On discoveriing all religions

[padillah]

I know there used to be a thread here rgarding this but I can't find it anymore and this seemed like a good piece of strat to let some new players know about.

There has been discussion about chasing the religions and if it's at all worth it. Well, one aspect that is worth it is that you can spread the various religions to all your cities.

This does two things:
1) You can switch whenever you want and it's no difference to you. If you are about to go inot negotiations with Iss and she prefers Islam then switch a turn or two before talking to her.

2) The more religions spread in a city the harder it is to spread more, so... If you miss one or two (and if you don't have Myst and someone else does you probably missed Hinduism or Buddism) you can make it extremely hard for them to spread to your cities.

Oh, and, FWIW the only tech you need to explore on your own is Writing. That allows you to trade techs so after that it's just a matter of trading. And this interface makes it a lot easier to understand how a trade is going.

Tom P.

[Josquius]

I am new to the game though...Isn't discovering lots of religions a bad thing? Does it not create conflict between religions within your own land- doing your enemies work for them. And dissapointing a lot of your people by having to choose one or the other?

[lazeboy]

ITYM "Alphabet"

[padillah]

Originally posted by Josquius
I am new to the game though...Isn't discovering lots of religions a bad thing? Does it not create conflict between religions within your own land- doing your enemies work for them. And dissapointing a lot of your people by having to choose one or the other?

No. The only religion that matters is the "state religion"(if you have one).

If you build a shrine to the state religion then you get even more bonuses. I've not seen anything that suggests that the presence of religions cause unhappiness.

Tom P.

[Drachasor]

Correct, more religions in a city can only help it, typically, though border cities chance of culture-flipping is partially religious based (such as if it has your state religion, your opponent's, etc).

Anyhow, the biggest reason to found lots of religions is to take the best advantage of great prophets. Each religion you found lets you build its special building with a great prophet. The special buildings give you 1 gold for each city in the game that has the corresponding religion. So if you found 4 religions an get 4 prophets, you could potentially be getting an extra 4 gold from each of your cities. It makes a huge difference in terms of how you can set your science rating.

With 2 religions founded I was able to keep my science at 90% for most of the game--I was at 80% for maybe 20 turns early on and later I did lower the rate for 4 or so turns for money to upgrade my old units.

It's all about the money, boys!

[Dis]

I can't found any religions. Even at the level below noble, I couldn't beat them to the early religions. It is extremely difficult. I don't know how the ai always out-researched me in the early game.

[Kassiopeia]

As far as I know, the diplomatic bonus increases over time, the longer you have been of the same religion as the other civ. In early game the brothers and sisters of faith bonus is +1 or +2, in the modern age it's already +6 (that's the biggest I've seen myself). As far as diplomacy is concerned, I'd rather go with one religion, spread it out, and bolster my relationship with the civs that catch and keep it. Switching religion on the fly also pretty much needs Spiritual, so your hands will be rather tied on that front too.

[Josquius]

Whats this I hear about foreign religions causing trouble then?

[Kassiopeia]

Yes, a heathen religion will cause a negative in relations, but I'd rather take three strong allies over six not-really-friendly-but-not-really-hostile-either civilizations. The danger being that an ambivalent Civ is likely to declare war, but you have no idea which one of them it may be, but if you know three Civs which hate your guys, you can plan a little. (My mindset is that the AI will declare war on me sooner or later.)

[padillah]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
As far as I know, the diplomatic bonus increases over time, the longer you have been of the same religion as the other civ. In early game the brothers and sisters of faith bonus is +1 or +2, in the modern age it's already +6 (that's the biggest I've seen myself). As far as diplomacy is concerned, I'd rather go with one religion, spread it out, and bolster my relationship with the civs that catch and keep it. Switching religion on the fly also pretty much needs Spiritual, so your hands will be rather tied on that front too.

No, no. What you do is grab as many as you can. That way you won't run up against others of a different religion... EVER.

You don't have to switch back and forth but it is open to you if that's what the situation calls for. But, like you say, staying one religion is a huge bonus later.

Also, you don't HAVE to spread a religion once you have it. You can just keep it to your self. If you are lucky like me you will get a few beore discovering your third city. Since Holy Cities tend away from the capitol you will end up with two or three in one city. Cut it off from the rest of the world (no trade) and the religions will just sit there with no place to go. (or you can just go into the XML and disable the other religions.)

Tom P.

[EscapedGoat]

unfortunately, you can't realistically found all religions on the harder difficulties with any type of consistency. You can on the lower though, and it's an okay strategy. It makes you very flexible in religious matters.

[Dis]

I can't find any religions even on warlord . I always lose out of the 2 early ones by 1 or 2 turns.

[Skanky Burns]

Multiple religions are great, particularly if you own them all. Even if you don't, though, the cultural bounty you get from them is insane.

By 1744ad, my capital is producing 828 culture per turn due to each cathedral-type building raising culture output by 50%. Each religion gives you extra culture-generating buildings as well as the associated building benefits for each of them. You can even make 7 people happy with cheap temples.

This example is from a warlord game where I did grab all religions. I still have more cathedrals to build, too. 1744 AD.

[khumak]

On the harder levels you'll almost always get beat to the first 2 but you can usually snag the 3rd, especially if you start with mysticism.

[Drachasor]

On noble you can almost always found buddhism even if you don't start with mysticism. Just head straight for it before anything else. Usually Judaism isn't hard to get either. I imagine that will start changing on harder difficulty levels, but Judaism should almost always be easy to get (I doubt the AI would tech straight for it).

-Drachasor