discussing religions (related to AU 101 strategies)

[MadDjinn]

I figured that I'd start this here, and will fill in more details later, so that we can discuss strategies in AU 101 without clogging up the DARs.

the ancient religions:

Hinduism vs. Buddism.. which to get first?

time crunch aims for buddism, as long as the AI is also headed that route and you beat it.

to get both, it's fairly solidly 19 turns total.

then get masonry followed by Monotheism to pick off Judaism, which is the easiest of the 3 to get.

next:

priesthood/writing gets you to the next step.

Philosophy vs. Theology.. which to slingshot to?

Phil is worth more beakers by ~400, but needs CoL to get it.

Theology is a quick grab post writing/priesthood... and you don't need to worry about the Oracle vs. CoL finishing (timing is a factor)

I like the Philosophy part better. If you time it right, and have already gotten Great Priest Points building, you may even be able to 'lightbulb' Theology shortly after the slingshot. (or before if you're paying attention)

I can't remember, but I'm sure someone gave a list of techs that interfere with lightbulbing key techs. if you slingshot Theology, then you may not be able to Lightbulb Philosophy after CoL (I think Monarchy interferes)...

so with the slingshot Philosophy route, you only monarchy to head for Islam for the last religion. (but diverting to currency/other techs for a bit may be best for growth)

[joncnunn]

If you want both Budhism & Hinduism, you'll generally need to research Budhism first.

A few turns should be cut from the second one if you don't build a worker nor a settler during them from the city growing from size 1 to 2.

Judism is indeed the easyist of the 3 early ones to get.

I've studyed the tech.xml carefully; Philosphacy is extremely difficult to light bulb via religion because it's so low on the religious queue. (Civil Service & Fedualism are higher) Philosphacy is much higher on the Artist and Scientists queues. (Guess which great people the AIs will be generating if you deny them religions)

By contrast, Divine Right is easy to Religious Lightbulb; just needs Theology & Monarchy.

[joncnunn]

oops

[Arrian]

I played this one, although after 1500bc my DAR notes just fell apart. Prince level.

I went Buddism first, then went for Hinduism and missed it by 1 turn. Got Judaism (ended up picking that as state religion), Confucism and eventually Islam. I cannot remember if I had a shot at Christianity via prophet... I think not, actually, and besides I desperately needed shrine income.

I could've had Philo via the Oracle, but CS is just so much more powerful I couldn't bring myself to do it.

-Arrian