Looking God(s) in the Eye: A Discussion of CIV Religion

[Silver14]

Originally posted by Symbiance


Does anyone have an answer for this one? I'm basically just wondering if there are any ways to combat other religions--like, "holy wars" or something--other than sending out a bunch of missionaries to try and convert cities.
It seems to make sense that there'd be some sort of huge effect for wiping out a holy city, but I haven't found anything in the manual that mentions it.

The immdediate effect or razing a holy city is that any AI civ that had the religion of the holy city as their state religion will be mad at you with a ( - n You razed a holy city! ) its been awhile since I razed a holy city but have seen it as high as -10 influence with civs that had it as their state religion.

Civs that don't have that religion as their state religion won't care, unless it was their city that you captured and razed of course.

Your own citizens won't care either even if the religion is practiced in your cities. Of course if the holy city is your state religion you would want to try and keep it just for the benefit of spying on cities that have it that are not in your empire and if it has that religions holy building constructed the extra money it brings in.

But basically the only additional negative to razing a holy city compared to razing a normal one is pissing off every civ that currently has it as their state religion.

[Crossfire]

Isn't everyone neglecting the one gold per city that you get for having the shrine of a religion? Why would you ever raze a holy city if it has a shrine? Heck, I would almost never want to raze a holy city just for the visibility it provides.

Great write-up. Thanks.

[Jaybe]

Why would you ever raze a holy city if it has a shrine?

Because you believe you wouldn't be able to KEEP it (militarily or from 3rd-party culture dominance).

Unless it is so far out there that you think it would be a drain on your treasury, not that I can visualize that being the case.

[Silver14]

You only get the visibility if its your state religion. Tonight I razed Athens, the holy city of Budhism just because they pissed me off earlier. They were the only civ useing that religion, it was more of a sugical strike and I didn't think it was worth keeping. I razed a few of their cities before they finished off my task force and bumped them from 3rd place to 5th place.

[joncnunn]

In my own current game w V.109 Buddhism & Hinduism were founded within three turns of each other, but it was Hinduism first.

One AI beelined to Mediation (Spain) while another beelined to Polythesim. (Mongols)

Originally posted by Krill

Beeline for Buddhism first and then Hinduism because the AI follows that same order so if you beat it to Buddhism you'll also beat it to Hinduism.

Nope, the Ai does not always go for Meditation instead of Polytheism. I have played plenty of games where Hinduism was founded before Buddhism (including a v1.00 game just now).

[johnmcd]

Trying to hog religion is potentially very dangerous too. In a recent OCC game I founded five of the religions, missing out on Buddhism and Taoism. The result was that the two AIs that founded those religions divided the rest of the world between themselves and left me as the only Hindu nation on the planet and suffering from a pretty severe lack of love. I ended up sending a dozen missionaries and paying hundreds of gold to the second place civ in order to secure their conversion and gain a defensive pact with them.

Any religion that slips through your grasp risks the creation of a large power block lined up against you, especially if you are isolated and unable to spread your faith effectively until caravels.

[Ancyrean]

Originally posted by joncnunn
In my own current game w V.109 Buddhism & Hinduism were founded within three turns of each other, but it was Hinduism first.

One AI beelined to Mediation (Spain) while another beelined to Polythesim. (Mongols)

In terms of beelining for an early game religion, my experience at monarch has been that if I don't start with a civ that has mysticism as a starting tech, it's difficult to grab buddhism before a civ that has it.

However, in that case, bypassing Buddhism to research polytheism right away usually takes you there before other civs.