Is it worth building missionaries purely for the +1 gold in your shrine?
Yes. Yes it is.
The simplest comparison is with a Courthouse, which has no side-effects and liberates some coins, much as shrine give you some coins. (once markets come into play it's not a perfect comparison, but it's better than comparing coins and commerce)
So lets see how many missionaries we can get for the price of a courthouse:
Quick: 80 hammers / 26 hammers = 3.07
Normal: 120 hammers / 40 hammers = 3
Epic: 180 hammers / 50 hammers = 3.6
Marathon: 360 hammers / 80 hammers = 4.5
So missionaries are equal to building a courthouse in a city with 6 upkeep (standard) to 9 upkeep (marathon). Of course for Organized leaders the courthouses are relatively better, although on Marathon you're still better off pumping missionaries than building a courthouse in a city with 4 upkeep.
Missionaries have the additional benefit of the income being incremental, you invest a relatively small amount of hammers then start getting a return on that investment (after a little movement time), in contrast with the expensive buildings that must be fully completed before they start giving a return.
Of course gaining income from missionaries depends on there being free cities to convert. Being forced to convert cities which already have a religion reduces the expected income somewhat. As the game progresses, higher multipliers in the shrine city reduces the time for a missionary to pay for itself, which should be enough to encourage further missionary spam.
Religion spread has the additional externalities of the happiness bonuses (state and temple), this is a good thing for your cities, and may be a bad thing when spreading to your neighbors, however your neighbors WILL get a religion of some kind in all their cities, so you may as well be the one profiting... and there is the diplomatic benefit, but that alone is worth spreading religion for.
In conclusion: Missionaries are outrageously good value on Marathon and should be spammed as long as there are places to put them; it's hard to find a better investment. On other game speeds they are moderately good value, definitely worth building.
Yes. Yes it is.
The simplest comparison is with a Courthouse, which has no side-effects and liberates some coins, much as shrine give you some coins. (once markets come into play it's not a perfect comparison, but it's better than comparing coins and commerce)
So lets see how many missionaries we can get for the price of a courthouse:
Quick: 80 hammers / 26 hammers = 3.07
Normal: 120 hammers / 40 hammers = 3
Epic: 180 hammers / 50 hammers = 3.6
Marathon: 360 hammers / 80 hammers = 4.5
So missionaries are equal to building a courthouse in a city with 6 upkeep (standard) to 9 upkeep (marathon). Of course for Organized leaders the courthouses are relatively better, although on Marathon you're still better off pumping missionaries than building a courthouse in a city with 4 upkeep.
Missionaries have the additional benefit of the income being incremental, you invest a relatively small amount of hammers then start getting a return on that investment (after a little movement time), in contrast with the expensive buildings that must be fully completed before they start giving a return.
Of course gaining income from missionaries depends on there being free cities to convert. Being forced to convert cities which already have a religion reduces the expected income somewhat. As the game progresses, higher multipliers in the shrine city reduces the time for a missionary to pay for itself, which should be enough to encourage further missionary spam.
Religion spread has the additional externalities of the happiness bonuses (state and temple), this is a good thing for your cities, and may be a bad thing when spreading to your neighbors, however your neighbors WILL get a religion of some kind in all their cities, so you may as well be the one profiting... and there is the diplomatic benefit, but that alone is worth spreading religion for.
In conclusion: Missionaries are outrageously good value on Marathon and should be spammed as long as there are places to put them; it's hard to find a better investment. On other game speeds they are moderately good value, definitely worth building.
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