Religion Thread

[regoarrarr]

And is there any downside to converting to Islam? We would immediately get +1 happy in the capital.

(Obviously after the settler is produced - maybe when it's on its way)

The capital has the improved tiles to do it, so I think I'd recommend immediately going on to growth - I think the timing would be right that we could get it to 6 now, and have 7 by the time Monarchy is reached (Her. Rule) and 8 by the time our winery is produced and then 9 for an Islamic temple.

[sunrise089]

I can think of 2 reasons not to convert.

1) Anarchy turn (Any golden ages coming up? Probably not).

2) Templars are role playing, so maybe they will DOW us over some sort of religious spat.

I think converting is the best option though, in MP I always convert ASAP.

[Swiss Pauli]

I think the best time to convert would be after the Settler is completed.

I don't think Templars are taking their role playing that far: they haven't adopted a religion and get on well enough with Islam's founders (Imperio).

[regoarrarr]

And we have asked them for a missionary (right?), which they have failed to provide us. I'm sure Swiss Pauli can come up with some roleplay-y garbage about how we yearned for some sort of meaning to life and this was the only response we got blah blah blah

[mostly-harmless]

Originally posted by regoarrarr
And we have asked them for a missionary (right?), which they have failed to provide us.
That is a bit harsh. Missionaries do cost significant hammers plus the monastery as a prerequisite. As a 2 city empire (up to recently) I would be surprised if they actually have monastery built yet. Certainly not it Jerusalem. We know that.

I am in favor of converting after the settler is finished or later if it can be better timed with pop growth at Airstrip One.

mh

[regoarrarr]

Originally posted by mostly-harmless

That is a bit harsh. Missionaries do cost significant hammers plus the monastery as a prerequisite. As a 2 city empire (up to recently) I would be surprised if they actually have monastery built yet. Certainly not it Jerusalem. We know that.

mh

Well of course. That's why SP is the ambassador and not me. Before we sent it we'd ahem clean it up a bit :lol:

[Zeviz]

Normally, I would agree with converting right away. However, we are about to discover Monarchy, and it will take us some time to grow into newly found happiness. So there is no point in wasting a turn of anarchy now, with more happiness than we are ready for coming in 10 turns. Besides, by the time we grow into the happiness from Monarchy and Wines, we might get another religion spreading more widely than Islam by natural spread.

[mostly-harmless]

Good point Zeviz.
A turn Anarchy for Monarchy is probably better than a turn Anarchy for Islam currently.

mh

[regoarrarr]

Does our potential plan to take out Templars in the mid-term (and get a few of their religions) affect our desire to convert to Islam now?

[Zeviz]

Originally posted by regoarrarr
Does our potential plan to take out Templars in the mid-term (and get a few of their religions) affect our desire to convert to Islam now?
If we are planning to take several Templar cities, including a potential shrine in Jerusalem, we might as well wait before converting to a religion.

[regoarrarr]

That was kind of my thought as well

[sooooo]

How about simply asking Templars if their roleplaying nature minds us converting to islam?

[regoarrarr]

In the great person thread, someone talked about converting to Christianity (owned by templars).

So I thought that I would try and catalog which of our cities have which religions, for those folks that aren't looking at the game.

Of course, I don't have the game in front of me either, so I went through the past posts / screenshots. And I could be mistaken, but I show no record of any of our cities having Christianity? EDIT - Pink got it on T105

This is what I saw from the screenshots / turn reports:

Islam:
Something Fishy
Airstrip One

Christianity:
Pink Dot

None:
Mellow Yellow
China Beach
Green Acres
Cape Town

[sunrise089]

I think Christianity spread to Pink recently.

[regoarrarr]

You are correct, on T105 - I will edit my post.

[Sullla]

Yep, your list is correct. I would say that at this point, revolting to any state religion is not worth it. Going out of our way to spread Islam, Imperio's shrine religion, probably is a bad idea too, and Christianity is only in one city, so... yeah... Just not a big game for religion, it seems.

[sunrise089]

Just not a big game for religion, it seems.

Definitely agree, unless it is free during a golden age. In effect, the argument for this and Organized Religion aren't about the merits of the religion/civic versus the anarchy turn, but about the merits as a component of the golden age option. In other words the religion and civic together might be worth a little "virtual commerce/hammers" in our GA vs Academy example.

[Dreylin]

Templars are a roleplaying team, right? Do we think that if we converted to Christianity and proclaimed our faith & devotion to them, that we could get them on our side?

We would probably have to be seen to be actively spreading the religion to convince them, but maybe we could pursuade them to unite with us against the "infidels"...?

[Zeviz]

This idea sounds intriguing, but I don't think Templars would be willing to change long-arranged attack plans just because we suddenly accepted their state religion.

[sooooo]

In the spirit of reviving old threads ...

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6359/rel.jpg (http://img4.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rel.jpg)

We should pick a religion as we go into the mid-game methinks. Drafting is much better with theology as your units have at least one promotion.

So, any opinion on the most efficient way to spread a religion? We could just revolt to organised religion since Airstrip One would benefit as it plans to build buildings (needs national epic, monastery, maybe market). Something Fishy could then build (chop) us some missionaries.

I was wondering about using the next GS for a golden age. It probably doesn't get as much beakers as a lightbulb but it's still a good economic boost. At the same time we can change religion and civics. Next GS is due on turn 131, similar time to when SF completes its forge.

[sunrise089]

I can certain envision a golden age AFTER we have theocracy. Revolt to religion and organized, build missionaries, and then revolt to theocracy on the last golden age turn.

[Strow]

I don't post much however going by the belief that the Templars are roll playing wouldn't it be wise to take the religion they have? Also it couldn't hurt warming up with them to keep a three way trade with Bananas going to keep up with PAL while we war with Imperio. Just my idea of how we could ensure getting valuable techs and protecting us for a two sided war even if it looks unlikely right now.

[Sullla]

Personally, I think we have more important things to focus on right now than religious spread. Let's concentrate on building enough military to protect ourselves, settling our remaining 4-5 city locations, and developing our economy with cottages/plantations first. :)

I also think we get way better value out of our next Great Scientist by light bulbing Education than used for a Golden Age, but that's just me. Save our first Golden Age for an unwanted Great Artist that pops out at low odds from National Epic.

[sunrise089]

Well the golden age I describe above would save three full turns of anarchy in addition to the production and commerce bonuses, but I have no problem with an education bulb if it doesn't make sense to trade for it, or if we're contesting liberalism ourselves. I thought in general though we want to otherwise avoid duplicating research on expensive non-military techs.