Which is better, having your civ have just 1 religion or multiple?

I figure if you limit your civ to one religion, you only have to build just one set of temples, monastaries, etc. This, of course, causes me to wait on some techs until after another civ gets the tech because I don't want to found another religion.

 

More religions is generally better. More religions means more bonuses from Temples and more Beaker multipliers from Monastaries. And, of course, if you found multiples, you can build multiple Shrines.

The only time founding multiple religions would be bad is if you went so far out of your way to do so that it crippled other aspects of your empire. If, however, you're in position to found an extra religion by researching a tech that you're going to research anyways, then go ahead and go for it.

 

I know of no drawback to actually having multiple religions, except it might be harder to spread your state religion to cities that have already got one or more other religions. Just a matter of throwing missionaries at them until they succumb.

 

Founding multiple religions means more shrines which means more money. You don't have to build the extra temples, monasteries or cathedrals, but by building them, you get more culture, more happiness and more research.

 

well for me i only go after 1 and i keep the first one i get but sometimes i have ended up with 2, 3 or even 4 once. the only advantage ive found to having more than one is that each temple you build boosts your cities culture. course on the down side you have to pay maintinace on it. i seldom build the other temples unless i feel the city needs the culture boost or the people there are getting unhappy. having the holy cities for the other religions is a good boost for your civ even if you dont use the religion.

 

I would suggest that you have multiple religions. It is good if you switch to Freedom of Religion and it doesn't hurt to have more under any other civic.

 

You don't pay maintenance on building in Civ 4. Maintenance is based on number of cities, city size and distance from center of government. Having multiple religions in a city has no down size, unless somebody else has the shrine, then they can see your city.

 

Having multiple religion can have a downside. You pick one as yours and you want to spread it across the wolrd.. but sometimes the AI dont convert to the one you chose.

 

That can happen if you have just one religion too! As far as I know, no real downside to having multiple religions.

 

How does this work? What do I have to do to see into a city that I've spread my religion to?

 

If you have a the holy city of that religion, with the shrine built, and are running it as a state religion, then you can see every other city on the map with that religion. I emphasize you cannot see INSIDE the cities by this method, you need spies for that, but it is still useful to be able to see your rivals cities and immediate surroundings.

It is always best to have multiple religions in your civ. Only being able to build one set of temples and monasteries is a penalty, not a benefit, since the extra ones will give the same bonus. This far outweighs the AI getting a few gold or some easy scouting from a shrine, and in any case if you found the religion this is not an issue. You should never ever alter your research pattern to avoid founding another religion as it is always beneficial.

 

I mostly agree. But with the caveat that without proper planning ahead of time, it may be beneficial in certain narrow circumstances to delay founding it for a turn or two, if it will help you influence where the holy city will be.

It seems like the first choice for a holy city is one that has no current religions, so if you're about to found, say Islam, in 6 turns, and you recently planted a city on a far away island with crappy production, you might want to risk turning down the research for long enough to get some missionaries there and get a couple of religions running in what will be an unproductive city for a while. I think, but can't verify, that the new holy city will be one in your empire with the fewest religions, and of those, ones that haven't founded a holy city yet.

I find it sucks to found a religion in a boondock, newly founded city, especially if the missionary you are given for free for later religions fails in spreading the religion to another city that can get a monestary up in a reasonable amount of time.

Of course, you can probably avoid this problem by either A.) sending a couple of missionaries for your existing religions along with the settler to infect the colony as soon as it's founded (so that if it has two religions already, your new holy city will be somewhere else with only one religion (if my theory on holy city selection is correct.)) or B.) pre position your settler, but don't actually found a city in the turns just before discovering a new religion.

It's admittedly a limited tactic since you can't control completely where your holy city will be, but some influence is better than none, I'd say.

 

Not the case - it's a randomly selected city. It's common to see a second religion founded in your capital even if you've got another city.

 

actully you do. it doesnt show it per building but check your city maintenance cost and you will see it go up with each building you add to the city.

 

Actually you don't. The city maintenance goes up as your city gets bigger and as you gain more cities. The further away a city is from a center of government, the higher the maintenance it has as well. Look in the manual and/or the civilopedia as a reference.

 

more religions you have...more money if you found them. Also when you choose free religion civic, more happiness.

 

More religions are almost invariably better. In fact, I sometimes avoid spreading non-state religions to rivals because it only allows them to build more temples and monasteries, and therefore they get more powerful at my expense of building a missionary! Not a good deal.

 

Does having multiple religions stop early wars where the AI is upset that you have adopted a 'heathen' religion?

 

Only the religion selected as your state religion matters in diplomacy, so multiple religions doesn't really help in this aspect. However, the more religions you found, the less chance there is that an AI will be of a religion that you don't want them to be.

 

I don't like having extra religions, unless they're founded by me.