Is religion worth getting?

[Krall]

I’m still getting used to the mechanic of this game with Civ IV being the last one I played a lot.

Anyway, it seems like pursuing religion early on causes setbacks to my expansion, military and science with not a lot of benefit to having a religion.

In my current game Roosevelt/Prince I was the first to found a religion and now Brazil is eating my lunch in every other category. While I’m in the lead in religion I’m not really gaining much from it and Brazil is spamming out 5-6 missionaries to send to a city and convert it.

My last game I didn’t found any religion and I led in all categories and won a science victory.

[the smoking mค็็็็็n]

although religon has its advantages, and i do try to get one with most games, if you are not going for that victory you can basically move holy sites to low priority
if brazil has plenty of cities in rainforest, they will probably be mopping up everybody on the map for science and culture, not to mention gold and religon if they go that way

[Krall]

Originally posted by the smoking mค็็็็็n:

although religon has its advantages, and i do try to get one with most games, if you are not going for that victory you can basically move holy sites to low priority
if brazil has plenty of cities in rainforest, they will probably be mopping up everybody on the map for science and culture, not to mention gold and religon if they go that way

I'll have to check out their terrain, but so far they have a ton of cities and lead in science. Basically they're the early game super power.

[Exemplar]

Ordinarily, I don't trip over myself to get a religion. If the early game conditions are such that religion is dumped in my lap I'll take it, but you're right, under most circumstances, for design choices, it's ineffecient to pursue religion.

[anynamewilldo]

roosevelt is a win by culture civ ramping up the cuture darn late in the game. maybe a domination victory but air warfare in the game is still a mess and i just don't bother with it. his UU p-51 i'm guessing doesn't help much.

[Despiser]

Although I never pursue a religious victory, I always found a religion for the perks: production boosts, housing, culture bombs, faith as currency for units and science buildings, amenities or whatever your preference. Beware it’s first come first serve so the better ones are taken early. Housing I find useful to bridge the gap between early and late game buildings. Religion also plays a part in loyalty.

[Brown]

Holy sites are only important if you want to win a religious victory. They share the same adjacency bonuses as campuses. So build a campus in those tiles instead. My strategy is to use the "+1 Faith +1 Gold in Capital Card" in my Economic Slot in my government until I receive the first pantheon. Then you get to choose one pantheon which is a nice bonus. On higher levels, the AI just out produces you so you have no chance of getting a great profit before the AI grabs them all up. If you want to win a Religious Victory on higher difficulties go with Saladin as your leader. He automatically gets the last Great Profit.

[Krall]

Originally posted by TomAce:

Holy sites are only important if you want to win a religious victory. They share the same adjacency bonuses as campuses. So build a campus in those tiles instead. My strategy is to use the "+1 Faith +1 Gold in Capital Card" in my Economic Slot in my government until I receive the first pantheon. Then you get to choose one pantheon which is a nice bonus. On higher levels, the AI just out produces you so you have no chance of getting a great profit before the AI grabs them all up. If you want to win a Religious Victory on higher difficulties go with Saladin as your leader. He automatically gets the last Great Profit.

Nice tips, thanks!

Originally posted by Despiser:

Although I never pursue a religious victory, I always found a religion for the perks: production boosts, housing, culture bombs, faith as currency for units and science buildings, amenities or whatever your preference. Beware it’s first come first serve so the better ones are taken early. Housing I find useful to bridge the gap between early and late game buildings. Religion also plays a part in loyalty.

I didn't know it played a part in loyalty, thanks.

I know religion has those perks you mentioned, but in this version of Civ like with production they seem like small boosts. Everything seems to take forever to produce.

[View The Phenom]

Religion is useful if you have a plan for it, based on your gameplan it can assist with any victory type. Holy Sites can be useful if you have a plan for faith spending as well, but aren't districts to invest in without a strategy.

Despiser summed it up, there are a number of useful bonuses even if you aren't going for a religious victory. But you need to actively fight for the Great Prophets and Apostles in order to even gain a religion, or your choice of the best beliefs.

[ThePoeSalesman]

Originally posted by View The Phenom:

Religion is useful if you have a plan for it, based on your gameplan it can assist with any victory type. Holy Sites can be useful if you have a plan for faith spending as well, but aren't districts to invest in without a strategy.

Despiser summed it up, there are a number of useful bonuses even if you aren't going for a religious victory. But you need to actively fight for the Great Prophets and Apostles in order to even gain a religion, or your choice of the best beliefs.

Too right. Religion needs to be part of a larger strategy to get good returns.

[Lady Crimson (RIP)]

It depends on the number of civs.

The more civs there are.. the more important religion is (easier to spread, more to spread to).

But the harder it is to get it.

Like I play on 30civ+ maps.. you have to really rush or even buy out a great prophet on deity difficulty.

In general, in most games you'll probably play it's a low priority. Mostly get it for your first 2 cities tops and then stop there unless you get something unique from your religion or your civ to benefit.

For example Russia should always build it in every city, and grab every perk that is based around the holy site/temples.

[Martin]

Originally posted by Krall:

Is religion worth getting?

To quote the title..

Oddly enough, I always disable religious victory, because it just gets so messy in late game. And after all that building of commercial districts and science districts and fine tuning my economy I don't want to suddenly loose the game because some non civ managed to get a religious victory.. whatever that actually is.

But it can be used for other reasons, I use religion to buy units in mid/later game, to expand rapidly buying settlers but mostly traders and builders. Sometimes for the odd little lightning war and most often for the +10 defence and extra gold tithe.. which in some games can make or break you. For me religion is just another currency.

[Maya-Neko]

Religion isn't very useful, if you want to min-max your playstyle. A militaristic/scientific playstyle will outrun other playstyles in almost any case, as more advanced techs and units can't be stopped with faith or tons of outdated units alone. It definitely serves it's purpose in the long run and some civs are obviously weaker without it, but the disadvantages outweight the benefits in my opinion. I've never actually had a game, where i could keep up with my brother (who always plays the military/science-strategy) when i went the religious path. But after all, you also might just roleplay a littlebit with it, while ignoring the disadvantages of a religion. The AI is bad enough to win by any conditions most of the time.

Originally posted by TomAce:

On higher levels, the AI just out produces you so you have no chance of getting a great profit before the AI grabs them all up. If you want to win a Religious Victory on higher difficulties go with Saladin as your leader. He automatically gets the last Great Profit.

Since they changed the behaviour of most civs, it got much easier to get a prophet, even at higher difficulty. As for now it's more luck based, but most of the time you shouldn't get too many civs into a game, which try to beeline a religion (at least that's what i experienced at 7th difficulty)