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Looking God(s) In The Eye - (Everything You Wanted to Know About Religion in CIV But Were Afraid to Ask)
In the beginning….
Religions are founded and created by being the first to research a particular technology. These technologies (and corresponding religions) are:
Meditation: Buddhism
Polytheism: Hinduism
Monotheism: Judaism
Code of Laws: Confucianism
Philosophy: Taoism
Theology: Christianity
Divine Right: Islam
Religions will tend (though not always) to be founded in your newest cities. Thus, careful timing of your first settler plant with regards to founding one of the “early” three religions – Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism – can ensure your second city will culture-pop quite quickly. The “late” religions – Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity, and Islam – all get a free missionary when founded to help make up for the fact that they start later than the early religions.
What does this religion do?
If you have no state religion, religion does nothing (exception: Free Religion civic, see below.) except grant a cultural influence - +1 for the existence of the religion, and +5 for the Holy city. Once you adopt a state religion (which causes 1 turn of anarchy for all civilizations except Spiritual ones) various effects come into play. Any city that has the state-adopted faith gets one happiness and two culture per turn simply from the religion’s presence. Additional faiths that are not the state faith have no effect - LOSING the cultural bonus they had before (again, Free Religion civic being the exception.) The presence of the state religion activates the benefits of whatever your Religious civic is; otherwise, the Religious civic still costs the town money without giving an advantage.
What can I do with this religion?
There are three religion-specific buildings that may be constructed:
Monasteries: Available at Meditation
Temples: Available at Priesthood
Cathedral-Type (Level 2 temples): Available at Music
All three structures have the same benefits, regardless of the religion to which it is attuned. Monasteries grant culture, allow the training of the corresponding missionary, and increase research in the city by 10%. Temples increase the happiness and culture of the town by one, as well as allowing a priest specialist. Level 2 temples (Cathedral-type) grant 2 happiness, but only if the structure matches the state faith. Thus, an Islamic Mosque would not grant 2 happiness to a Hindu state. All Cathedral-type structures also offer an additional 1 happiness if Incense is present in the empire. Finally, Cathedral-type structures allow an additional 2 priest specialists, for a total of 3, and have a very significant cultural impact: +50% culture for that city. (Culturemongers, take note!) A fairly potent building, but quite expensive – almost as much as some of the cheaper wonders. Throw in the requirement of needing 3 temples per Cathedral, and you've got a cultural structure with some serious prep time behind it.
Wow! How can I spread my religion?
There are three possible ways to spread a religion:
Missionaries – built by a town with an appropriate monastery
Organized Religion civic- any town with the proper faith can build the missionary
Holy Cities – Holy Shrines spread religions to any town connected by a trade route, over time
Any town which has a religion present may build a monastery, provided you have the Meditation technology. You can then build missionaries from that monastery, which can travel to another city that does not have the faith and spread it there, consuming the missionary. The chance of the religion spreading is directly proportional to the number of religions already in the city. A city with no religions will always accept a missionary’s teachings. Once a religion already exists, though, there is a chance the city will reject the missionary’s beliefs, and the missionary will have been wasted. A city with six of the seven religions may go through quite a few missionaries before successfully introducing the seventh religion!
Alternatively, you can build missionaries by using the Organized Religion civic, available at Monotheism. This civic allows a player (at high upkeep) to both produce any structure more rapidly and produce a missionary for any faith that exists in the town – not just the state faith! The downside to this is that the civic is quite costly, and any town without the state religion is still paying the cost of the civic. Most people feel that in the early game, it is worthwhile to use this civic to spread your religion swiftly, as well as take advantage of the bonus to production.
Lastly, a religion’s Holy City may spread the faith of the religion (quite a low chance) and is much more likely to spread the faith of that religion if a Holy Shrine is present. Holy Shrines are created when the special ability of a Great Prophet is used in the Holy City of that faith (the city that founded the religion.) Although this rate of religious growth is not enough to really spread a religion through an empire on its own, it can help in the process. More interestingly, Holy Shrines may successfully spread faiths to places where missionaries cannot easily reach; foreign nations far away. It should be noted, though, that the Holy Shrine spreading effect only works if a city has NO religions – even one will block this “passive spreading” effect.
Woo hoo! So I should found and spread as many religions as possible, right?
Well, there are quite a few benefits to having multiple religions. Although Cathedrals to various faiths don’t work if the Cathedral doesn’t match the state religion, temples DO work – so a Christian temple, a Buddhist temple, and an Islamic temple all in the same town will in fact give you 3 happiness and 3 culture per turn, as well as allowing 3 priest specialists. Holy Shrines also grant +1 gold per turn per city that has the Shrine’s faith, whether the religion is state-supported or not. Thus an empire with four religions, all with Holy Shrines and every city believing in every faith is making four times their number of cities per turn in free gold! Monasteries are similarly cumulative – a town with all seven monasteries built is getting a huge culture and science boost!
