Thats me in the corner, Thats me in the spotlight

[teakbois]

Freddie's new city conversion force may be a bit overkill...

Spoiler :

I pulled off a divine spark/double holy site religion beautifully too. But the Germans are dicks.

I was going to play peaceful, but eradicating my religion means I eradicate your civilization...

 

[stormtrooper412]

aaaand that's why going for a religion victory is a waste of time

 

[REDfeller]

Had this problem with India in my Kongo game last night (which I won by culture vic)

Obviously I had no religion except for Buddhism in Kyoto after I had conquered Japan.

India had 13 apostles in my borders the whole game, milling around like a school of fish.

They only converted my smallest newest city and allowed me to romp the cult vic home.

Stopped me from building improvements, moving GP around and generally being a pain.

 

[dturtle1]

"And I'm not expanding, why you see me, oh oohh"
And I'm giving it my all, with Divine Spark as well", oohh
"I want a Religion for my own"
"I want a Religion for my own"

 

[Ravellion]

I just beat a similar group in my game last night, with lower faith per turn than you have right there. Basically, when you spawn your apostles, keep the debaters (don't use those to evangelize). 3 debaters, or 2 debaters and a bunch of inquisitors, can beat a swarm like that with careful play, because you can heal your apostles in or adjacent to your holy sites, but he can't in your territory.

 

[T-J]

Rushbuy an inquisitor and/or apostle and go hide him somewhere so the Germans don't find him. After they moved on from converting your cities get him back to one city with a holy site and work from there.

You can pay him back once you unlock the Holy War CB.

 

[steveg700]

I just beat a similar group in my game last night, with lower faith per turn than you have right there. Basically, when you spawn your apostles, keep the debaters (don't use those to evangelize). 3 debaters, or 2 debaters and a bunch of inquisitors, can beat a swarm like that with careful play, because you can heal your apostles in or adjacent to your holy sites, but he can't in your territory.

Yeah, I didn't realize that promotions eventually run out. Once I realized that, I made an effort to bring my debaters home to heal up.

That, plus bonuses from civic cards and theology can give an edge in quality over quantity.

Noticed also that the Aztecs combat bonus for luxes also applies to theological combat.

 

[Ravellion]

Yeah, I didn't realize that promotions eventually run out. Once I realized that, I made an effort to bring my debaters home to heal up.

That, plus bonuses from civic cards and theology can give an edge in quality over quantity.

Noticed also that the Aztecs combat bonus for luxes also applies to theological combat.

Yes, and Scythians heal their apostles after victory, which is quite nasty as well.

 

[smartcanuck1988]

Do AI apostles ignore cities where you have an inquisitor parked inside? .. This has been my experience (playing on King fwiw). I just parked an inquisitor in each of my 4 main cities and noticed that the apostles wave just passes by me. I also had one inquisitor stationed at my holy site and every wave tried to kill that one guy. They were so obsessed with him. More often than not, the AI apostles commits suicide by keeping trying to crash into that inquisitor but the inquisitor keeps healing due to holy site. It's like the AI doesn't take into account the damage its own unit will receive.

 

[agonistes]

Do AI apostles ignore cities where you have an inquisitor parked inside? .. This has been my experience (playing on King fwiw). I just parked an inquisitor in each of my 4 main cities and noticed that the apostles wave just passes by me. I also had one inquisitor stationed at my holy site and every wave tried to kill that one guy. They were so obsessed with him. More often than not, the AI apostles commits suicide by keeping trying to crash into that inquisitor but the inquisitor keeps healing due to holy site. It's like the AI doesn't take into account the damage its own unit will receive.

Based on a discussion in another thread, inquisitors do not make cities immune, but parking one in a holy site is viewed by some as a valid strategy - at least where AI apostles are concerned.

