All Religions Strategy (ARS)

[Kristjan]

Try to be founder of all Great Religions. I succeeded yesterday with standard-sized continetal tropical map, low sea level, Marathon speed, Raging Barbarians by 1240 AD. I played Montezuma because Aztecs have free Mysticism.

I used GreenMod 1.74 and custom handicap settings (see the end of this post). I do not like the concept of giving AI bonuses, but it is really nice to have very high Barbarian activity

I founded 1 city and captured a Barbarian settlement. I expect to get 2 more cities by culture flipping in the very future.

Getting both Hinduism and Buddhism is somewhat a matter of luck, after which I immediately aimed at Judaism and started to improve my economics (The Wheel, Agriculture and expansion) only when I had 3 ancient religions in my pocket.

I did no tech trading before I was the single spiritual leader of the world.

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[Solver]

What's the point, though? You won't be getting that much more shrine income. You can spread two religions actively, but even trying to spread a third can be hard, and forget about spreading seven. You will get some advantages, but I think thta you would then fall behind too much in military and other research, unless you're really lucky.

[Kristjan]

What's the point, though?

First of all - it is cool

Second - it might be a good starting point to cultural victory.

You will get some advantages, but I think thta you would then fall behind too much in military and other research, unless you're really lucky.

Right now it is 1364 and the score sheet is following (known civs):

America - 843
China - 837
Japan - 795
Aztec - 692
Egypt - 669

I am slightly behind by score, but having only 3 cities (pop 5, 9 and 11) it is natural. I have not fallen behind technologically and I do not fear any military threat, having experienced army from the Barbarian wars & large body of defensive terrain between me and Japanese. Besides that, everyone except Egyptians share Buddhism with me.

If I enter trade screen with Americans, they can offer me Literacy, Drama, Horseback Riding & Construction. I can offer them Feudalism, Civil Service, Divine Right & Philosophy.

Divine Right is quite far in the research tree and one cannot realistically complete it first without strong economy.

[johnmcd]

I'm not clear on which religions you founded, the first three plus any of the others?

[Kristjan]

Originally posted by johnmcd
I'm not clear on which religions you founded, the first three plus any of the others?

ALL 7 religions.

[Solver]

I'd think founding 3 religions is quite enough for a culture victory, too . You can then probably get more culture by spending the rest of your time on culture than you can by going for the remaining 4 religions. But yeah, it's quite cool .

[Kristjan]

Third - a peaceful player can pretty much avoid religious wars that way.

[johnmcd]

I thought you said the Americans were offering to trade you Divine Right though?

[Nacht]

Founding all religions is definitely not an option at the higher difficulty levels

[Kristjan]

Originally posted by Solver
I'd think founding 3 religions is quite enough for a culture victory, too

BTW I could not get Culture Victory because my 3rd city was kind of crap...

Japanese declared war to me twice and on both occasions they were defeated to the ground. Actually I should have got rid of them for all after the 2nd invasion and won by score, having all the continent by myself.

I witnessed 2 major AI wars and on both occasions the winners were very determined to exterminate their foes.

I neither fell behind in research or militarily. Most of the game I ran my empire with 100% Science Scoring all religions does not have any considerable drawbacks because it is quite demanding task. And it does have some economical basis because you would get gold from every city in the world... And most of them have more than 1 religion present.

Of course it cannot be done in levels where AI receives extensive bonuses... Most probably it is even impossible to get both Buddhism and Hinduism in the first place.

[Kristjan]

Originally posted by johnmcd
I thought you said the Americans were offering to trade you Divine Right though?

No. Read my post again

[Solver]

You can get both Buddhism and Hinduism on some higher levels, too, but you have to be a bit lucky. I don't think it can be done on a big map, though - and you definitely need to go for Buddhism first.

[Veritass]

The best thing about this strategy is its acronym: ARS.

Of course, if you get the first religion, it can jump-start you to getting all of the religions.

I refer to this as the "Having One Religion Significantly Eases Securing All Religions Strategy", or "HORSES ARS" for short.

[Yosho]

Originally posted by Solver
You can get both Buddhism and Hinduism on some higher levels, too, but you have to be a bit lucky. I don't think it can be done on a big map, though - and you definitely need to go for Buddhism first.

(nods)

The big advantage to getting large numbers of religions is simple denial; it's not hard to keep the AI the religion you want them to be, and thus to keep control of diplomacy, unless they found their own religion; then it's much harder.

[Ijuin]

By having all (or even most) of the religions yourself, it ensures that civilizations you meet will have none. This means two things:

1: You get to pick what religion they will get, which means that they will never hate you for having the wrong religion

2; You get great shrine income from the whole world, while denying it to everybody else.