Its been a while since I gave Syncretism a real look, so in my recent Shoshone game I gave it a strong try. I was surrounded by 2 other strong religions, so had a lot of passive pressure in my cities. I went heavy faith buildings and no follower beliefs to get Syncretisms best bonus. Now I did not get pagodas, which is definitely a factor to consider.
And overall...I'm just not impressed. Now the core bonus is nice, I am currently getting +31 science, prod, and faith. You get the culture too but honestly the bonus is so low (+15 culture when I grow a city), that I just consider it +1 culture per city. But you have to pay a lot for it. First of all, I have 14 religious division in my civ currently, and because of it I'm struggling to make the 50% mark, whereas without it I would comfortable be in the 60% happiness range. So the belief is costing me 10% growth, and combat attack. Further, in 4 of my cities that unrest has cost me an additional -10% growth because of local penalties.
Second, reformations are very difficult. I want to keep all of those foreign followers in my city, which makes getting the threshold much harder. I could inquisitor out the infidels and try to reform, but then I'm getting less bonuses.
Third, while other beliefs reinforce themselves by magnifying your faith, with Syncretism your cities are constantly trying to weaken the core religion. I have to use missionaries as gardeners to keep things in line, so that evaporates my extra faith, and then there are the turns when my city flips and I lose the syncretism bonus for that round...which adds up here and there.
Now with pagados perhaps I would feel differently, but I don't like the idea that this belief is only good if you took another specific belief. The bonuses seem nice, but just not worth all of the hassle.
I know others have spoken well of this belief in the past, so after a while of using it, how do you currently feel?
And overall...I'm just not impressed. Now the core bonus is nice, I am currently getting +31 science, prod, and faith. You get the culture too but honestly the bonus is so low (+15 culture when I grow a city), that I just consider it +1 culture per city. But you have to pay a lot for it. First of all, I have 14 religious division in my civ currently, and because of it I'm struggling to make the 50% mark, whereas without it I would comfortable be in the 60% happiness range. So the belief is costing me 10% growth, and combat attack. Further, in 4 of my cities that unrest has cost me an additional -10% growth because of local penalties.
Second, reformations are very difficult. I want to keep all of those foreign followers in my city, which makes getting the threshold much harder. I could inquisitor out the infidels and try to reform, but then I'm getting less bonuses.
Third, while other beliefs reinforce themselves by magnifying your faith, with Syncretism your cities are constantly trying to weaken the core religion. I have to use missionaries as gardeners to keep things in line, so that evaporates my extra faith, and then there are the turns when my city flips and I lose the syncretism bonus for that round...which adds up here and there.
Now with pagados perhaps I would feel differently, but I don't like the idea that this belief is only good if you took another specific belief. The bonuses seem nice, but just not worth all of the hassle.
I know others have spoken well of this belief in the past, so after a while of using it, how do you currently feel?
Faith, 
Science, and 
Production in Holy City for every 2 Followers of other Religion in owned Cities? It doesn't say ... in owned Cities following this religion, right? Maybe it was changed since I last used it?
