The Monk economy .

[GT_OKEZ]

Basically I'm going to try this for the first time . Its particularly for a spiritual civ and depends on having at least a couple religions under your belt .
I've seen in some succession games how it would work ( particularly Sulla+Sirian's vanilla game playing spiritual Spain as the ' Cuban Isolationists.')

Still , while they played BRILLIANTLY , I don't think they were exactly about a Monk ( Priest based) economy since they jumped all over the place ( which is possible with Spiritual civs) .

Anyone got any tips on how to run a top-rate monk economy . I imagine it would involve a lot of priests , merchants , and buildings/wonders that would perk up religion .

 

[Cookie Crumbs]

University of Sankore and Spiral Minaret are musts, and Spiritual helps in this respect. If you're running Priests, Angkor Wat is a good wonder as well.

 

[eewallace]

Yes, I've had success with a religious-based economic game. Seems like a civ that starts with mysticism is probably a must, since you want about 3 religions. Wonders that produce great prophets so you can get shrines for each--but fortunately there are more wonders that produce prophets than any other great people. Pump up your religious cities with markets, banks, etc. I'd say Huayna Capac (financial and industrious) or Asoka (philosophical and spiritual) would be the best choices from civs that start with mysticism.

 

[zenspiderz]

Yes, I've had success with a religious-based economic game. Seems like a civ that starts with mysticism is probably a must, since you want about 3 religions. Wonders that produce great prophets so you can get shrines for each--but fortunately there are more wonders that produce prophets than any other great people. Pump up your religious cities with markets, banks, etc. I'd say Huayna Capac (financial and industrious) or Asoka (philosophical and spiritual) would be the best choices from civs that start with mysticism.

I find Saladin to be a good choice. Madrassas are really robust for getting religions and shrines (wonders are not necessary) + since he is protective/spirtual and with his UU and running SE makes him probably the toughest defender in the game which is good for making sure his shrines don't become someone elses shrine..

A note on religion economies - many well spread religions with shrines means 100% science slider the whole game. This means non-shrine cities generate 100% science and 0% gold so no need to waste hammers on gold multipliers (markets/grocer/banks) in any city that doesn't have a shrine except of course if you need health/happiness/wallstreet. A nice feature of the monk economy.

 

[pi-r8]

I played a successful monk economy with egypt recently. The obelisks allowed me to run a whole bunch of priests early, which led to a lot of great prophets. Combine that with AP, university of Sankore, Spiral Minaret, and the wonder that gives your priests extra hammers (can't remember the name), and it works quite well.

 

[JKWSN]

If you want it to be a really robust economy you're going to want to have those religions founded in the capital - so grab polytheism, masonry and monotheism before you settle - what you can do with Wall Street is amazing at that point.

 

[GT_OKEZ]

I played a monk economy on prince and didn't do so well . First of all , I played Rameses of Egypt ( figured the Ind trait would go well ) . I knew the Egyptians don't start with mysticism but I still managed to get 3 religions , Hinduism , Judaism , and Confucism all in my capital before I even built one settler

I oracled to CoL which got me that early confucism . But its too long of a wait . I should be content with just two religions especially if I'm Egypt . Perhaps Hinduism and Confucism are good . I only realized later how much valuable time is spent into that early mysticism and masonary for Judaism . Then I could have probably nailed Christianity with focus on the GrP and lightbulbed theology .

I built a total of three cities before Shaka had his way with me then just quit . On top of that I had no metals and Impis just eat War Chariots for lunch .

Keep in mind its my first time attempting a monk economy and I did it with a non mysticism civ .

 

[Molybdeus]

Huayna Capac is the only industrious leader that starts with mysticism. He also starts with agriculture, which gives your workers something to do while you are researching Polytheism. Unfortunately I can't play him any longer since playing him almost feels like cheating.

 

[GT_OKEZ]

This time started with Saladin and had better success . I got every religion but Buddhism . Mehmed had Buddha and was too far to conquer . I made the AP , converted most of my neighbors and got the majority of the votes for a diplomatic victory . I built all the shrines along with wall street , man talk about money . Each of my cities squeezed as many religions as possible in them .

Hey that Protective trait can be useful . My longbows and muskets were taking down entire armies . They held the front on the border cities quite well while I was on missionary duty .