Starting a Successful Religion

[SirLamphead]

Hi everyone, I have a simple question on how to get a religion to proliferate my continent.
I just finished a Prince game and will probably go up to Monarch (on BtS).
So what are some good moves/tips/civs/leaders to get a big religon?
I don't care if it's buddhism or whatever just so long as I can get a pile of gold.
I usually sit back and accept a religion but now I want to profit.
Please help (it will be appreciated).

 

[TheMeInTeam]

It's often difficult to found hindu or buddhism on higher difficulties, but those are the most prolific because civs will adopt a religion as soon as it spreads to them and those are the most prevalent.

If you want an early religion I recommend using the oracle to take code of laws or grabbing theology by using a great prophet to bulb theology - both of these will net you early religions that can potentially spread quickly if you're fast about attaining them. For theology I'd recommend using a prophet from stonehenge as you'll get it pretty early and then you can trade theology at your leisure for quite some time.

Other than that, just custom game and pick only civs that don't start with mysticism (and play one that does), so you CAN beat them to an early religion...that should work on most difficulties.

 

[slobberinbear]

Probably the easiest civilization to get an early religion is Spain. Isabella starts with Mysticism and Fishing, so if you work a water tile you have a very good chance of getting Buddhism or Hinduism very quickly.

After that, it's helpful to get Writing for open borders and Monotheism to build missionaries to spread your religion.

If you can build a wonder that gives you a great prophet (Stonehenge, Oracle), you can then use that prophet to build your shrine, adding gold and greater religion spread.

Keep expanding and try to work in military and worker techs as you can.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Bear gives a good point, but actually open borders do not affect religious spread, although I used to think so too. It's actually just the presence of a trade network with the holy city (chances enhanced by a shrine) and a function of distance from that holy city. I was a little surprised to hear this at first, but then it makes sense when you realize that tokugawa actually gets religions.

So if you want it to spread to an AI, get sailing early if you both have coastal cities or just road your way into them (while you don't technically need OB, they DO let you build roads to the AI...usually they have a resource somewhere near your border that will be roaded and you can connect there).

The hardest part of religious strategies is not hindering your growth/military too much.

 

[UncleJJ]

One effective way to spread your own religion is to build the Apolostolic Palace. The AIs will nearly always spread your religion for you as soon as they get a copy in one of their cities. They do this for the hammer bonus, so you are helping them in that way, but they are helping you in turn by giving your shrine more gold and you don't even have to waste time or hammers on missionaries. Some of the AIs will even change to your religion and you then get big diplomatic advantages which you can reinforce by opening borders and trading resources and techs.

You might get lucky and your religion is somehow adopted as the common religion for your continent but that is merely a matter of luck. The AP is a way to almost ensure that happens, even if the AI stay in their own religions they often spread the AP religion for you as well.

 

[Mukuu]

You can actually even be at war with someone and have religion spread. There just has to be some sort of possible connection for it to spread. with the holy city, it spreads even better. ... At least I am pretty sure thats how it works... I am slightly doubting myself now. =]

When I want to get a religion, I usually slingshot CoL, and try to build stonehenge or just get early prophets to get a Great Prophet. Having the first holy city out works wonders for religion spread.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

HC is best for founding religion. Financial and starts with mysticism. If you get a fresh water lake you can get one of the early religions. I can't stand HC as an AI. He founds every religion and builds every wonder.

 

[Winston Hughes]

A super-early shrine is a fairly reliable way to get your religion to spread far and wide. Stonehenge and the Oracle can get you the Prophet in good time, although running a Priest specialist off a Temple will do if wonder-building isn't a sensible option. And don't forget to open up those trade connections with Sailing or, if necessary, roads.

Given the opportunity costs involved, however, you would do well to weigh up your other needs before taking this approach. Settling or lightbulbing your Great Prophet tends to offer a more immediate benefit than building a shrine with him. And the diversion to wonders and religious techs can slow your expansion and development in the crucial early stages of the game.

That said, a shrine bringing in 30+ raw gold-per-turn can be immensely powerful.

