Using open borders

[clif9710]

I like to use religion, but I don't want others to spread religion to my cities so I almost always refuse open borders, though that can be helpful in wars.

How have open borders proven useful to you?

I've noticed that when other civs make a proposal to me that includes open borders, I can without fail get rid of that part of the exchange and the deal goes through anyway.

[SilverEye]

Having closed borders does not stop prophets and other religious units. They have the unique ability to go anywhere. You want open borders so that you can have some of the more advanced level diplomacy.

[Matthew]

I often feel compelled to keep borders closed. Not for religion, but because open borders gives a bonus modifier to tourism and on Immortal/Deity you often get hit with ideological pressure early on until you can get enough tourism to swing it back the other way. Denying open borders helps mitigate it a bit.

[knighttemplar1960]

Depends on your strategy. If you aren't going for a religion but are after, say a science victory, but you want the perks of a particular religion then you may wish to open your borders to the civ that has the religion you wish to receive. Missionaries from a civ that you do not have open borders with suffer attrition while in your borders meaning that the missionary may evaporate before it can use all of its conversions.

Keeping your borders closed also prevents an expansive AI from running through your territory and settling in a prime spot that you may want for yourself. Keeping the borders closed forces them to either declare war and go through your territory to make that city or take a long route around your territory which can give you enough time to settle that spot before they can arrive.

[Damsteri]

I never give open borders to other civs, but always get open borders from all AI civs for money (2 gpt, 50 gold, or 1 horse/iron at standard speed with neutral/good relations) at the point I have enough money to do it without hampering my strategy.

[Shortylax]

to protect your religion place an inquisitor to or next to a city

[stvlepore]

I look for them early when I'm exploring. Got a mod that gives +1 for proving the earth is round.

[knighttemplar1960]

Originally posted by Shortylax:

to protect your religion place an inquisitor to or next to a city

You don't have to waste the faith for that. Hang on to it and if an enemy missionary approaches buy the inquisitor then. It still acts as a deterrent but you can potentially evaporate the missionary with out attacking simply by letting it attrition out as it tries to leave your territory.

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by SilverEyesaac:

Having closed borders does not stop prophets and other religious units. They have the unique ability to go anywhere. You want open borders so that you can have some of the more advanced level diplomacy.

There is a slight exception to this in that missionaries take a form of attrition damage to their ability to spread their faith to other cities the longer they stay within a closed border.
This can give some level of protection against them.

[Grendalcat]

Well open borders are pretty necessary to get a culture win. At least with the AI that has the most culture. Otherwise, my use of open borders varies a lot. In other than culture win games, it is a lot less important. Can also be annoying when someone runs lots of military units through your territory to get at someone else, which makes it difficult to move your own settlers and Great People around.

[clif9710]

Originally posted by SilverEyesaac:

Having closed borders does not stop prophets and other religious units. They have the unique ability to go anywhere. You want open borders so that you can have some of the more advanced level diplomacy.

They take attrition damage which limits their reach in your territory.

[Huillam]

Originally posted by SilverEyesaac:

Having closed borders does not stop prophets and other religious units. They have the unique ability to go anywhere. You want open borders so that you can have some of the more advanced level diplomacy.

Missionaries take 250 attrition damage per turn in territory without open borders. That does reduce the power of their conversions and after 4 turns they're dead.

If you have a big territory with only few cities that's fairly easy to defend: have inquisitors near the border, missionaries that go deeper will be weakened to the point where they're not an issue.
Not many things can stop prophets from converting cities. One belief named "Unity of the Prophets" have them and inquisitors only reduce the amount of followers in a given city by half instead of eradicating it.

In my experience, offense is the best defense here: I like to play with more range and more pressure through beliefs (which may be only available to byzance in unmodded games if I remember correctly) in addition to Unity of the Prophets. The AI is so busy not having its cities converted that it can hardly waste prophets or missionaries anywhere else. Even better as I don't take an active part in that it has no negative impact on diplomacy. Even even better despite them wasting their faith on prophets and inquisitor, over time I still fully convert their territory.

[Grendalcat]

Originally posted by Huillam:

Not many things can stop prophets from converting cities.

Posting an Inquisitor in a city seems to completely prevent it.

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by Grendalcat:

Originally posted by Huillam:

Not many things can stop prophets from converting cities.

Posting an Inquisitor in a city seems to completely prevent it.

Same seems to happen if you have a great prophet in the city. Missionaries seem to often ignore cities that have an Inquisitor near them by about 2-3 tiles, I've been able to use this to protect more than one city with the same unit at times.

Unless the AI starts spamming you with missionaries, then all bets are off.

[Huillam]

Originally posted by Grendalcat:

Posting an Inquisitor in a city seems to completely prevent it.

Oh yeah I totally forgot that one. It's so obvious that I feel dumb as hell. >.>

[Grendalcat]

Originally posted by Amanoob105:

Originally posted by Grendalcat:

Posting an Inquisitor in a city seems to completely prevent it.

Same seems to happen if you have a great prophet in the city. Missionaries seem to often ignore cities that have an Inquisitor near them by about 2-3 tiles, I've been able to use this to protect more than one city with the same unit at times.

Unless the AI starts spamming you with missionaries, then all bets are off.

Well I don't know, I have gotten into "Great Prophet Duels" where my GP and an opposing
GP keep hitting the same city with their "Faith Powah" until one is used up.

Originally posted by Huillam:

Originally posted by Grendalcat:

Posting an Inquisitor in a city seems to completely prevent it.

Oh yeah I totally forgot that one. It's so obvious that I feel dumb as hell. >.>

Heh, I've played this game for a decade, and didn't know this until about a year ago.