If you’re using the Free Religion civic (available at Liberalism), having multiple religions is also quite useful. For every religion present in a city, Free Religion grants +1 happiness. So an empire that has three religions in a city and three temples is enjoying a total of six happiness, under Free Religion. The downside to Free Religion is that Cathedral-type buildings no longer work, since Free Religion removes any state religion you may have. Some players feel that the nationwide 10% research bonus makes up for this, however.
Founding multiple religions can also be quite handy for espionage purposes. A player who is following Buddhism as his state faith and holds the Buddhist holy city can actually see every city on the planet which follows the Buddhist faith, regardless of whether or not it is the state religion of that civilization! The ability to see into those cities (as well as one tile around them) has certain obvious benefits, especially if you decide to go on a….Crusade… or two.
Having control of multiple religions can assist you in influencing which religions spread where – make sure the civilization you want to ally with gets a healthy dose of your state faith, while any opponents you may wish to “set up” to take the fall later on are largely dominated by a faith that you and your allies do not share. True, the “heretic” religion may have spread from the missionaries of your empire, but no one needs to know that but you, devious ruler.
So is there any catch to this religion thing at all? Why shouldn’t I beeline straight for the religious technologies every game?
Like anything else in CIV, there are opportunity costs for anything. Players who are researching Meditation and Polytheism aren’t researching Archery, Pottery, or Sailing – and so may have lower growth, commerce, or exploration. Players not researching Monotheism can be researching bronze working or writing. Beelining for Code of Laws means giving up things like Monarchy, Metal Casting, and Mathematics. Straight to Philosophy? You risk facing knights! Similarly, an early rush for Theology may leave you so far back in development and defense as to put you in desperate straits. As for rushing Divine Right….don’t. Just don’t.
There are other side effects as well; if one of your religions which is not your state-sponsored faith lands in a new city before you are able to spread the state faith there, your missionaries have that much harder of a job to do. Holy Shrines will not be able to help in this instance. Some players also spend so much time merrily spreading religions throughout their empire that they find themselves in dire straits when an enemy who has been building military units comes calling. Like anything else, religion is a strategic choice – delve too heavily into it at the expense of other possibilities, and risk destruction.
Just how potent is religion in the diplomatic scene?
If two nations have the same state faith, the number of cities each empire has that are followers of the faith has a direct link to the bonus you get for being "brothers of the faith." Thus, if three empires are all Hindu, they will all like each other more, but the empire that is 100% Hindu will be more popular than the one that is 51% Hindu.
The opposite is also true - you can earn a lot of enmity from an AI if your faith is different than the state faith of that nation, and their nation is very heavily indoctrinated.
Faith can make the AI overlook major differences between your nations, or it can (and often is) the starting point on the path to total war.
Ponder then, good reader, the effects of your faith.... and spread the word accordingly.
In the beginning….
Religions are founded and created by being the first to research a particular technology. These technologies (and corresponding religions) are:
Meditation: Buddhism
Polytheism: Hinduism
Monotheism: Judaism
Code of Laws: Confucianism
Philosophy: Taoism
Theology: Christianity
Divine Right: Islam
Religions will tend (though not always) to be founded in your newest cities. Thus, careful timing of your first settler plant with regards to founding one of the “early” three religions – Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism – can ensure your second city will culture-pop quite quickly. The “late” religions – Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity, and Islam – all get a free missionary when founded to help make up for the fact that they start later than the early religions.
What does this religion do?
If you have no state religion, religion does nothing (exception: Free Religion civic, see below.) except grant a cultural influence - +1 for the existence of the religion, and +5 for the Holy city. Once you adopt a state religion (which causes 1 turn of anarchy for all civilizations except Spiritual ones) various effects come into play. Any city that has the state-adopted faith gets one happiness and two culture per turn simply from the religion’s presence. Additional faiths that are not the state faith have no effect - LOSING the cultural bonus they had before (again, Free Religion civic being the exception.) The presence of the state religion activates the benefits of whatever your Religious civic is; otherwise, the Religious civic still costs the town money without giving an advantage.
What can I do with this religion?
There are three religion-specific buildings that may be constructed:
Monasteries: Available at Meditation
Temples: Available at Priesthood
Cathedral-Type (Level 2 temples): Available at Music
All three structures have the same benefits, regardless of the religion to which it is attuned. Monasteries grant culture, allow the training of the corresponding missionary, and increase research in the city by 10%. Temples increase the happiness and culture of the town by one, as well as allowing a priest specialist. Level 2 temples (Cathedral-type) grant 2 happiness, but only if the structure matches the state faith. Thus, an Islamic Mosque would not grant 2 happiness to a Hindu state. All Cathedral-type structures also offer an additional 1 happiness if Incense is present in the empire. Finally, Cathedral-type structures allow an additional 2 priest specialists, for a total of 3, and have a very significant cultural impact: +50% culture for that city. (Culturemongers, take note!) A fairly potent building, but quite expensive – almost as much as some of the cheaper wonders. Throw in the requirement of needing 3 temples per Cathedral, and you've got a cultural structure with some serious prep time behind it.
Wow! How can I spread my religion?