HC is best for founding religion. Financial and starts with mysticism. If you get a fresh water lake you can get one of the early religions.

HC is great for this (and just about any other) strategy. But he doesn't start with Fishing (only Izzy has Myst and Fishing to start), so the lake won't help initially. An oasis will do very nicely, though.

 

[BCampbell]

You can actually even be at war with someone and have religion spread. There just has to be some sort of possible connection for it to spread. with the holy city, it spreads even better. ... At least I am pretty sure thats how it works... I am slightly doubting myself now. =]

I don't think so, I'm pretty sure civs you're at war with aren't part of your trade network.

OP: Missionaries, missionaries, missionaries. Get them out there. Once a religion exists in a city, no other religion will passively spread there, so you have to get active. Do it sooner than later, as the more religions present in a city, the harder it is. Send your missionaries to biggest cities of your neighbors' with the fewest other religions in them. You might want to skip cities with no religion and hope that yours spreads. The AI tends to convert to whatever religion is predominant, and that seems to mean population not just number of cities. So all you usually need to do is hit their biggest cities.

Missionaries are cheap, move fast, and work well. It will slow you down a little in terms of opportunity cost, but the benefits of a) making money from the shrine and b) diplomacy bonuses are worth it.

eta: heh, I wrote opportunity cost before reading winston's reply... great minds think alike. Still, missionaries and the buildings needed to make them (unless you change civics) don't take too many hammers.

 

[vicawoo]

Recruit, ask for greater commitment, bombard with a sense of community, give more responsibility.

 

[CivCorpse]

Bear gives a good point, but actually open borders do not affect religious spread, although I used to think so too. .

Open Borders greatly affect religion spread. Missionaries need open borders. If you are taking a later religion like CoL or Theology provide, then most early cities will have one of the early three religions. If they already have a religion then yours can not spread there naturally. If I have a shrine (or two) I usually assign some crappy little city i settled just to claim a resource or to block an Ai, the task of nonstop missionary spam. On normal speed a little city with only 8 can pop out a missionary every 5 turns. Not a bad use for some crappy little tundra city. It usually gets a granary/monestary/courthouse. and that's all. it spends pretty much the entire game pumping missionaries

 

[The Rook]

Hi everyone, I have a simple question on how to get a religion to proliferate my continent.
I just finished a Prince game and will probably go up to Monarch (on BtS).
So what are some good moves/tips/civs/leaders to get a big religon?
I don't care if it's buddhism or whatever just so long as I can get a pile of gold.
I usually sit back and accept a religion but now I want to profit.
Please help (it will be appreciated).

I apologise in advance if this is unhelpful... but I think there is a huge luck element in trying to get your religion to spread. I'm in the progress of playing an Immortal game with Willem. I am semi-isolated with Lincoln. Lincoln failed to obtain any of the early religions, and so with just Tao and Islam remaining, I desperately pursued Philosophy. Thankfully I founded Taoism, and ever since, it has spread like a disease. Most of my cities became Tao, without sending missionaries. I didn't send any missionaries to Lincoln, but Tao has spread throughout his empire. When I met an isolated Toku, he wouldn't open borders, but Tao spread all the same, and Toku adopted it. As of 1600 Taoism is now the most popular religion in the world, without any effort on my part, and I don't even have a shrine!

Without luck, the only way you can spread religion is through missionaries, but these tend to be a waste of hammers in the early game, unless you have a specific neighbour that you are desperate to get onside.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Open Borders greatly affect religion spread. Missionaries need open borders. If you are taking a later religion like CoL or Theology provide, then most early cities will have one of the early three religions. If they already have a religion then yours can not spread there naturally. If I have a shrine (or two) I usually assign some crappy little city i settled just to claim a resource or to block an Ai, the task of nonstop missionary spam. On normal speed a little city with only 8 can pop out a missionary every 5 turns. Not a bad use for some crappy little tundra city. It usually gets a granary/monestary/courthouse. and that's all. it spends pretty much the entire game pumping missionaries

To clarify, OB do not effect auto spreading. Missionaries are another story.

