What religion do you usually go for?

[Yuufo]

Just to know what do human players.

As for me, I prefer Confucianism, because when the game begins, I have no time for religious techs (I must put my worker to work). Moreover Confucianism stands on a useful part of the tech tree; and if you get beaten for this religion you can still hope for Taoism.

[Dis]

my games vary. My last game was archipelago map. So I focussed on fishing/sailing. I had to neglect the early ones.

I tried to go for christianity, but got beat for that. So I often get Islam. I like Islam.

but I actually voted for buddhism. That's the one I usually go for.

[Proteus_MST]

Hinduism, then Judaism.

Often other Civs research Polytheism (required for Hinduism) before myself, so I often get Judaism as first religion.
(but even if I get Hinduism as first religion I go for Judaism as second one)

[Azuarc]

It varies from game to game, but if I am playing for religion, I usually skip Buddhism because I can never win the race, and just go straight to Hindu.

If I get beaten to both of the first two, I'll probably end up getting Confucianism or Taoism. Judaism and Christianity take me too far out of my way, since getting them is almost exclusively good for getting them.

[Mozi]

I go for Taoism to reflect my playing style. I currently only play with Chinese because I'm a Chinese history major and a dork. So, I try to do all things Chinese of which Taoism was founded in China(Confucianism too but I'm interested in Taoism) and then I go for techs. like the compass, gun powder and printing press all of which were invented in China. So yeah, I'm just a history dork that likes video games, and this is the best game for me to recreate the past.

[YC4B4U]

Hinduism - but I haven't played at a level higher than Noble yet...

[Skanky Burns]

Hinduism. The early culture from religions helps in the beginning.

[Celerity]

I used to try and get Hinduism/Judaism, but that gets harder on higher difficulties if you don't start with Mysticism. I'm finding Confucianism to be a good one to aim for, and use my early game research for important things like Bronze Working (chops > all) and Writing. This gives me a nice head start on production and research.

[padillah]

I voted Hinduism but that's because you don't have an "all" category. I put quite a bit of work into getting all of them, and with a spiritual civ I can flip religions whenever I want and nothing happens. It drives the AI nuts because it doesn't want to be mad at me now but in a few turns it will be furious and then, when I contact it I'm their religion so they have to be nice.

Tom P.

[Philotas]

I have a hard time getting Hinduism or Buddism when playing above Noble, so I've been trying a quick push to Code of Laws to get me both Confuciansim and the Caste System civic.

[djpsychonaut]

I voted for Christianity because I almost never play as a Spiritual civ, which is virtually the only way to get Hinduism or Buddhism. The Spritual civs start their tech tree so that these two religions are ripe for the picking. Maybe in those few games where you don't have many Spiritual civs (not many for me, playing on Large maps with 9 playeres) Hin or Bud are realistic goals. The AI almost never goes for Christianity and usually beats me to Judaism and Confucianism.

I've even played games where I founded no particular religion myself, but once the other civ's religion spread to a few cities I adopted it. This game ended up working really well for me because I devoted no resources to founding or spreading a religion. I ended up with a strong ally (my religion source) who spread his religion like crazy giving me even more allies. I think this was the most peaceful game I've ever played so far.

In reality though, I agree with padillah and try to found as many religions as possible.

[Jethro83]

In real life, I tend to like Buddhism more than the other religions in this game.

But in the context of the game, I won't go for it if I don't start out with Mysticism. Without Mysticism, there's very little chance of winning the race for Buddhism.

I might aim for Christianity since that branch of the tech tree allows for Organized Religion and Theocracy, both very useful civics depending on the situation.

Alternatively, I might aim for Confucianism, since that appears on another useful branch of the tech tree. I might even go one further and grab Taoism while I'm researching in that direction. One game I played, when I was completely isolated on my own continent, I grabbed these two since all the others had been founded overseas.

I hardly ever actively aim for Islam, though I'll have a stab at founding it if its still available by the time I can research Divine Right. Especially if I don't have at least two religions I can call my own.


When I'm playing as a Spiritual civ, I'll try to found as many as possible, so I can assert some control over which religions my neighbours adopt and have the flexibility to change my state religion if the situation calls for it.

[Blake]

I usually go for conf when doing the CS slignshot.

I've also learnt the trick of watching for Buddhism/Hinduism not being founded in the opening techs, then researching the relevant tech, there's an excellent chance to get Buddhism that way, even for civs that don't start with Mysticism. (but most games both will get founded early on, it's one of those oppurtunistic things)

But most the time I seem to go for the religion founded by the neighbour I like the least . I get the holy city by marching upon it with many swords .

[baboon]

Since I go for bronze working and then improvement techs, I miss out all the early religions. I usually try to get Christianity and when I fail, I go for Islam. Pretty long research period for Islam, it slows me a bit down.

It doesn't play an important role in my games, but I have a Prophet waiting to build a shrine so I do want some religion after a while.

If no one founds Buddhism of Hinduism, I try to get it because I research Mysticism anyway to build Stonehenge.

edit: damn, the CS slingshot, that looks good. If I understand it well, it involves building the Oracle and getting Code of Laws of it and then researching Civil Service ?

Seems better than my current Metal Casting slingshot.