Based on my own experience, I kept 4-5 apostle guarding my borders and that worked well, but it was very annoying. I wish the religious view popping up when you are moving a faith unit was an option that could be disabled. Eventually I got sick of it, and spammed my own army of missionaries and apostles down to India and converted Gandhi. In another game, after I had evangelized with my two apostles, I spawned a missionary and ran over to Cairo and converted it before Arabia could even spawn its first missionary.

 

[MaximusPlatypus]

I've noticed if you just park an inquisitor on the holy site, missionaries will be attracted to him and just suicide themselves while he constantly heals. Funny thing is this tops off your religion in all nearby cities. If they have apostles, well then you have to try to get yourself an apostle that has some sort of religious combat bonus.

Basically you should always just keep some sort of religious unit on your holy sites. You may want to put a holy site up in your border cities. I haven't had any problems with even carpets of missionaries with this strategy.

 

[smartcanuck1988]

I've noticed if you just park an inquisitor on the holy site, missionaries will be attracted to him and just suicide themselves while he constantly heals. Funny thing is this tops off your religion in all nearby cities. If they have apostles, well then you have to try to get yourself an apostle that has some sort of religious combat bonus.

Yeah pretty much what I noticed as said above. I think it's another good example of poor AI coding that is essentially an exploit.

I'll have to take a closer look at inquisitors in cities. Now I'm thinking it had something to do with the AI preferring the less populous cities but I could be wrong. What I am sure of is that the AI apostle and missionary waves definitely avoid select cities of my civ even tho clearly they could've converted it. They just run well past it towards a specific city.

Perhaps the AI first decides a target, then makes a horde of units, and sends them to that target. This wave of units are pretty much locked to that target no matter what happens in between.

 

[Rob Evans]

This is why I have started turning off Religious Victory

 

[smartcanuck1988]

This is why I have started turning off Religious Victory

Does the AI play the religious game differently if you turn it off? I haven't tried, but I'm really hoping it stops spamming all these apostles (maybe once or twice to gain the benefit of the religious bonuses but not for the whole game!).

 

[Disgustipated]

Does the AI play the religious game differently if you turn it off? I haven't tried, but I'm really hoping it stops spamming all these apostles (maybe once or twice to gain the benefit of the religious bonuses but not for the whole game!).

My game I just finished I had religious victory off. The AI is still pretty extreme with missionaries and apostles. But it seemed to take them a little longer to found a religion, but that was mainly because of the Civs that were in the game, Kongo was the dominant civ and can't found a religion. Spain did, and they were pretty miffed I converted their holy city. I just got tired of their missionaries roaming around. Of course they still roamed around, they just happened to have my religion.

 

[MaximusPlatypus]

Of course they still roamed around, they just happened to have my religion.

That is one of the more hilarious examples of poor AI. Why they would even be allowed to produce religious units of another religion is baffling and absurd.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

That is one of the more hilarious examples of poor AI. Why they would even be allowed to produce religious units of another religion is baffling and absurd.

It makes sense if you Didn't found a religion.... you might want your cities to have it....
But for the AI,
if they didn't found the religion they should not try to spread it outside their borders
if they founded a different religion, they should only buy religious units of that religion.

 

[Resipsa]

Go to war and pillage holy sites of your rival civ I actually did this on a low sea level Islands map. I used Harald (a bit cooked on the settings), Pillage their holy sites and tiles that produce faith and well pillage everything you can leave the cities they will get behind because they don't prioritize repairs to those tiles. You can get good peace deals and continue to hammer civs that have a religion.

 

[Rob Evans]

Does the AI play the religious game differently if you turn it off? I haven't tried, but I'm really hoping it stops spamming all these apostles (maybe once or twice to gain the benefit of the religious bonuses but not for the whole game!).

I haven't noticed any Apostle spamming but there are definitely Missionaries roaming around trying to convert my cities. Just need to keep an Apostle in a Holy Site to keep them at bay!

 

[Europa Victrix]

I just parked a debater apostle near Ghandi as Tomyris and he keeps throwing his dudes at me. Every time one of them "dies", my own apostle gets healed to full.
Pretty insane.