Founded 6 religions on Prince... A few interesting questions

[AppleTheMan]

Guess it's time to crank the difficulty level up a notch.

I never thought I could do this, with isabella in the game as well! I am doing a cultural game, so I tried to found a few, and sure enough, the only one I missed was Confucianism which I lost to Hammurabi. The worst is that I could have gotten it all along. I'm very pleased to see the incredible boost better diplomacy gives! No wars! Wow.... first game like this for me folks. I think I'm going to prioritize the missionaries and spreading my religion a bit more.

The only thing that might make this a little off color is I used a small teeny weeny advanced start. But it was like 600 points really. All I did was found my city next to two gold mines, take mining, polytheism and put a mine on both golds.

Here are the questions I have from this game:
I was just curious as to what people think of advanced starts.

1. First off, what do people think of small advanced starts? Does it "not count?"
2. I stopped trading with Napoleon at Hammurabi's request and he has never wanted to talk to me for the rest of the game. Is Napoleon always like this?
3. When I reached the other continent there were only 2 civs there, and one of them had Taoism which I founded. AFAIK I was the only civ with taoist cities, but I could be wrong. No one else had taoism as their state religion. Is it possible for religion to spread to the other continent without anyone spreading it?

Thanks

[snoopy369]

The AI doesn't deal well with advanced start, so I'd certainly consider it a bit of a cheat (particularly such a small one).

When you stop trading with AIs, they aren't very happy with you... but it's not usually all game.

You can have theoretical trade route connections with cities without knowing they're there; once you have astronomy or whatever and the trade route is now possible, religion can spread (even if you don't see the other continent).

[Willem]

Originally posted by AppleTheMan
Is it possible for religion to spread to the other continent without anyone spreading it?

Religion will spread on it's own as long as there's a valid trade route between the civs. You don't have to actively spread it, though it can be be quicker doing it that way. And you'll need to manually spread it to any city that already has a religion.

[snoopy369]

Note that it does not need a trade route per se, in the sense of the trade routes that generate you gold (and require open borders, etc.); it requires a trade connection, ie a route that is passable based on current tech, but not necessarily an active route or even a possible active route (closing your borders does not stop the spread of religion, for example).

[Theben]

I've spread religions with caravels before, but it doesn't seem like the religion will take off until I get Astronomy. Does there need to be a connection to the holy city, or will any city with the religion work?

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by snoopy369

You can have theoretical trade route connections with cities without knowing they're there; once you have astronomy or whatever and the trade route is now possible, religion can spread (even if you don't see the other continent).

What I think is happening when your religion spreads to a continent you can't see is that someone else has contact with the other continent, and the religion spreads through them. I don't remember ever learning about a new continent not connected by coast as a result of the spread of religion. And where coastal connections existed, I'm guessing that my ability to learn about the new continent through the spread of religion was probably a result of an AI already having established contact. (Note that most of this analysis is based on the original version and Warlords, where the relationship between the spread of religion and visibility into rival cities made it very easy to keep track of where a state religion a player had the holy city of was spreading.)

[DaveV]

I remember an always war game on vanilla, where I couldn't get open borders with anybody. I met one of the AI civs by having my religion spread to one of his cities.

[Theben]

Re: Founded 6 religions on Prince... A few interesting questions

Originally posted by AppleTheMan

The only thing that might make this a little off color is I used a small teeny weeny advanced start. But it was like 600 points really. All I did was found my city next to two gold mines, take mining, polytheism and put a mine on both golds.

So you started with 2 gold mines and 1 religion? And you don't feel that's unbalanced?

That said, whatever makes you happy. It's your game.

[Addled Platypus]

you get the research bonus for each religon by building each monestary?

[Theben]

yes

[johnmcd]

Re: Re: Founded 6 religions on Prince... A few interesting questions

Originally posted by Theben


So you started with 2 gold mines and 1 religion? And you don't feel that's unbalanced?

That said, whatever makes you happy. It's your game.

I sometimes do an advanced start and regenerate repeatedly on Immortal. I can't beat it at a fair start but if I give myself a leg up at the outset I can really enjoy the race - still not beaten it, but it's always exciting, I know any mistake at any time and it'll have me.