Thought about Holy Warriors

[Jaeger5]

Playing the Egyptians on the Play the World G&K edition map. Mount Ararat is just to the north of the TSL. Jerulism (sp) is off to the right. Pick the desert tile gives 1 faith pantheon. If you have the Karnak wonder mod and build it, every flood plain gives 3 faith. So pretty much every tile is given 4 faith in your TSL. You will be rolling in Faith. I chose the first pantheon, the first religion and the first religion enhance.

There's not much productive tiles there so it's imperative to have Holy Warriors and use production for building.

 

[steveg700]

I haven't used holy warriors much but I do know that the cost in faith for a military unit is about twice as much as the cost to produce that same unit.

My experience has been the faith cost is about 100 cheaper than the gold cost.

 

[Dogmouth]

It's a good choice for the Celts, because Pictish warriors create a snowballing effect and early captured cities often have unimproved forests. I suppose it might even be possible to entirely finance and purchase a world-dominating rove of Pictish warriors if you could combine the Honor finisher with Holy Warriors. That's just speculation, but it would be tons of fun to try this approach. The setup would be have to be Pangaea and raging barbs.

edit: Marathon speed would also help.

 

[smallfish]

Have not tried it, but reading someone using it to rushbuy Janissaries every other turn is tempting me to make a game out of it.

 

[MisterBoomBoom]

I've tried it and rather liked it. Once my religion is fully established (simply a preference) those cheap units come in handy in a quick build up of forces. They also saved my butt on several turtle type games when I was backstabbed and had limited gold.

Gold spending for infrastructure ....cheaper available Faith on units....a very workable system!

Only wish that "Holy Warriors" when created gave you some sort of added bonus to the unit. That would be sweet!

 

[steveg700]

It's a good choice for the Celts, because Pictish warriors create a snowballing effect and early captured cities often have unimproved forests. I suppose it might even be possible to entirely finance and purchase a world-dominating rove of Pictish warriors if you could combine the Honor finisher with Holy Warriors. That's just speculation, but it would be tons of fun to try this approach. The setup would be have to be Pangaea and raging barbs.

edit: Marathon speed would also help.

Well, that early in the game, faith is better off being reserved for getting the first two great prophets. That's around 500 faith. Pictish warriors won't be much to crow about by the time that's all done. I used it in my current game to buy a couple, which was enough to hold off some cataphracts.

 

[RealHuhn]

Mhhh, maybe with Askia?
Liberty -> Settler spam -> Piety opener for cheap pyramids -> Organized Religion for tons of faith -> beeline to chivalry and buy mandekalus with faith (or just horsemen/chariot archers and upgrade with gold).

Sounds fun. I'll try that

 

[steveg700]

The big problem with holy warriors is spreading it to neighbors. Kinda neutralizes your edge. I'm on a map where everyone's squeezed real tight. Had Napoleon, then Theodora, then Nebby all DoW me in rapid succession, and looks like Genghis is coming 'round the bend with some keshiks.

 

[Furycrab]

I haven't used holy warriors much but I do know that the cost in faith for a military unit is about twice as much as the cost to produce that same unit.

I would say that 2 faith equal one production. This means that you could think of that a shrine ads a half production and a temple ads one production to your city. This however is a bad trade because a shrine takes 80 turns to pay back its production cost and a temple takes 100 to pay back its production cost and then the have the upkeep of the shrine and the temple. That said I wouldn't build tempels and shrines Just to be able to get more use from holy warriors. Getting the buildings that is purcased with faith just to get even more faith seams to also be a bad trade, why not get the units earlier.

Others ways to get faith to holy warriors may be worth it but you should always think about if it is worth it. Its not a good trade to work a open thundra of that one faith instead of a mined hill.

I think if you want to make heavy use of holy warriors you should consider to finish piety if it is soo that the cost reduction works on military units. Also give your religion pilgrimage to get more faith and just war to kill the enemies easier.

I dislike pilgrimage. Not that it can't be good, but realistically, it's hard to get a lot out of it as opposed to say... The +1 happy per city which will let you run a larger empire, or just Tithe if you aren't sure.

On a side note, it mixes really well with Piety.

 

[Legal_My_Deagle]

I've had Holy Warriors win wars for me. It is all about the faith income. One thing I have discovered about G&K is if you haven't set up a good use for your faith income, you are wasting a very valuable resource. Whether it is with holy warriors or picking civic trees that grant the ability to buy great people conductive to your strategy, or even just religious buildings like Pagodas. I've also had great success picking bonuses for getting other civs to follow my religion and spending my faith spreading it like mad.

 

[Henri Christophe]

I have a question to do here. When we advanced in eras the price to purchase a unit with faith grows together?

 

[tetley]

I liked Holy Warriors as Venice. You can puppet someone else's city, then immediately purchase a reinforcement right there.

One thing to keep an eye out for, regardless of civ, is if you have militaristic CS nearby. Holy warriors tends to be a waste if you can simply befriend a couple CS and get land units for free.

Other trick is what someone else alluded to: HW is a folllower belief. You can annex someone else's city and get it, or capture his missionaries/prophets and convert your own cities. Or even just let his missionaries/prophets do their work at times. Why take up the slot in your own religion if you don't have to? I do that trick with pagodas and cathedrals all the time, except HW units move around; buildings do not. It only takes one city to get HW.

 

[Acken]

I have a question to do here. When we advanced in eras the price to purchase a unit with faith grows together?

Yes

 

[Henri Christophe]

have somewhere, where I can see how much to purchase each unit (depending of all conditions that depends )