 

[futurehermit]

If I get a religion earlyish and a neighbour or two don't have a religion yet, I like to take a missionary and settle him in their capital. Usually the capital is centrally located and the religion seems to then spread to their other cities. I'm not sure the exact mechanics of it or whatnot, but that is what seems to happen in my games. If they have another religion in their lands as well, but did not found it (AIs tend to stick with religions they founded) then I may get more aggressive with the missionaries if I want them to stay in my religion. That is of course if I don't just take their lands for myself and then add the religion to the cities in question

 

[BCampbell]

Without luck, the only way you can spread religion is through missionaries, but these tend to be a waste of hammers in the early game, unless you have a specific neighbour that you are desperate to get onside.

Actually, an early missionary can be great. Often, when a civ has no religions in any of its cities, they'll adopt the first one that comes along. early on, trade routes are still being built, so sending one missionary to a civ you want to make friends with is enough to get them to join your religion, and you start building up that brothers of the faith bonus right from the start. It's a lot quicker to send in a missionary than to build a road, in many cases.

 

[Magnum27rpa]

When I used to go for religion, I would take Issabella, work a water tile coastal resource (or fresh if you have it), and pick up monotheism. If I'm monarch or below, sometimes I will double back for polytheism if it hasn't been discovered creating a holy city with two religions. Then I go for Priesthood, get writting next, build oracle, and pop code of laws for confucianism, then with my new open boarders (from writting) take the free confucianist missionary over to my neighbour and spread religion. When my great prophet pops from the oracle, I build the confucianist shrine, and pump out missionaries to spread it around everywhere. Usually I can get this up around the same time that judaism is being founded.

This will only work on Monarchy and below, but I have near 100% success with this at those levels and below.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

When I used to go for religion, I would take Issabella, work a water tile coastal resource (or fresh if you have it), and pick up monotheism. If I'm monarch or below, sometimes I will double back for polytheism if it hasn't been discovered creating a holy city with two religions. Then I go for Priesthood, get writting next, build oracle, and pop code of laws for confucianism, then with my new open boarders (from writting) take the free confucianist missionary over to my neighbour and spread religion. When my great prophet pops from the oracle, I build the confucianist shrine, and pump out missionaries to spread it around everywhere. Usually I can get this up around the same time that judaism is being founded.

This will only work on Monarchy and below, but I have near 100% success with this at those levels and below.

If you custom game out civs that start with mysticism, you can easily get either buddhism or hinduism and judaism. Just hope you don't get boxed in while doing it.

 

[Magnum27rpa]

If you custom game out civs that start with mysticism, you can easily get either buddhism or hinduism and judaism. Just hope you don't get boxed in while doing it.

And that is why I no longer go for religion. I'm playing Emporer comfortably and Immortal occasionaly, and at both of those levels I have no hope of founding, spreading, and building the shrine in those games, without neglecting the more important aspects such as setting up blocking city's, razing an army, settling strategic resources, and researching techs that have trade value to the AI.

At lower levels though hording religions, spreading them, and then turning them into your WS city can bring in gobs of cash, and be lots of fun.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

And that is why I no longer go for religion. I'm playing Emporer comfortably and Immortal occasionaly, and at both of those levels I have no hope of founding, spreading, and building the shrine in those games, without neglecting the more important aspects such as setting up blocking city's, razing an army, settling strategic resources, and researching techs that have trade value to the AI.

At lower levels though hording religions, spreading them, and then turning them into your WS city can bring in gobs of cash, and be lots of fun.

I play emperor too. Like you, I never go for the early religions . Just doesn't pay off often enough. In my AP games I'll get theology early somehow (bulb or oracle) so I found christianity. If I'm lucky enough to get a 2nd prophet I might even shrine it, especially in scenarios like APG II.

 

[Magnum27rpa]

Sometimes I'll go for a COL slingshot and get confucianism at higher levels, but only when I have enough real-estate to get a good number of cities up and need the courthouses to reduce maintenance. (expecially if my UB replaces the courthouse)