Religious Victory - What am I missing?

[kumquatelvis]

I've tried in the past to get a religious victory, to no avail. I spread my beliefs to every city on every continent, purged all of the heathens from my territory, and still never really got above 60-something percent. I'd even tried burning down holy cities, in the hope that it would take the respective religion out of the running, to no avail.

I finally decided that in my most recent game I would achieve this victory no matter what (even if it meant going to war, something I hate to do). So after spreading my religion as far as it would go I proceeded to conquer ever civilization that wouldn't convert. Doing this still only put me at 70%, and I couldn't convince the others to switch to Theology (I had hoped that they would make use of their inquisitors, but I guess not). So then I had to start conquering the civs that shared my religion. I finally managed to make 80%, but by this point I was in danger of getting the conquest victory instead. So my question is, what makes the religion victory different than conquest, other than making certain your conquering army has an inquisitor with it? Either way it seems that you still must conquer most of the world. I feel like either I'm missing something, or the game is.

This was on Emperor as the Elohim, in case it makes a difference.

 

[jwin]

You can use your inquisitors in other civ's cities if you have open borders with them. The only catch is that it will leave their state religion, not your so you need to make sure they convert. You can have religion switching as part of the surrender terms. Once they switch, they will usually be friendly to you (same religion, patriarch, and likely same alignment), get open borders and quickly run your inquisitors in. If you don't remove all the old religion, they will probably switch back after 10 turns.

 

[kumquatelvis]

I did not know you could use inquisitors in allied cities. That makes a huge difference. Thank you very much.

 

[Rex rgis of Ter]

When I'm in your situation, I make every city focus on growth, just for help. I had 79% and eevery city. My capital grew, and I won.

 

[daladinn]

hmmm suggestions,

try using mardero or sphener , every city they capture converts.

try using a patriarch to make your loyal followers declare war on your targets. it helps if your not the only one behind the religious war machine.

if your hard pressed on the war front , feel free to get the AI back his cities after you ahve converted them. declare peace for 10 turns while you muster forces to take the next city , rinse repeat