How important is it to found a relgion

[Oaks]

My first few Games so far I have always founded a religion. Not because I plan for a religion victory, just to keep other religions away. Is it ok to not found a religion for another victory condition, or should one always get one to keep the Ai from winning religious victory?
Thanks!

[Lady Grey]

I don't bother with religion in Civ 6 at this point. It isn't as useful as in Civ 5. The Pantheon is useful in the early game, so I usually take the Civic pretty early that gives me +1 faith in the Capitol until the Pantheon is complete. Buying Great People with Faith doesn't seem as useful in Civ 6 as it did in Civ 5 (it may just be me, but the game seems to rain down great people like candy). The resource cost for trying to fight a religious war just doesn't seem worth it, since the AI throws everything it can at it.

[Nasty_Bdfp]

At first I did prioritize founding a religion... but now I just ignore completely unless I play a civ that have a bonus related to it....
To get a great prophet early enough you need to invest into an early holy site... holy sites are bad early. They take a slot you could use to build culture district/ campus/ market... and then you're not even sure to get the prophet anyway, it could easily get sniped away by someone else. You could also try to rush the prophet wild card, but it's usualy way too late.
And then Religious victory is way too much of a bother to try going for it. It's ressources you could use spending on buildings (with the right religious bonus) / units (theocracy) or great persons.
Faith itself isn't bad, and there's always a risk of not being able to stop a religious victory if one player sart going nuts on religion while everyone else ignores it, but if the players going for a religion know what they are doing, a religious defeat isn't going to happen - most of the time. But honestly, Religions aren't really needed. Let the others spread their religions to you and use their bonus instead of yours.

A religion can be useful though, and it's better if there are 4 religions in game - so if the other players ignores the religious game I'll get one. But that's the only case.

[Finminotaurus]

Religions can give some really good bonuses, like gold, food or production bonus what makes game much easier and your country much stronger. I allways try to find religion if possible.

[Oaks]

Początkowo opublikowane przez SamBC:

Początkowo opublikowane przez oaks2nin:

Do I need Unlock the ability to buy great people with religion points? Or can anyone do it?

Pretty sure it's there from the get-go.

Good to know! Thank you.

[SpiderKhan]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Matimus:

I don't bother with religion in Civ 6 at this point. It isn't as useful as in Civ 5. The Pantheon is useful in the early game, so I usually take the Civic pretty early that gives me +1 faith in the Capitol until the Pantheon is complete. Buying Great People with Faith doesn't seem as useful in Civ 6 as it did in Civ 5 (it may just be me, but the game seems to rain down great people like candy). The resource cost for trying to fight a religious war just doesn't seem worth it, since the AI throws everything it can at it.

it's pretty helpful for geting certain great people before other players/the AI (on higher difficulties, or when you're underexpanded) does, though you can use gold for the rush too of course. Some great people are legitimately game changing, like adam smith and his free economic slot, both great scientists that increase civ wide university science production (I know one is einstein but I forget the other), or the great scientist and great engineer that do a ton for space projects (they work incredibly well in tandem), so using gold to get them before you hit the natural grab can be very important to speeding up your mid/end game. a lot of the other great people are sort of boring though, especially the great scientists. I wish there were more interesting ones overall, instead of a ton of 'free eurekas' or 'gain science next to X kind of tile' ones.

God king is pretty slow, so I usually don't bother with it unless I get 20 faith from a village in particular. urban planning's 1 production does a lot more for you.

[Roshambo]

I have lost one game as a result of not founding a religion. Was rather annoying. Suppose I should found one eveytime to prevent that from happening again.

[krabdr]

Traveler pegged it. You can buy cheap great people with religion. You can also buy some nice city upgrades such as walls, granaries, etc. These are good for small cities.

[VeronicaCardican]

How useful religion is depends a lot on what victory you are pursuing.

Religion is a great helper for cultural victory since you can get extra great work slots from cathedrals, fabulous relics and the faith helps you get the right great people for your great works slots. Also to get national parks, you need to have naturalists who can only be bought with faith.

