The religion game

[Ming]

There is nothing better than watching the AI spam missionaries, while you spam some trroop. They spread the refligion, and then you rush the holy city. You probably have to drop your science rate for a period, but it comes back quickly after the holy city comes out of revolt. And you still have a more experienced army, while the AI has nothing

[rah]

I'm with sinz. If you've set yourself up to take advantage of it, infantry (or whatever offensive unit you have) and cannons is more that enough to take out anybody as long as they don't have tanks yet. The ai can keep their precious two GP, I'll take the army and take the city where they settle them. I'll try to squeeze that last tech out before doing SM.

[Blaupanzer]

I always go for State Property (Communism) so I pound right thru Sci Meth, usually as soon as I get Astronomy. The lost contributions of Monastaries are made up when the distance and colony expenses go to zero. Note, I play with diplo victory off so there are no AP hammers to lose. Libraries and then Universities are high priorities in my science cities. If I build monastaries it is for the culture points (1 more than temple), and the science part is a bonus. The culture bonus continues post Sci Meth.

I then race to Radio for the Eiffel Tower and especially the Cristo Redentor if my current civ is not Spiritual (usually even if it is). Extra happy and culture from the broadcast towers helps in newly conquered cities and ability to change civs every turn is key to dealing with end-game hijinks.

[rah]

Yeah, state property can allow you to boost the science slider enough to offset as long as you weren't the 5 monasteries in every city type.

I assume you meant "if my current civ is not spiritual"

[slnz]

Yeah, state property can allow you to boost the science slider enough to offset as long as you weren't the 5 monasteries in every city type.

It's situational. If you have a cozy 8 city corner of a Pangaea then SP doesn't do much except lock you out of corps (you rarely want a ton of workshops in these scenarios).

Spiritual isn't a big turn-down to build Cristo Redentor - after all SPI Civs get a +100% bonus when building it.

EDIT: it's an L instead of an I, btw... I know, I should have an avatar something like "^ that's a lower-case L btw"

[rah]

I stand corrected, but with a little flutter on the screen and it almost looks like an 'i'

[slnz]

It's ok - you're not the first, nor within the first 50th, nor the last

(To my defense, first context where it was used had an unambiguous lowercase L)

[rah]

But now I'll remember. At least for a few hours due to my quickly approaching senility.
They say doing mental exercises like war-gaming can help delay the onset.

What were we talking about?

[Theben]

Spiritual isn't a big turn-down to build Cristo Redentor - after all SPI Civs get a +100% bonus when building it.

Really? I hadn't known that.

[rah]

Neither did I, but except for denying it to another civ, what's the point? It's not like the GP points are going to matter that late in the game.

[slnz]

The other half of the wonder, being able to change civics each turn instead of every 5 turns, still applies. There are some benefits to this, such as shuffling between PS and US, or Theocracy and FR in a total war (save money, change to US and Theo, rushbuy unit in each city, next turn swap back).

[rah]

Oh, I thought the 5 turn rule was still in force and that was a mistake in description.
Never mind.

[Blaupanzer]

I go to Nationalism, draft 4 in cities near the limit on food or health, or go down to Vassalage for a few turns for the unit exp, then jump back when I choose, usually next turn. No 5 turn wait to switch between. Great late wonder, whatever win you are going for.

Once the AI detects that you've crossed a victory threshhold and are about to win, all hell breaks loose, with every civ at war with someone, especially you. The hammers from SP achieve a disproportionate value in building replacement units. Worth way more than the Environmentalism benefits, especially once our civ has reached Genetics.

[slnz]

Once the AI detects that you've crossed a victory threshhold and are about to win, all hell breaks loose, with every civ at war with someone, especially you. The hammers from SP achieve a disproportionate value in building replacement units. Worth way more than the Environmentalism benefits, especially once our civ has reached Genetics.

I don't think many argue that SP > Enviromentalism, Enviromentalism is arguably the second worst civic in the game, after Serfdom. It would probably be the worst, but you can play some nasty UN tricks to foil mass-corpo (or multilandmass SP) AIs with it.

[Blaupanzer]

Other than the fact that I never use it, what's wrong with Serfdom?