What is the use of Spirituality

[byzantine]

It seems like an interesting trait but im having a hard time making it useful, any ideas.

 

[Greencardman]

Its one of those traits you have to actively take advantage of for it to be terribly useful. Which means really knowing your civics, and finding out the best ones to use in each situation. Ramping up for war? Change to get all the civics that give you experience. Need money? See which combination gives you the most cash. I think the spirituality trait is all about being flexible, and being able to change civics on a dime when your opponent might be stuck with some anarchy. Also, it allows you greater range of civics change. I've noticed that changing all 5 civics will mean more than 1 turn of anarchy, but only changing 1 civic means only one turn. With spirituality, you can change all 5 at once with no turns.

Now, I'm sure there's a strategy for using it effectively that someone else out there can put into words better than me, but obviously the game designers thought it was powerful, because they limited it. You actually can't change civics twice in a row (or even for a few turns i think), so be careful about when you do it.

 

[eewallace]

You mean the "spiritual" trait in certain leaders? What I've found it is useful for is mainly that it makes it really likely that your civ will found a religion, as it will have mysticism to start with.

 

[Mujadaddy]

There are two things you can do with Spiritual...

1) MOST (not all, but most) Spiritual civs start with Mysticism tech... which leads directly into Meditation and Polytheism...which, if you found them first, gives you a religion! \/\/00+!!

2) Spiritual's REAL bonus is that there is no period of Anarchy when you change civics (Slavery, Free Speech, Theocracy, etc.)... Most players only change civics 5 or 6 times in a game... they lose a whole turn's production & growth when they do... but the Spiritual Civ doesn't lose a turn when they do this---Ever. So they can afford to play a bit differently...... Period of peaceful expansion? Change civics to bureaucracy to produce wonders in your capital faster... No money? Change civics to some low-upkeep ones for a few turns... Someone sneak attack you and you need to ramp up production IMMEDIATELY? Change civics to the unit-XP bonus ones...

All civs -can- do the above... the Spiritual one -should- do the above, as they don't have to wait for the benefits, AND don't lose a whole turn's production! (Might even be more turns on higher difficulties)...

 

[Woobi]

With spiritulism you must found a religon, spread it, take advantage of your temples, and most importantly...

Change civics at all times needed...

With other traits you aren't allowed the flexability that Spirituality allows...

With Sprituality if there is an unexpected war you can switch to Nationhood and draft units, or if you need to finish a wonder in your capital or maybe the space race you can make a quick switch to Universal Sufferage...

That is what Spirituality is all about...

 

[Mujadaddy]

You mean the "spiritual" trait in certain leaders? What I've found it is useful for is mainly that it makes it really likely that your civ will found a religion, as it will have mysticism to start with.

Not Egypt. They start with The Wheel and Agriculture...

 

[LlamaGod]

And that's why Egypt rocks.

 

[narmox]

Changing civics or religion without anarchy is good.

Imagine.. If you change only 1 civic you get only 1 turn of anarchy, that's not too bad without Spiritual.

If you change 2 civics, you get 2 turns of anarchy. If you change 3, the civic advisor tells you 2 turns of anarchy but you will get 3 (at least on Noble with Epic speed) turns of anarchy. etc etc etc

So you could chnage 5 civics and skip those 5 turns of anarchy you would normally get.

Now it gets interesting hm?

Not to mention what others already said about getting religion sooner, and building temples (culture!!) faster

 

[Padmewan]

Hmmm, for some reason in my games I've never seen more than 1 turn of anarchy even when changing two or even 3 civis. Am I not paying close enough attention?

 

[narmox]

Padmewan: maybe it's because I'm playing Epic games...!?!?!? I'll have to test (and you can too ) when I get a chance

 

[petey]

I've found that I kind of like Spiritual. One way that it's good is when you synchronize your cities' production queues. You switch to Theocracy, Vassalage and Police State and pump out two or three units in every city. Then you switch to Organized Religion and Bureaucracy and build a couple of buildings everywhere. Then you switch back to unit production.

If you sychronize the production queue between your cities, you can get the maximum value out of each thing you build and not have to worry about wasting turns on anarchy inbetween. It involves a lot more work, but if you're an anal-retentive micro-manager like me, you can get a lot of value out of this trait.

 

[Padmewan]

Spiritual: the official trait of the anal-retentive.

 

[Huxley Hobbes]

I quite like the Spiritual trait. It's very useful for changing the footing of your nation (Which I think I do a lot more than others, as it seems 5-6 civic changes is a commonly cited number.). From my perspective not so much because I lose anything during anarchy, but more because it's simply irritating to have it happen.

But yes, if you're not the type to manage your civics on a fairly regular basis according to your situation and plans, you'll not get much mileage from Spiritual civs (Though having an easier time getting to religions doesn't hurt either, of course.).

 

[eewallace]

If you just want the boost toward founding a religion that mysticism provides, there is a leader who doesn't have the "spiritual" trait that starts with mysticism--I think it is the guy with the quechua special units--Incan, maybe?

 

[Huxley Hobbes]

Yup, the Incans are Aggressive and Financial, but start with Mysticism and Agriculture. And yes, they are the ones with the Quechua Warrior.

 

[Mujadaddy]

Spiritual: the official trait of the anal-retentive.

Guilty as charged!

 

[incubuspawn]

If you do not start with mysticism, you can allways make a dash to codes of law.

 

[petey]

If you do not start with mysticism, you can allways make a dash to codes of law.

This is true. I've never seen an AI go there right off the bat. While it's nice to have two religions straight away, the cost of getting them at the expense of all the other Ancient techs isn't worth it, so generally one Mysticism AI gets Buddhism and another gets Hinduism and there's then a window that no one goes in to get to Judaism.

If you don't have an immediate need for the other techs, or you have stone nearby and want to get Masonry anyways, you are pretty much a shoe-in to grab Monotheism.

 

[Dikaioma]

As it has been said here already, the spiritual trait seems to be more about flexibility. When I was playing as Isabella (currently trying out catherine, who rocks with the early worker chop) you could be militaristic through your many religions, or financial, or cultural. But then again, I think ultimately these traits fit more of a playing style than anything. That is probably why I never do well with Rome, as I feel their setup doesn't fit my playing style. No anarchy is awesome as well...