State Religion, or No?

[HaplessHorde]

How many of you declare a state religion early in the game? Recently I've just been avoiding declaring a religion, and it really helps in terms of keeping the neighbors under control. Without the goad of having a rival religion, it's a lot easier to influence other civs with trade.

[Willem]

But on the other hand, you make all the religious civics totally useless as they won't give you any benefits without a state religion. At any rate, I always have one since I always found at least one religion, and it's to my advantage to do so.

[Adagio]

In most of my games I do, the only times I don't is if I from the beginning knows a lot of civs with lots of different religions. I don't like it that no matter which religion I chose I'll end up pissing off 75% of the civs nearby

[snoopy369]

Often i'll not research religions and just wait to see what religion the AIs around me adopt. If one (say, Buddhism) wins out, then I just adopt that ... gives me much better relations

[Morrissey]

I always try to found at least one religion. If nothing else than the financial benefit. Found one, spread it around, build the shrine, pump science up a bit, get superior arms, burn the rest of the planet. Simple.

[Arrian]

I generally try to make sure I get one neighbor converted before I switch (if I am at all concerned about my neighbors, that is. If I have only one and they're going to be a target for me anyway, bah). I often found Confu, which gives me a free missionary. He often gets sent off to a neighbor to convert them... then I'll switch, figuring I've got at least 1 friend.

-Arrian

[Virdrago]

tried that in my last game... they didn't switch. And I only have Confucionism in my lands... naturally spreading, not by missionaries. Even my missions to India won''t have him change. Everyone else is Buddhist and so he stays with them. Now everyone hates me.

[Brutus66]

I would definitely recommend getting a religion, especially the early ones- buddhism or hinduism. It tends to spread to your neighbors, and they will often convert if just one of their cities gets infected.
Sharing a religion is a great way of establishing friendly relations with other countries, and I like to establish a good friend or two as early as I can. It really does wonders in getting tech (sometimes for free), money from their converted cities (if you built your religion's special building), and it's definitely nice to have an ally who's willing to declare war against an attacker.
I find the money that comes in from every city with my religion to be vital to being able to afford a competitive level of research.

[Addled Platypus]

yes on the religon,once I accept open border

and loose the hounds of mercenaries to get them to switch

works about everytime

most converted Civs- 2

[proviisori]

Let the neighbour get the religion and then you can conquer them when they are busy building temples and whatnot.

[Provost Harrison]

Religion is very useful for getting some advantages - that happiness bonus comes in handy quite soon in the early game, and that cultural bonus too, especially from a holy city. And then there is organised religion - that 25% buildind production bonus is not to be laughed at.

The key is to get a holy city and get trade routes quickly. Find where those rivers lead, find how to get around the coast to another civ quickly in order to have an available trade route. If you are faster off the mark at this than other civs, you are at a decided advantage in terms of spreading your religion. With this strategy in mind you can get your faith around your continent pretty quickly.

[HaplessHorde]

If your missionary spreads religion to a foreign city, does that city get a +1 culture?

[clarkcd]

It will if the Civ has no state religion or if the Civ has the religion just spread as its state religion. Otherwise it gains no inherent cultural benefit.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Virdrago
tried that in my last game... they didn't switch. And I only have Confucionism in my lands... naturally spreading, not by missionaries. Even my missions to India won''t have him change. Everyone else is Buddhist and so he stays with them. Now everyone hates me.

Generally I try to pick a target that has no religion yet. Then I may have to follow up with more missionaries when I have the chance, to make sure the civ stays Confucian (or whatever I am). Just converting their capital won't help if more of their cities are, for example, Buddhist. You need a majority. If they have no religion at all, one city converted will do (until others spread in). Get 'em early!

Obviously, don't bother with a civ that founded a religion. They're gonna spread their own.

-Arrian

[Virdrago]

Originally posted by Arrian


Generally I try to pick a target that has no religion yet. Then I may have to follow up with more missionaries when I have the chance, to make sure the civ stays Confucian (or whatever I am). Just converting their capital won't help if more of their cities are, for example, Buddhist. You need a majority. If they have no religion at all, one city converted will do (until others spread in). Get 'em early!

Obviously, don't bother with a civ that founded a religion. They're gonna spread their own.

-Arrian

Unfortunately, everyone had a religion already (except me). When I founded Confucianism, I made many missions to India (my closest neighbor). Now he has four Confucian cities and one Buddhist (and it isn't his capital). Meanwhile, my cities kept picking up Confucianism naturally (like a cold spreading). Maybe what I should have done is kept religion-free, but I would have no chance to use the religious civics. Now I'm trying to get someone else to switch... if they'll let me in.