Why I have stopped founding religions altogether

[beetle]

Yeah, your recollection is wrong. Other civs' actions do not affect the faith cost of your Great Prophets (or other Great Persons).

That’s not quite right! The cost to found a pantheon keeps going up, as other pantheons are founded. Likewise, the cost to found a religion (i.e., the cost for your first GP) goes up as other religions are founded. The cost for subsequent GP is unaffected by other civs’s actions.

 

[GhostSalsa]

Likewise, the cost to found a religion (i.e., the cost for your first GP) goes up as other religions are founded.

No that's never been the case - it's always as-low-as-200: chance to pop starting at 200 accumulated faith, with the likelihood of popping at every turn after you have accumulated 200 but have not yet popped being higher or lower based on fpt.

Only pantheon accumulated faith cost is affected by other adopters.

 

[beetle]

Okay, I must be mistaken then. Prolly its because I keep getting more anxious (and thus watching more closely) as the available religions count ticks down...

 

[Pietato]

Correct me if I'm wrong,but I have heard more than once that,if an AI who has DoF with you converts your cities,then he/she is NOT reliable,i.e. a backstabber.You do know who likes to backstab right?In my recent few games,my good buddies Pacal and Askia spammed prophets and wandered around my realm,but NEVER converted my own cities,they only convert your CS,while Catherine the horse lover,converted some of my cities and unsurprisingly backstabbed me later.

Babylon was my closest friend throughout the entire game, who I never had any negative diplo hits with, and had nearly every positive hit. I still had to deny him open borders at one stage so his missionaries would decay, and I still had to station two inquisiters to stop his great prophets. He also converted my capital AND converted two more cities after I told him to stop.

So yeah, it is probably just luck or AI personality.

 

[JustinianIV]

Babylon was my closest friend throughout the entire game, who I never had any negative diplo hits with, and had nearly every positive hit. I still had to deny him open borders at one stage so his missionaries would decay, and I still had to station two inquisiters to stop his great prophets. He also converted my capital AND converted two more cities after I told him to stop.

So yeah, it is probably just luck or AI personality.

So, we have established that the AI backstabs with religion. Back to my original criticism; the Ai is too competitive with religion.

 

[Memoryjar]

I tried this on Immortal, not yet test on Deity. Just only one inquisitor near holy city, and never ever, AI try to convert my cities.
It doesn't avoid conversion due to foreign religious pressure.

 

[JustinianIV]

Another advantage that the AI has with religion; they can convert cities than move up to four tiles in the same turn! What the heck?!

 

[beetle]

Back to my original criticism: the AI is too competitive with religion.

IMHO they got the balance just about right. If the AI was less competitive, the game would be less interesting. Are you returning to your OP without trying anything different?

Yeah, I really hope that it's because I have been doing something wrong. I almost always play a standard pangaea with four cities, so perhaps that has something to do with it. I have always waited until I have enhanced twice before spreading actively, so perhaps that's the problem. I've also never considered not founding my religion in my capital.

Are your four cities typically all within 10 tiles of each other? Once you have them all converted at once, your internal religious pressure should let you all but ignore missionaries and passive foreign religion pressure. You are still vulnerable to GP bombs, but those become more and more rare as the game progresses anyway, and not founding your religion in your capital will probably take care of that in any case.

 

[sendos]

I've had one King game where the AI's had barely any interest in religion and the last 3 religions were founded mid-game. In my emperor and immortal games, the AI seems to found all religions by turn 100, which makes stonehenge a bit more attractive if you're after a religion.

Founding religion is all a matter of figuring out who your neighbours are. If your neighbours are going for piety and/or they're Carthage, Ethiopia, Byzantium, Russia and several other religious civs, there may well be no point in founding your own religion because your religious influence would be contained, making your founder belief relatively weak. The best approach is often to let other AI's convert you if they have religious buildings, and especially exploit the Jesuit Education reform off the AI who has it.

 

[Blitz Spearman]

In my last game (immortal) I worked hard to get the first religion, but 100 turns later there were 4 GPs in one of my cities, from 4 different AIs. It was quite funny seeing the AIs use them all one after another, the city changed religions 4 times in a single turn. I probably have a screenshot of that here somewhere...

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

i'm a bit surprised you find it so easy to found a religion at the 2 highest difficulties, without a Faith hut or a Faith civ...

I think everyone here is being polite ...

 

[Civsassin]

I find that founding a religion is about a 50/50 proposition on Immortal. Sometimes I get it and sometimes I don't. My goal early on is just to keep my own local group of cities with my religion. It is hard as stated earlier with the AS (artificial stupid) spamming Prophets and missionaries. The time you can spread your religion the most is after the race for Ideologies has begun. The AS completely ignores religion as Ideology becomes the chief discriminator. If I can get the 1 gold / four followers, I can pull in a ton of gold late game. That's what makes it worth while.

 

[reddishrecue]

Religion doesn't always come along. I usually don't worry about it because a religion gets to my cities with benefits eventually.

 

[JustinianIV]

i'm a bit surprised you find it so easy to found a religion at the 2 highest difficulties, without a Faith hut or a Faith civ....

Where did I say that I wasn't finding faith huts or using religious civs?

 

[JustinianIV]

Are your four cities typically all within 10 tiles of each other? Once you have them all converted at once, your internal religious pressure should let you all but ignore missionaries and passive foreign religion pressure. You are still vulnerable to GP bombs, but those become more and more rare as the game progresses anyway, and not founding your religion in your capital will probably take care of that in any case.

I haven't been making a specific effort to have them within 10 tiles of each other, but off the top of my head, I would be surprised if they were too far apart (at least most of my games). Still, I will keep this in mind.

 

[Memoryjar]

I find that founding a religion is about a 50/50 proposition on Immortal.

My own experience is 90/10 on Immortal, 50/50 On Deity.