What to do with Mehmed?

[yahn]

It seems that in 50% of my games I start on the same continent as Mehmed II, which, at first, seems great, since I always seem to have a religion before he has one. So, I build a missionary to spread my religion to his capital so he'll convert, but he always ends up converting to my worst enemies religion at some point in the game. He seems like he could be a good ally, but in all my games he turns out to be a backstabbing whore. Is this a general thing he likes to do?

What do you usually do with Mehmed when you start around him?

 

[King of Town]

It may be because he has a favorite religion that he likes better than yours, and it gets spread to more of his cities. I think everyone has their own backstabber, for me it is the romans. He may just be easy to bully as well.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

He's a real jerk in the hands of the AI. I've never been a big fan of him. He's a backstabber and not a great trading partner.

 

[obsolete]

It seems you are doing something wrong, because he is infact very trustworthy and makes a superb ally. I suspect it's just your inexperience with how relations work.

What religions do you try to spread to him? Because his favourite is Islam, so it is not that surprising to see him switch out later on.

He focuses on military a lot, and promotes them, gives him a higher power ratio than yours, but if he is at 'pleased' with you, he simply will not backstab. He'd have to be 'bribed' to attack you, even if you had 0 units in all your cities and he knew it.

Seems you're probably not running vassalage either, cause that would gain favouritism by him.

 

[Mesousa]

Doesn't favorite religion only affect which one they found if they can if you're playing with Choose Religion?

 

[yahn]

I usually spread Hinduism or Confucianism to him. Hinduism almost every time, actually. He then always switches to Buddhism or Judaism. Also, no, I don't run vassalage. He does get a little grumpy over that, but he's been mad at me long before he starts bugging me to run vassalage because of religious differences. I usually only spread my religion to his capital, so that is probably one of the reasons why he converts. I'm normally too busy building axemen and chariots to build a couple more missionaries. Is it really worth it?

 

[King of Town]

I can't imagine anyone runs vassalage for any extended period of time The favorite religion comes into effect if they get more of that religion in their kingdom, then they will switch. I think I read that anyway.

 

[bestbrian]

This is something I used to be very bad at also. I'd start with HC, spend the first 20 turns getting Hinduism, and then not spend the hammers on missionaries. Diplomatically and financially: if you're going to spend time getting the religion when you should be getting Worker Techs, the only way it's worthwhile is to acitvely spread it. What I do now is: City Imrpovement-Unit-Missionary (I also used to have a bad habit of neglecting my military, so this corrects that deficiency also). Hit every city you can get to with a Missionary and watch the coffers overflow at the shrine.

 

[Gliese 581]

I can't imagine anyone runs vassalage for any extended period of time The favorite religion comes into effect if they get more of that religion in their kingdom, then they will switch. I think I read that anyway.

Could anyone in the know comment on this issue?

 

[bestbrian]

Well, Vassalage is usually only run to get over the Happy Cap. Once Representation is available Vassalage usually goes right out the window. I've never heard anything about civs having "favored religions". The goal is to get as much of the population to convert as possible, otherwise the civ won't convert ("Too few of our people follow that faith" or something to that effect). Remember the civ gains advantages from OR also, so the more widespread your religion is in their lands the greater the advantage for the civ to stay with your religion. That having been said, some civs (Catherine in particular) seem to change religions at the drop of a hat.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

Well, Vassalage is usually only run to get over the Happy Cap. Once Representation is available Vassalage usually goes right out the window.

I think you're confusing vassalage with heriditary rule.

 

[fuzzynutz]

Vassalage usually gets replaced by Bureaucracy .

 

[mystyfly]

AFAIK favourite religion affects founding when choose religion is turned on.
when he converts away from your religion, you probabely didnt spread it wide enought. He shouldnt switch if it is in every maior city of his.

 

[Jaja]

AFAIK favourite religion affects founding when choose religion is turned on.

Art thy for real! Then Christianity should be sickly overpowered as the religion of choice, since most leaders would favour that one, right? I like playing with choose religion on, but I always go for Islam. I like Assassins Creed, what can I say.
Could it just be which religion they choose to FOUND? Like, Saladin favours founding Islam over Hinduism, and vice versa for Asoka?

Does anyone have a real source for this? Seems kinda un-firaxis with all their political correctness.

 

[kazapp]

I have always thought a Civ would be indifferent to any religion except
1) liking the one(s) they control the holy city for
2) liking the ones their friends bribe them into adopting
and possibly
3) disliking the ones of their enemies
4) disliking the ones with no spread within their own empires

I can't imagine there to be a hard-coded preference, especially if you have "choose religions" turned on...

 

[bestbrian]

I think you're confusing vassalage with heriditary rule.

You're correct: that's exactly what I did. However, I have a good excuse; I was drunk.

 

[obsolete]

Doesn't favorite religion only affect which one they found if they can if you're playing with Choose Religion?

There is also a 50% bonus for converting.

 

[Molybdeus]

I'm normally too busy building axemen and chariots to build a couple more missionaries. Is it really worth it?

It's very worth it if you have a shrine for that religion.

 

[Dan Quale]

kill him that guy is less trustworthy than montezuma, and far less useful. Its not a matter of if he will backstab you but when.

 

[Morgrad]

Mehmed is pure backstabbing evil. If you want to go through the work to keep him happy with you, you can, but I don't recommend it.

If he isn't pleased+ with you, he *will* backstab you at some point.

If he is pleased+ with you, he makes:
a mediocre to poor tech partner
an awful pet dog who won't attack anyone you choose (because his hands are always too full right now)

My solution? Smack him with units until he's dead.