so many missionaries

[samoyed1958]

so got the dlc and been playing, and notice the huge and I mean huge amount of missionaries in my area from another civ. I am spending more time trying to get rid of them then anything else. wish I had never bought the dlc now. will just play the base game from now on. and not recommend this game to anyone.

[pitonsnaboca]

Base game also has missionaries and other civs wanting to convert your civ to their religion.

If you're playing games without the religious victory condition, it shouldn't even bother you too much to get converted (unless you have a religion that gives a bonus you really feel you need).

If you have a religious victory condition, you should found your religion, build a shrine and a temple, get an apostle, launch inquisition and, after that, build inquisitors to defend inside your territory or cleanse your cities from other religions.
It's that easy, no matter how many missionaries they throw at you.

(also, if you plant a missionary in the city center of your cities, there's a huge chance they won't try to convert it and just pass along)

[zxcvbob]

I love it when my AI neighbor sends an apostle to my city and attacks an inquisitor I have parked there on a holy site. Unless the apostle has the Debater promotion (and sometimes even then) he will kill himself trying to destroy the inquisitor that heals every turn -- and here's the funny part: the AI then scolds me for converting his nearby cities. :D

I'm playing at the base game or R&F; maybe Gathering Storm is different (I doubt it)

[Lemurian1972]

Yeah, the religion AI doesn't change if you have DLC, it's pretty consistent across the board.

You will notice a big difference between whether you start your own religion or not. If you don't, you're almost certainly going to be ground zero for all the AI with religions. If you do, they tend to leave you pretty much alone once you establish in most of your cities.

[captainpatch]

The vanilla Religion system is pretty whackadoodle. Each time you create a new Missionary or Apostle, the Faith cost goes up. By the time that you are acquiring your 10th Apostle, the cost is so much, it exceeds how much Faith you get for ten or more turns... and it takes >25 Apostles and >50 Missionaries to convert a half dozen civs, and the Faith cost for that many is HUMONGOUS. Like, buying another Apostle could easily cost >20,000 Faith, to buy just ONE Apostle

About the only way to win in vanilla is by theological combat. Do everything you can to increase your religious units' combat value -- and in particular adopt the Theocracy form of government ASAP -- and go hunting the Apostles and Missionaries from other civs. Every time you kill one of them in combat, it reduces that Religion's presence in the nearby cities by 250 points and at the same time increases your Religion's presence by 250. Just three or four such combats is usually enough to convert a city to your Religion -- for FREE.

Of course, _losing_ those combats can work against you the same way.

Every time one of your religious units fights in theological battle, it reduces their combat value. (Just like regular units that have fought battles.) But you can't heal them out in the field. You have to run them back to on or adjacent to one of your Holy Sites. (And some few religious-focused Wonders.) Spend a few turns recharging and then go hunting enemy religious units again.

NEVER use an Apostles last charge in a conversion attempt. One-charge Apostles are best used for combat ONLY. So fight, win, recharge, and fight again and again. They are also useful to post as a sentry near a city that other Religions are likely to target for conversion. (Let them come to you rather than playing hide-and-go-seek.)

It's too bad that a religious unit that wins LOTS of battles does NOT get promoted like regular unit combat veterans.

[Terminus]

I think if you can withstand the initial missionary wave you are fine. The AI wastes all their faith points on it. Once it is over you can come back and convert everything if you want to. You just have to defend your own religion's main city to keep it from getting converted.