tax, kilwa ksiwani, casa de contraction and amenity bonus.

For trade routes, 1 base gold can eventually turn out to be 3~4 gold.
20 gold is not as interesting as 6 culture, but how about 60~80?

But that 60-80 gold requires a huge amount of effort to get to, while choral music could be empire wide. Sure comparing 60-80 gold to 6 culture is an obvious choice, but that’s the max amount of gold you’d ever get out of it. Compare that to 60 culture if you spread choral music to 10 cities.

 

[tedhebert]

I get what @Lily_Lancer is saying, but it still feels like a one trick poney to use in a OCC though. But I will keep it in mind, I was thinking of trying out a OCC lately

 

[ContraryPoke]

I get what @Lily_Lancer is saying, but it still feels like a one trick poney to use in a OCC though. But I will keep it in mind, I was thinking of trying out a OCC lately

On second thought, I realized you're not going to get much more than 1 trade route in a OCC. So it's still really weak, even in that situation.

I think the basis for @Lily_Lancer 's defense of RC is that you could build only 1 HS the whole game and reap its full benefit. It's a little long term financial boost for founding a religion, and then you can ignore religion for the rest of the game aside from defending that city or maybe spreading to more cities for founder belief benefits.

Still not worth founding a religion for this IMO, but that's what I'd do if I were forced to take it. The only possibility I see of this happening if I were the last to pick a religion on a huge map.

 

[hhhhhh]

In OCC with the help of Oracle (Great Merchants and Admirals) and Wonders (Colossus and Great Zimbabwe for example) you normally get 5 trade routes, 4-6 is the norm.

 

[fantsu]

International trade routes are really useful. Always go for them, best stuff. Housing... meh.

 

[leandrombraz]

It seems useful in a diplomatic victory, where you want a religion to build the Mahabodhi Temple, but you don't want to invest on faith any further than that.

 

[AntSou]

I think I'd rather take 2 culture in the early game over 60 gold mid game.

 

[montalaar]

Well, base gold from trade routes can be multiplied by waters, railroads, colonial tax, kilwa ksiwani, casa de contraction and amenity bonus.

For trade routes, 1 base gold can eventually turn out to be 3~4 gold.
20 gold is not as interesting as 6 culture, but how about 60~80?

or kill 2 barb camps for 100g. sure, good pantheon.

 

[Pietato]

Often the destination city is what determines the best trade routes, which means stacking all your trade routes in one city can be detrimental.

 

[Lord Lakely]

Lol, I totally disagree that it's a good belief in any context. Maybe for OOC but like.. would you found a religion in a OOC???

Besides, having as many origin cities as possible is what brings in Food and Production and really helps you kickstart your midgame cities. If you don't make enough gold don't fret that's what Triangular Trade is for (and Religious Community is basically a REALLY crappy version TriTrade)

 

[Kwami]

or kill 2 barb camps for 100g. sure, good pantheon.

Lily's numbers were per turn, of course. Are you killing 2 barbarian camps per turn?

Even so, it's a weak belief.