Can't get a great prophet!

[Salamander]

No matter how I play or who I play I can't seem to ever build a great prophet before the AI has taken them all! Generally play emperor but same problem on king too. Is Arabia my only hope? GP's are gone before I can even get a holy site up.

[paugus]

You need to generate Great Prophet points quickly. It's got nothing to do with faith. That means rushing to build a shrine, or getting a quick government with a wildcard policy slot (you can also play as Greece, they basically start with a wildcard) and slot the GP card you get from.. I think the Theology civic. You can also run the city project "Holy Site Prayers" to more quickly generate a GP. Do a combination of the above and you should be able to nab a religion pretty easily.

Alternatively you can build Stonehenge, but I don't recommend it.

[Salamander]

Thanks I've tried several times building Stonehenge too, done by AI by turn 30, not sure how. And before you can slot the wildcard you need next level govt, by the time I get there and slot the GP card they are gone soon after. Maybe I need to rush culture more?

Like I mentioned by the time I get holy site and shrine they are gone.

I may try Greece tho, haven't played that yet!

[Oaks]

Originally posted by Salamander:

Thanks I've tried several times building Stonehenge too, done by AI by turn 30, not sure how. And before you can slot the wildcard you need next level govt, by the time I get there and slot the GP card they are gone soon after. Maybe I need to rush culture more?

Like I mentioned by the time I get holy site and shrine they are gone.

Greece alway has the Wildcard slot :)
Give them a go.

[paugus]

Open the civic tree and click directly on Political Philosophy. Boost the prerequisite civics if you can to speed along your research. Don't bother trying to make cultural buildings to get there quickly, by the time you make it the AI will already have shrines down cranking towards a GP.

As far as why Stonehenge gets built so fast, I find that China seems to start next to stone very often, and they can use builders to very quickly complete ancient era wonders. They're usually the culprit when Stonehenge gets built quickly in my games.

Rome starts with monuments in their cities, allowing them to get to Political Philosophy (and thus, a Great Prophet slot) much quicker than most. Gorgo also generates culture from kills, so she can usually get there quite fast as well, though she starts with a Wildcard slot in her first govt, so it's kind of a moot point. Honestly, I would recommend going astrology > build holy site > start cranking out Holy Site Prayers (at the very bottom of the build list if you didn't know already) to get a prophet. Slot the wildcard policy if and when you're able, but 2 points per turn isn't really going to do much.

One last thing, the pantheon belief "Divine Spark" causes Holy Sites to generate an extra GPP per turn, so it's an option if you're just desperate for that extra few points. (Divine Spark rocks anyway, and I usually take it even if I'm not planning on even founding a religion)

[Azunai]

pretty sure you can also spend faith to "buy" a great prophet outright. will cost a lot. i guess a combination of holy site GPP and then buying it out as soon as you can afford it should do the trick. might be a viable alternative if you can grab a pantheon that generates bonus faith. stone circles or something (+2 faith from quarries). downside of that is that you will have to save up faith again to start spreading your religion, since you burned most of it to start it. but i guess that's still better than not getting one at all.

[Jeff]

on Emperor, you are also running into the fact that the other civs start with multiple cities so the early game is stacked hard against you.

[paugus]

Originally posted by Azunai:

pretty sure you can also spend faith to "buy" a great prophet outright. will cost a lot. i guess a combination of holy site GPP and then buying it out as soon as you can afford it should do the trick. might be a viable alternative if you can grab a pantheon that generates bonus faith. stone circles or something (+2 faith from quarries). downside of that is that you will have to save up faith again to start spreading your religion, since you burned most of it to start it. but i guess that's still better than not getting one at all.

Yeah, you can "rush" the GP with faith (assuming you've generated any, which I don't think is very likely), and the cost to do so is reduced the closer you get to being able to obtain it through points. For example, if it starts out as a 1000 faith purchase, but you have 58/60 points towards the GP, it'll drop to 100 or so faith. Not exact numbers, but they're inversely proportional to each other in a similar manner. However, it's usually better to save that faith for missionaries to start spreading, or apostles to add extra beliefs/start inquisitions, imo.

[BladeSe7en [ICON_RESOURCE_FURS]]

First district I always build is a holy site. For civics don't do them in order. Open the civics tree and click on early empire it's the fifth civic you should research. As soon as you get it use the card for prophet points. In all my games I'm either first or second person to get a prophet. If you see others ahead of you on prophet points you could always do the holy prayers city project

[paugus]

Originally posted by BladeSe7en:

Open the civics tree and click on early empire

Early Empire doesn't give you a wildcard slot, it unlocks Colonization, Land Surveyors, and open borders. Political Philosophy unlocks the first governments. Also, you need Mysticism to unlock the Great Prophet card.

[BladeSe7en [ICON_RESOURCE_FURS]]

Originally posted by paugus:

Originally posted by BladeSe7en:

Open the civics tree and click on early empire

Early Empire doesn't give you a wildcard slot, it unlocks Colonization, Land Surveyors, and open borders. Political Philosophy unlocks the first governments. Also, you need Mysticism to unlock the Great Prophet card.

Good eye. I was thinking political philosophy not early empire when I said that. And yes beeline for political philosophy to unlock classical republic then go back to mysticism for the prophet card

[Render]

I get a location with stone and trees so i can chop down the trees to build Stonehenge.
only takes a few tree tiles to get it.

[paugus]

Originally posted by Render:

I get a location with stone and trees so i can chop down the trees to build Stonehenge.
only takes a few tree tiles to get it.

That means you're also gonna need a builder and mining asap, which isn't always optimal for your start.

[BladeSe7en [ICON_RESOURCE_FURS]]

Originally posted by paugus:

Originally posted by Render:

I get a location with stone and trees so i can chop down the trees to build Stonehenge.
only takes a few tree tiles to get it.

That means you're also gonna need a builder and mining asap, which isn't always optimal for your start.

Getting mining is always optimal and a builder is always the second thing I build in my first city

[paugus]

Originally posted by BladeSe7en:

Getting mining is always optimal

No, it's not. Horse rushes don't need mining, archer rushes don't need mining, warrior rushes don't need mining, war-cart rushes don't need mining...

See where I'm going with this?

[Tatanka]

Originally posted by paugus:

Originally posted by Render:

I get a location with stone and trees so i can chop down the trees to build Stonehenge.
only takes a few tree tiles to get it.

That means you're also gonna need a builder and mining asap, which isn't always optimal for your start.

huh?