Religious domination

[spiceant]

map:
-huge (thats what you need when you want to manipulate on a significant scale)
-lake planet, low sea level
-playing as spain (random)
-quick speed (okay it isnt really scaled right compared to planet size)
-difficulty: prince

I'v just played a game through to where india (as usual ) won a space victory over me (with me scoring about 2/3 of his score).
i tried to do it diplomatically with the few believers i had left (best votes was 80% of needed)
i started out the game trying to spread my religion madly (and thinning out the forest a litle bit, for the pyramids), with in mind that i would be the world's state, while i was (mostly in the beginning) succesfull in manipulating whom fought whom (and they didnt fight me , as i was half the world diplomatically).
i was incapable of converting the last civilizations i wanted to convert, to begin with they founded their own superstition, becoming imminent danger to my missionarys as their borders were closed cry, desperating i just continue to build up (and make a shrine of +1 per <budhism> city.
i intended to run a 'holy crusade' against 1-2 opponents, dragging everyone through the mud (but myself) against one or two opposing states (one religion) in order to let myself build up in peace.

until after christianity (came around and converted russia and india, effectively uniting them) i managed to convert just about 60% of the people to my bhudism. now when i got some of my buddys to attack the scoreboard leader of that time it didnt really appear to cause any true massacres- other then a few border towns being burned.

my problems:
-getting civs to completely exterminate another without help of one of my units (generating hate inbetween civs)
-spreading- and embedding my religion as cost efficiently as possible
-managing diplomatic situations (so people believe their leading state of religion is trustworthy) so people go and do as i want
-becoming friendly with a bordering opposing religion state (eventually one with -1 <you didnt convert to us or some other *****d reason>
-finding them before they found their own superstition (prolly doesnt work against all civs on huge map)
-upping relations without religion/resource trading
-exterminating religions (or disabling them to the point where they are no threat)
-getting friendlys to <GIVE> me stuff
-giving my buddys something to gain from going to war with someone (so the declare war option becomes available)

i did do:
-scout around the world with scouts and chariots (warrior/beast immunity)
-send atleast 1 bhuddists to capitols and semi-capitols (succesfully converting many neighbouring civs) by boat or by land (depending on the availability of a anti barb escort/water route)
-synergize my +1 per bhudism religion city (banks/grocerys/markets/etc)
-trade excess resources for other resources (i didnt have many)

it may not perfectly fit in here, but i researched all techs that say enables perm alliances, i had friendly with some fokes and i didnt have an alliance option anywhere, how do i get this one to work?

 

[spiceant]

can someone help me out ith my problems?

 

[Elerion]

As far as I can tell, religion does not spread automatically to cities with existing religions. As such, the key is to spread your religion to multiple cities in your opponents' lands before they can found their own. If all of their cities belong to your religion by the time they found their own, they rarely switch. I usually send one missionary to their capital, and one to the city furthest from me. Remember to connect trade routes to their border cities as well.

Convert all neighbours asap. It takes a lot more for someone to switch religion if their neighbours all belong to yours. They will be economically stunted due to lack of trades and possible wars.

Block other religions. If neighbour 1 has founded buddhism and spread it to a border city in neighbour 2's land, move your hindu missionary to the next city along the road in neighbour 2's land. If that city is converted to hinduism first, it won't become buddhist, and the cities behind that are more likely to convert to hinduism. If neighbour 2 discovers that 3 of his cities have become hindu while only one is buddhist, he will almost always convert.

Don't waste your time on civilizations with prefounded religions. If a civ has founded a religion and converted nearly all their towns before you can get a missionary there, don't waste your time trying to convert them, it will be nearly impossible. Convert their neighbours instead, and watch as they get left behind in the dirt because of the poor relations.

Convert your own coastal cities asap. Religion spreads quickly on water.

 

[spiceant]

i also have problems with converting people across the globe, through neutral zones jungle and no water, before they convert to superstition. (picking a slower game speed'll probably help.)

also when i found my buddy religion in someones capitol can i safely preassume he wont fall for superstition atleast untill i have more time to divert to him? (so i can instead of wasting 2 missionarys on one civ use one to settle down and the other to move on to the next)
in the (poorly) described game my closest neighbour was across a litle water, which with a forest-rushed galley didnt pose much trouble (after which the water became a missionary highway).

one other litle problem was when i signed defensive pacts with my friendlys some of my other friends (buddy religion) showed a -1 (defensive pact with rival) even though they were catious or better with them, effectively giving me barely not enough good opinion to also sign a defensive pact with them.

also i DID build and research trading routes over land and the few watery lakes. altough this took a while over land because my workers needed escorts, escorts already occupied with defending my territory.

in wanting to whipe out superstition i do not want to (always) declare war on someone, but instead get war declared on me (so i get defensive pact help) so that i dont get <you declared war on ouer friend> relations but rather just the <you are at war with ouer friend> which will subside after peace declarations.