Which is better? High priest or inquisitor?

[Vulcans]

Do you prefer to go for high priests or inquisitors?
Both theology and divine right take the same amount of research, 3200 after religious law.

High priests and inquisitors are similar units, in that they are both divine channeling spell casters.

I see them on nearly equal par, each having slight advantages for different purposes.
Inquisitors are stronger, and command is good for captureing oppponents. good for fighting aswell as casting (although you can only do one thing per turn)

But then high priests have deamon slaying, free promotion, and medic 3 really helps your stack, and can cause holy war if you have patriach. this makes a good support unit with medic, and depending on relations a holy war could really help some situations.

I see the need to initially only go for one of the level 3 divine casters, as there are probably many other important things you want to research. So it becomes a choice between the two paths.

Naturally later in the game you can get the other, as you can onlt have 3 of each, so having more divine3 casters then the national limit. But in the meantime I’d prefer to put the extra 3200 into some more essential tecs.

both upgraded from level 6 unit. so you probably initially only have a couple of level 6+ priests.

High priests (nat 3)
Req: Theology: 3200
Chaneling 1-3, Divine, medic3, Deamon slaying, free promotion.
One can also become patriach, and start a holy war.
7 strength, 1 movement, 240hammers



Inquisitor (nat 3)
Req Divine right 3200
9 strength, 1 movement, 240 hammers
Chaneling 1-3, Divine, medic1, Command
+50% against disiple units

Note, these are stats of wiki, 0.16, i haven't checked 0.23 stats, so there might be some more differences.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I'm pretty sure that High priests don't still have Demon slaying (it was kinda odd for AV high priests). Also, I think that thay now have the same level of medic and both get a free promotion. Also, High priests will abandon you if you switch religions, and I'm not sure if that is true for Inquisitors (however I do know that a priest doesn't have to be of your state religion to be promoted to an Inquisitor, allowing access to more spells if you switch religions). In general I would say that Inquisitors were better than a normal High Priest, but a Patriarch High Priest is better still.

 

[Angel-Julia]

how much do the AI trade? I’m trying to stop the Ai getting a altar victory, this nation is best buddies with another AI which is in the same religion as me. i expect trade speeds up their research. so if i can get the two nations to fight then it'll ruin their buddy relations and so they won't be trading so much and the AI won't get to altar so quickly(i doubt the AI would send much force in the holy war).

I am planning to declare war on this civ, and inquisitors would REALLY help out the war effort! becoming the strongest unit in my army, protecting my mages and converting the AI units.

Does the AI have a limit on how many times they can trade? Like the humans do? Or can they trade freely all throughout the game? how much trading do they really do? Is breaking their trade route worth missing out on inquisitors?

now i have a few have a cultist with over 27 experience. i'm running a tight Tec tree, skipping many things to keep up with the AI, so i don't want to waste research on both Theology and divine right, only one of them should be enough before moving onto strength of will.

so what is the best plan of action? divine right or Theology?
i want to break up the buddy relation to slow their trading, but i also want inquisitors to fight the war as i know I’ll be the only one on the front line of the war. the third AI is also a threat for AI altar victory.

 

[daladinn]

first off ....

theology almost always trumps divine right. the free promotion and medic 2 are insanely powerful. first off , you probably would prefer to keep your few level 6+ priests out of combat and by doing so you lose the benefit of command.

secondly and most important...

make one of your priests the patriarch and declare a holy war. those 2 AI will have to fight each other and you become immune to hostilities with the one thats the same religion as you. i can never stress the power of being able to call a holy war. now, there is a chance that the AI will sit on his arse , but , at least the other AI is held in a war state.

 

[R0GERSHRUBBER]

If I expect to have the Patriarch, I will go Theology first, hands down. The Patriarch is a beast, and being able to declare holy war is very useful.

Command is very useful, if most of my enemies are still weak enough that the Inquisitor will be able to win combats reasonably often.

 

[Caradoc]

For fighting, I much prefer the Inquisitor because of its high strength and the Command promotion. As the front moves farther from home, it becomes very advantageous to get replacement armies and garrisons from the enemy. Even though it's just a 50% shot, compared to an Archmage with Domination, I still prefer the Inquisitor because of the better chance of winning.