America & religion

[CBR1100]

I'm trying to win a game on the Emporer level with huge map and marathon time scale. I'm playing as America coz organized/industrial are the best combination for my style of play. I've been lucky with the placing having a good sized continent all to myself. Unfortunately this means that I'm not getting religion from anyone else and there's no quick route to religion for America that I can see.

Does anyone have any tips for getting religion early for America? What's the quickest route through the techs without missing out the vital ones to one of the later religions.....or
Is there a way to trigger the conversion of religion from another race?

I've reloaded a few times from the initial start but just can't seem to get religion so my development is too slow. I can't tell you how much this bugs Atheist like me

There should be a way to survive without religion. The dev have gone a long way to not piss off any of the devout but what about us heatherns?

Edited....got the level names mixed up a bit. Third from the top level is Emperor isn't it?

[Leifmk]

Re: America & religion

Does anyone have any tips for getting religion early for America? What's the quickest route through the techs without missing out the vital ones to one of the later religions.....

If you're isolated that means you have to follow a pretty intense builder strategy to have any hope of victory. Which means you should consider going for the CS Slingshot, which means you have to research Code of Laws as soon as practically possible -- and you're very likely to get there before any of the AI civs, so you'll have Confucianism, at least.

If you have enough commerce in your starting position you can TRY for one of the earliest religions, but it's going to be a bit of a crapshoot. I have, however, managed to get all three of Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism, playing America on Prince level. That was because I got lucky and had three seafood tiles, so I spent the first umpteen turns building workboats and researching the relevant technologies.

In general, it seems that for civs who don't start with Mysticism, it is easier to get Judaism than the other two early religions, if you try for it. Probably because it has a handful of prerequisites, and it is less likely that any of the AI civs will choose to go for just that sequence of techs at the very start.

[johnmcd]

If you're playing against Saladin and Isabella and Hatshepsut it's unlikely you'll get any of the first three with a non Mystic, and they prioritise them until they get one. I played a game once where Asoka got all the religions except Judiaism.

I would say though, if you have a tile that produces more than a single commerce at the start it should be enough to get one most of the time up to Monarch.

[Dry]

Re: Re: America & religion

Originally posted by Leifmk
In general, it seems that for civs who don't start with Mysticism, it is easier to get Judaism than the other two early religions, if you try for it. Probably because it has a handful of prerequisites, and it is less likely that any of the AI civs will choose to go for just that sequence of techs at the very start.

I play at noble (have civ4 since new year) and for non mystic civs, I prefer to focus on terrain improvement techs. Judaism is not my target religion, because still too uncertain to get. I used to target christianism, but recently I have noticed confusianism is closer and thus probably a better choice.

[Arrian]

Go for confucism. Try the Oracle Civil Service slingshot in that situation (isolated with a builder civ like the US).

-Arrian

[gdgrimm]

Islam (Divine Right) is usually available for mid game founding, as well.

I had a recent game where I and 3 other civs were on a medium size continent and involved in Ancient and Classical wars. I wanted things to settle down a little and realized that none of us had acquired any religion. I teched to Divine Right, allowed trade to convert the whole continent, and ended the wars that way.

Well, actually, I had to end Monty's wars the old fashioned way. But the rest went peacefully.

[MightyTiny]

I agree with the advice given so far - confucianism is your best bet. Code of Laws is a good one to resarch early on anyway, because it gives you access to corthouses, which are very useful in getting your finances together after initial expansion.

[Arrian]

Especially as America - an organized civ (1/2 price courthouses).

-Arrian

[Willem]

Re: Re: America & religion

Originally posted by Leifmk

In general, it seems that for civs who don't start with Mysticism, it is easier to get Judaism than the other two early religions, if you try for it.

If I don't start with Mysticism, I'll always go for Polytheism right off. And I usually get Hinduism too. And this is sometimes going for Hunting first, which is always the first tech I go for. Only occasionaly do I have to continue on to Monotheism. This is playing on Noble.

[CerberusIV]

Re: Re: Re: America & religion

Originally posted by Willem


If I don't start with Mysticism, I'll always go for Polytheism right off. And I usually get Hinduism too. And this is sometimes going for Hunting first, which is always the first tech I go for. Only occasionaly do I have to continue on to Monotheism. This is playing on Noble.

Similar for me on Noble. If you go straight for Polytheism you should get it most of the time and can then leave Monotheism (for org religion) until after you have picked up the basic techs for military and improvements.

It is a gamble but works nine out of ten. If it misses you can either try for Judaism or go for Code of Laws and hope to get there first.

[Blake]

There should be a way to survive without religion. The dev have gone a long way to not piss off any of the devout but what about us heatherns?

When I want a religion, I usually send my catapults and swordmen at my religious neighbour .

You can easily survive without religion, maybe not prosper, but with a leader like Washington you can easily make up the lack of religion with more cities.

[Arrian]

The only thing that would *really* hurt would be the lack of a shrine. And you can capture those...

Heck, I've held onto Great Prophets before because I planned to capture a holy city that I knew didn't have the shrine. Notwithstanding the fact that it was total overkill (it was my fifth shrine, and and fourth I built myself), it was cool. I was playing as Mao, by the way. Founded Confucism, Christianity, Taoism. Prince level.

-Arrian

[MrPhil]

This may be a dumb question but, this is my time playing a Civ game.

Anyways, what is the "marathon" setting? The highesst I have seen is Epic. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

[Willem]

Originally posted by MrPhil
This may be a dumb question but, this is my time playing a Civ game.

Anyways, what is the "marathon" setting? The highesst I have seen is Epic. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

It's only available with the 1.52 patch. If you haven't got it yet, I'd recommend you do. It contains some performance improvements so your game should run better. Be warned though, some people have reported issues they didn't have before.

As for Marathon, it has a whopping 1200 turns, the longest of any civ game ever. It's not for the faint of heart.

[Arrian]

Marathon is to Epic what Epic is to Normal.

-Arrian