Militarily, religion is so-so. You get to buy military with faith if you go Theocracy which can be a big hit if the timing is right but it may also be too late or too early for you depending how the map plays out. Combat bonus against cities of other religions is in but I don't consider that too hot.

Science and religion don't team up too well. You can get Jesuit to buy campus buildings with faith and you can pick the religious building that adds +2 production to help your space projects but that's pretty much it. (You could also take +2 science as a religious building but the production will usually be better.)

And for a religious victory it's needed of course. Having your own religion and defending it (an investment of about 1.000 faith in religious units for defense goes a long way towards that end) safeguards against other Civs winning through religion.

@krabdr: The granary et al via faith is only possible if you are suzerain of Valetta.

[Asane]

ya, only really use religion to protect against others.

I find winning religiously is too easy in most cases, so I avoid it.

[Martin]

Początkowo opublikowane przez evilgenius:

I like having a religion on diety, but not all civs are suited for it. Russia is great for example. Never have a problem defending against a horde of missionaries. 5 apostles is more then enough to wipe out a horde. And i find that the AI will stop trying to covert you for a while after you wipe a horde.

But if im going science or domination I usually dont go for a religion. (except when playing arabia, religion+science is great)

Dunno what it's like on diety, but on emperor and below, as soon as your city is full of worshipers of one religion or another, the ai seems to just stop trying to convert. Only seen spain & arabia trying to convert other religions that are in a city.

I usually try to make one, mainly because I always call mine the Warmongers. Some of the benefits like +10 def if your city has your religion and +10 attack in other's cities can come in handy. Plus there's things like monastic something, that stops your religions loosing faith in your's if your apostles etc are killed and you can also buy culture and science buildings with faith, as well as units etc if you adopt religious gov. Which can be handy at times, esp if you end up with huge amounts of faith. Then there's the ability to just buy out great people.

So all in all it can be useful. But I can see the benefits of just ignoring it completely.

[Traveler]

America keeps agreeing to not send missionaries and then they do it anyway.

[Martin]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Traveler:

America keeps agreeing to not send missionaries and then they do it anyway.

Yeh, if the missionary is already on it's way.. the ai seems incapable of stopping it from doing it's thing. If the missionary has been used and no more have been made, then the ai tends to uphold the agreement.

[Martian Patriot]

I've played 2 games now and I haven't been able to found a religion. Instead my lands become the frontline of massive religous battlas as all the AIs try to convert me.

[BladeSe7en [ICON_RESOURCE_FURS]]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Nirk the Man-Thing Stab-Cutter:

I've played 2 games now and I haven't been able to found a religion. Instead my lands become the frontline of massive religous battlas as all the AIs try to convert me.

You're doing something wrong if you're struggling to found a religion. I'm almost always the first one to found a religion on multiplayer or solo. This is what I do:
First tech choose astrology.
First civic choose classical republic. (It'll be the fifth civic you research)
As far as build order I build slinger, builder, holy site, monument...
As soon as you unlock classical republic choose the diplomacy card that gives +2 prophet points per turn. Or in turn you could always rush Stonehenge if you have stone available.

[Martian Patriot]

Początkowo opublikowane przez BladeSe7en:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Nirk the Man-Thing Stab-Cutter:

I've played 2 games now and I haven't been able to found a religion. Instead my lands become the frontline of massive religous battlas as all the AIs try to convert me.

You're doing something wrong if you're struggling to found a religion. I'm almost always the first one to found a religion on multiplayer or solo. This is what I do:
First tech choose astrology.
First civic choose classical republic. (It'll be the fifth civic you research)
As far as build order I build slinger, builder, holy site, monument...
As soon as you unlock classical republic choose the diplomacy card that gives +2 prophet points per turn. Or in turn you could always rush Stonehenge if you have stone available.

I'm usually too busy stomping on everybody else in the Ancient and Classical era to go for wonders. Also from what I've heard the amount of points to get a great prophet is random so you could get one right away or ~5000 years later.