What to do About a Pagan Continent

[Lennier]

In my current game (as Pacal II; no huts/events, hemispheres (2 huge continents, islands), huge, marathon, emperor), the first six religions have been founded on my continent.

Spoiler :

The divs on my continent: Charley founded Buddhism and converted AC. HC founded Hinduism and converted me, Brennius, and Stalin. HC went on to found Judaism and Christianity. I founded Confucianism (self etched CoL; I Oracled Metal Casting). Stalin bulbed Philosophy (2 turns before I popped a GS to bulb it myself) and founded Taoism.

I have Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Confucianism inside my borders.

I'm going to be first to Optics and will try to circumnavigate the world. My general tactic to do this is to create two caravels and send one east and the other west. Just in case the "other" continent blocks the way in both the north and south (and to possibly speed the circumnavigation) I put either a spy or a missionary in each of the caravels.

Spoiler :

With spies, I don't have to worry about getting OBs with the Civs on the "other" continent but run the chance that they'll be "caught." I'll need OBs to use missionaries, and they only have to worry about barbs but can be used to convert cities when I've completed the circumnavigation.

So what should I load the caravels with? I think my choices are:

• Put Hindu missionaries in both boats--make the "other" continent my friend!
• Put Confucian missionaries in both boats--if I shrine my holy city, I'll get all that money for the cheap price of a couple of missionaries. And everyone on my continent will hate the other continent.
• Put a Confucian missionary on one boat and a Jewish one on the other. I'll still get the hate from my continent, but it will split the other one and keep them in whatever war is going on.
• Put spies on the boats. Who cares what the Pagans convert to?

I'm leaning towards Confucian/Jewish split and really don't think the spies are the way to go in this game.

 

[Kallikrates]

Has Capac already built the AP? If you plan to conquer the AP, it is probably best to send missionaries with the probably AP religion. Similarly if you intend to capture the Holy city of the dominant religion on your continent (Hindu, I guess). Otherwise I would use confu missionaries for your prospective shrine. You can go free religion for diplo and still get all that shrine money (which is, of course, also independent of slider position)

(I am again being screwed by auto(non)spread of religions. Founded Confu in 425 BC, have the GL on a water map playing Ragnar, and by 1100 AD (normal speed) Confu has spread to 2 of my cities ( I sent a missionary to Shaka, but he has only 2 cities, apparently he is unable to spread with boats), I got other religions in 2 or 3 self-founded cities, but still 3 or so "pagan" cities after 1500+ years with 4 trade routes to all kinds of religions. "Wrong" GPs (Artists or priests from a ca. 5% chance and this broken autospread is much more infuriating than the odd loss at a >90% battle)

 

[Lennier]

Thanks for your thoughts.

No, HC has not yet built the AP. (If I had popped a GE rather than a GS, I would have built it.) I don't know what's taking him so long.

I may get around to conquering the Hindu shrine, but HC will be the last one on my continent I conquer/vassalize. I'm not too concerned with keeping good relations with the "other" continent since they're apparently so backwards. Once I declare my continent "secure," I'll just build a navy and dump my army on the other continent. I only need one of five civs over there to give me OB, and I don't even really need that.

Interesting you're being screwed by non-auto spread. Confu has auto-spread to about four or five of Stalin's cities. HC sent a bunch of Hindu and Jewish missionaries my way, so I can't really judge if I was being screwed by the RNG on auto-spread this game.

Edit: HC built the AP next turn.

 

[TheSunIsDark]

Just send a missionary for each civ, and try to get them to like you so you can win by AP. They should spread it among themselves.

 

[Lennier]

Nice in theory, but I'm #3 in the AP. Spreading Hinduism to the other continent will probably just get HC the win.

 

[MegaLurker]

If you're not gunning for an AP victory I wouldn't spend a single turn or hammer spreading religion to a backward continent. The only reason I would is if sharing a religion with one of them would allow me to use the tech advantage for a war bribe against the other.

 

[Kallikrates]

He wants to get the circumnavigation bonus anyway. Depending on the other continent this endeavor can be speeded up by having missonaries/spies cross on foot. missonaries are IMO preferable in such a case and they can eventually spread the religion of his own holy city for cash once he gets the shrine. I'd rather do this than risk playing for HC's AP victory

 

[Lennier]

Thanks for your thoughts.

I've decided to send two confu missionaries.

Of course, gunning for Optics means I lost the race to Music to HC. And the Buddhist/Hindu wars are starting up again. If I assimilate enough of the Buddhists and convert those cities to Hindu, gunning for AP might be possible. But I'm probably just going to conquer the other continent.

Somehow I suspect that Tokugawa is over there.

 

[nfw]

I'd spread different religions to different civs, then sit back and watch them fight

 

[TheSunIsDark]

I'd spread different religions to different civs, then sit back and watch them fight

Just make sure nobody has that as a state religion already, so you can join in safely and get allies.

 

[Lennier]

My thinking is that the "other" continent is obviously backwards and probably have been fighting each other since near the beginning of the game, so I really don't care if they get diplo points amongst themselves.

I'd need five different religions to spread to the other continent to get everyone in a different religion. I've only got four in my empire right now, and one (Christianity) is only in one recently founded city.

In hindsight, I probably should have gone for Music before Optics. HC is now researching Divine Right and doesn't have Compass yet.

 

[Ghpstage]

One additional thing to note when choosing which religion to send is that if you give isolated civs the AP religion then they will gain contact with all other AP members. I'm not sure if its immediate or waits till the next vote, but it does happen!

 

[Lennier]

Well, Toku wasn't on the other continent. It has FDR, Sury, Pericles, Ragnar, and Mehmed. Anyone know why this group would be so far behind Pacal (human), HC, Stalin, Brennius, AC, and Charlie?

 

[Lennier]

Well, I won an AP diplomation victory.

Spoiler :

The backwards continent didn't effectively spread Confucianism until well after I converted my two cities. So few that I decided to use the one GProphet to start a 3-GP golden age rather than make the Confucian shrine.

First I (with some help from the other Hindus) wiped out the Buddhists (well, I left AC with three ice-islands before declaring peace.) During that time I libbed Astronomy. Also, as soon as I discovered Communism, Brennius was willing to form a permanent alliance with me. Then I transported my army to the "other" continent. I was going to attack Ragnar first (he was the weakest), but while I was building up my forces in American territory, Stalin asked for me to stop trading with FDR, so I did. That transported my troops to the Northern wastelands, and made FDR my first target. My forces went through the "other" continent like a knife through butter and I vasslized them all. I made a concerted effort to spread Hinduism to all my cities and to many of my vassals'. Before I could transport my troops back to the home continent to take on HC, the AP victory vote came up and I won.

 

[enKage]

In general continent without religion is backward in everything (lower happiness, no OR building bonus) so making them your ally is not a good idea, rather conquer them. If you have a shrine or intend to shrine your religion, always send your missionary - AIs without religion will quickly spread it for happiness, but you should stick to state religion which allows you the best diplo situation on your continent, even if you dont have its shrine.