Why Buff Byzantium UA?

[Vlynor]

In that case, I'll take:

Interfaith Dialogue: Gain Science when a Missionary spreads this religion to cities of other religions
Holy Order: Missionaries and Inquisitors cost 30% less Faith

and one of:

Tithe: +1 Gold for every 4 followers of this religion
World Church: +1 Culture for every 5 followers of this religion in other civilizations

depending on what you need.

then I'd add (still get two followers)

Choral Music: Temples provide +2 Culture in Cities with 5 followers
Religious Center: Temples provide +2 Happiness in cities with 5 followers

Since you're going to have them anyways. Likely Piety would also be a good choice (even if not going cultural) and boom - spam cheap missionaries to get both beakers and gold/culture (depending on what you picked).

Neither Tithe nor World Church require you to flip the city to your religion, so Interfaith Dialogue can be used against any city that hasn't flipped. If the AI is good at using missionaries/inquisitors, they'll constantly give you more 'target' population to flip.

See how it would work, though? The bonuses gained just from that would be great, even though if it was a UA, it would not be good by itself, it'd be great together in a full religion setup. The Byzantines will have a leg up as long as they follow through with religion.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Holy Order seems like the smartest Byzantine choice. That gives a lot of options with a second founder belief.

 

[Raiki]

Holy Order seems like the smartest Byzantine choice. That gives a lot of options with a second founder belief.

That depends, really; Since faith is expended to create GPrs, if the Byzantines need 3 to fill out their religion (even though I think that they'll probably get the bonus belief with the 1st GPr at the founding of the religion, needing 3 is still a possibility), then all of a sudden spending too much faith (in this case read: any) on buying missionaries/inquisitors becomes a bad idea. At least until your religion is completely fleshed out.

~R~

 

[MadDjinn]

Holy Order seems like the smartest Byzantine choice. That gives a lot of options with a second founder belief.

Only if your faith focus is missionaries and Inquisitors. If it's something else, then maybe it's not a good plan.

Ie, maybe you want to settle a lot of Prophets in a culture game (assuming that getting a Prophet doesn't increase your other GP costs).

Then you could double enhance instead:

Messiah: Prophets 25% stronger and earned with 25% less Faith
Reliquary: Gain 50 Faith each time a Great Person is expended

or if your faith output is going to be low, then:

Religious Texts: Religion spreads 34% faster (68% with Printing Press)
Itinerant Preachers: Religion spreads to cities 30% further away

and/or
Religious Unity: Religion spreads to friendly city-states at double rate
(Papal Primacy for the Founder of course)

What it comes down to is "how do I make my religion get that much better, and what helps tie it together".

That depends, really; Since faith is expended to create GPrs, if the Byzantines need 3 to fill out their religion (even though I think that they'll probably get the bonus belief with the 1st GPr at the founding of the religion, needing 3 is still a possibility), then all of a sudden spending too much faith (in this case read: any) on buying missionaries/inquisitors becomes a bad idea. At least until your religion is completely fleshed out.

~R~

It does depend, but I doubt it's going to cost them an extra prophet to use their UA.

See how it would work, though? The bonuses gained just from that would be great, even though if it was a UA, it would not be good by itself, it'd be great together in a full religion setup. The Byzantines will have a leg up as long as they follow through with religion.

It's all about the combinations. Randomly picking beliefs won't help much.

 

[Raiki]

...I doubt it's going to cost them an extra prophet to use their UA.

You're almost certainly right, but it has been discussed, and it's just one more thing we don't know. It's a known unknown. I hate those.

~R~

 

[elprofesor]

Hmmm... I think it's been confirmed that you get the extra belief when you found a religion. What we don't know yet is what kind of belief you can choose as your extra one. If it can be a founder belief, it seems like a reasonably good UA.

 

[SkaisonFire]

I just tought that if they can choose one extra BELIEF instead of the pantheon thingemajiggy that means you could choose to build BOTH cathedrals and mosque's doubling the happiness, culture and faith.

 

[MadDjinn]

I just tought that if they can choose one extra BELIEF instead of the pantheon thingemajiggy that means you could choose to build BOTH cathedrals and mosque's doubling the happiness, culture and faith.

you could, but since both of those buildings are bought with faith, you'd effectively double your faith costs for that religion, and hamper your ability to buy missionaries/Inquisitors or extra Prophets.

 

[Lyoncet]

Also keep in mind that being able to select a pseudo-UA at an early but still very opportune time can average out to be better than having a static UA that may or may not be that good (Arabia that can't expand far/no oil, Spain with no NW finds, landlocked England, Siam on a low-CS island/continent, Polynesia when ocean exploration is irrelevant). Unless you're cooking your maps, which isn't an illegitimate strategy – who wants to play a civ worthless bonuses? – but IMO shouldn't really be a factor in a discussion of how good abilities are since, well, you're building the map to (hopefully) get more leverage out of your abilities than you normally would. This is even taking for granted, which I think is a mistake, that the religion bonuses are inherently worse other civs' UAs.

And of course I'm ignoring the other Uniques for right now since this discussion is specifically about the UA.