There are three possible ways to spread a religion:
Missionaries – built by a town with an appropriate monastery
Organized Religion civic- any town with the proper faith can build the missionary
Holy Cities – Holy Shrines spread religions to any town connected by a trade route, over time
Any town which has a religion present may build a monastery, provided you have the Meditation technology. You can then build missionaries from that monastery, which can travel to another city that does not have the faith and spread it there, consuming the missionary. The chance of the religion spreading is directly proportional to the number of religions already in the city. A city with no religions will always accept a missionary’s teachings. Once a religion already exists, though, there is a chance the city will reject the missionary’s beliefs, and the missionary will have been wasted. A city with six of the seven religions may go through quite a few missionaries before successfully introducing the seventh religion!
Alternatively, you can build missionaries by using the Organized Religion civic, available at Monotheism. This civic allows a player (at high upkeep) to both produce any structure more rapidly and produce a missionary for any faith that exists in the town – not just the state faith! The downside to this is that the civic is quite costly, and any town without the state religion is still paying the cost of the civic. Most people feel that in the early game, it is worthwhile to use this civic to spread your religion swiftly, as well as take advantage of the bonus to production.
Lastly, a religion’s Holy City may spread the faith of the religion (quite a low chance) and is much more likely to spread the faith of that religion if a Holy Shrine is present. Holy Shrines are created when the special ability of a Great Prophet is used in the Holy City of that faith (the city that founded the religion.) Although this rate of religious growth is not enough to really spread a religion through an empire on its own, it can help in the process. More interestingly, Holy Shrines may successfully spread faiths to places where missionaries cannot easily reach; foreign nations far away. It should be noted, though, that the Holy Shrine spreading effect only works if a city has NO religions – even one will block this “passive spreading” effect.
Woo hoo! So I should found and spread as many religions as possible, right?
Well, there are quite a few benefits to having multiple religions. Although Cathedrals to various faiths don’t work if the Cathedral doesn’t match the state religion, temples DO work – so a Christian temple, a Buddhist temple, and an Islamic temple all in the same town will in fact give you 3 happiness and 3 culture per turn, as well as allowing 3 priest specialists. Holy Shrines also grant +1 gold per turn per city that has the Shrine’s faith, whether the religion is state-supported or not. Thus an empire with four religions, all with Holy Shrines and every city believing in every faith is making four times their number of cities per turn in free gold! Monasteries are similarly cumulative – a town with all seven monasteries built is getting a huge culture and science boost!
If you’re using the Free Religion civic (available at Liberalism), having multiple religions is also quite useful. For every religion present in a city, Free Religion grants +1 happiness. So an empire that has three religions in a city and three temples is enjoying a total of six happiness, under Free Religion. The downside to Free Religion is that Cathedral-type buildings no longer work, since Free Religion removes any state religion you may have. Some players feel that the nationwide 10% research bonus makes up for this, however.
Founding multiple religions can also be quite handy for espionage purposes. A player who is following Buddhism as his state faith and holds the Buddhist holy city can actually see every city on the planet which follows the Buddhist faith, regardless of whether or not it is the state religion of that civilization! The ability to see into those cities (as well as one tile around them) has certain obvious benefits, especially if you decide to go on a….Crusade… or two.
Having control of multiple religions can assist you in influencing which religions spread where – make sure the civilization you want to ally with gets a healthy dose of your state faith, while any opponents you may wish to “set up” to take the fall later on are largely dominated by a faith that you and your allies do not share. True, the “heretic” religion may have spread from the missionaries of your empire, but no one needs to know that but you, devious ruler.
So is there any catch to this religion thing at all? Why shouldn’t I beeline straight for the religious technologies every game?
Like anything else in CIV, there are opportunity costs for anything. Players who are researching Meditation and Polytheism aren’t researching Archery, Pottery, or Sailing – and so may have lower growth, commerce, or exploration. Players not researching Monotheism can be researching bronze working or writing. Beelining for Code of Laws means giving up things like Monarchy, Metal Casting, and Mathematics. Straight to Philosophy? You risk facing knights! Similarly, an early rush for Theology may leave you so far back in development and defense as to put you in desperate straits. As for rushing Divine Right….don’t. Just don’t.
There are other side effects as well; if one of your religions which is not your state-sponsored faith lands in a new city before you are able to spread the state faith there, your missionaries have that much harder of a job to do. Holy Shrines will not be able to help in this instance. Some players also spend so much time merrily spreading religions throughout their empire that they find themselves in dire straits when an enemy who has been building military units comes calling. Like anything else, religion is a strategic choice – delve too heavily into it at the expense of other possibilities, and risk destruction.
Just how potent is religion in the diplomatic scene?
If two nations have the same state faith, the number of cities each empire has that are followers of the faith has a direct link to the bonus you get for being "brothers of the faith." Thus, if three empires are all Hindu, they will all like each other more, but the empire that is 100% Hindu will be more popular than the one that is 51% Hindu.
The opposite is also true - you can earn a lot of enmity from an AI if your faith is different than the state faith of that nation, and their nation is very heavily indoctrinated.
Faith can make the AI overlook major differences between your nations, or it can (and often is) the starting point on the path to total war.
Ponder then, good reader, the effects of your faith.... and spread the word accordingly.
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