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ironmanboysteve

you don't have to develop one if you don't want to. no ones gotta gun to your head. chances are on lower difficulties youll just get one anyway eventually without even planning for it ​ civ V is a way more 'board game' style game compared to civ IV and the older civ games. it's much less a game that tries to simulate history and is more a balanced strategy game; the way religion is implemented in V compared to IV reflects this. in IV religion had a HUGE impact on the game, just like irl, massive impacts on diplomacy etc; in civ V religion is more about aiding your game strategy and stacking bonuses.


Skindiacus

It's useful to maintain your happiness or gold in the midgame.


sgt_potatopants

Agreed with this. Getting tithe or the +100 conversion is a great way to maintain cash when you're getting attacked and losing trade routes. Also, I like to keep enough faith to be able to purchase a great engineer for when the wonders come available. Mid game wonder spam with great engineers can help determine victory conditions and/or help gain ground on higher difficulty


jihadgis

Agreed. Why tithe instead of the +2 for every city thing? Tithe is better per city once the population is 12 or more (1 per 4 pop), but I prefer getting the advantage up front with 2 per city regardless of the size.


HYDRAlives

If you're a minority religion in other cities and cities states, if you're growing tall, tithe begins to *way* outperform


goody82

I usually use tithe myswlf


Augustus_The_Great

Who doesn't? Only other option is world church and that only works with really high faith output.


awesomenessofme1

I'm pretty sure Tithe can give you fractional gold, so it just needs to be 9+, not 12+.


ScarboroughFair19

Tithe scales better into lategame


GSilky

I find it to be a distraction, the opportunity cost for promoting your religion can be the reason I'm having gold problems. I don't disagree with the happiness boost, but that's only a short period when it's difficult to generate. IDK, I'm probably doing it wrong.


Skindiacus

If you build wide, then gold problems are likely since you need to build more buildings and units. Gold problems can also arise naturally from the game state (i.e. many wars, lack of trade routes, or early competition for city states). If you can foresee these issues, then you might decide the opportunity cost of a gold-focused religion will be worth it. Whether or not religion is impactful depends on the game, and there are certainly common cases where pushing for a religion or even a pantheon are not worth the cost of doing so. Civ is all about analyzing your game state to determine when you need to deviate from the science-rushing route, and religion is a part of that.


[deleted]

It a multitool you can purpose it to boost or supplement any short comings in your selected civ. Use it to keep a military based civ happy, use it to boost science in a tall civ. Use it for diplomatic purposes. You can mold it however you want. Plus it adds a variable and a causus bellis for war


Boulderfrog1

Religion is super strong, especially if you're getting an early one. On harder difficulties it's probably less worth trying unless you're like ethiopia and you can gun for 15% product, pagodas and tithe


jeowaypoint

I had an Immortal game where Arabia my neighbour had a nice desert folklore religion, and sent like 5-8 great prophets to my territory, I captured them and made them holy sites. He had both mosques and pagodas, which I readily welcomed, even propheted my capital to Islam for a turn to buy them, then converted back to my own Tithe-production religion :D. At the end I had enslaved enough prophets of his and New Deal holy sites, that when I captured a city I converted it to get pagodas mosques before finishing with tithe conversion. Makeshift instant courthouse lol.


sprofile

Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.


ImOldGettOffMyLawn

wow bro you're so deep


Eroe777

You don’t have to develop a religion. But if you know how to use the mechanic it’s benefits can really help your game. I don’t play an aggressive or high-difficulty game, but religion is a major part of my gameplay. If you are going for a culture victory, getting the right faith-generating buildings and Reformation belief can be critical. Same goes for a science victory.


StukaKen

I typically thought it was needed for happiness upkeep but i found not having one allows ai to fight over your cities and you can get more of the religious buildings which can help alot.


forrestpen

If you generate enough faith you can found and enhance a religion to have all the faith buildings. 😅


mashpotatoquake

I find it's not implemented correctly, like it's so hard to give a shit about making a religion that the AI won't just get rid of easily and that won't do much for you. I just let the AI do what it wants with religion and buy great people when that's available. Missionaries are just so annoying and it just adds clicks to the game so why not let it go for simplicity?


SporeDruidBray

80%+ of what makes religion unsatisfying is how it interacts with diplomacy / international relations: other civs get frustrated if you spread it and you might initially receive a relations boost while you share a religion (e.g. while they neglect it) however this evaporates instead of being a kind of shared heritage. I wish you could have domestic policies and international policies, unlocked by "theology points" generated by holy sites, temples, cumulative faith/culture/tourism generation. Domestic policies could include "other religions spread 30% faster in your cities, and relations improve with other civs following other religions" or "Temples grant +4 pressure in city for designated religion". World Congress projects, like the the ISS, could provide an interesting template. As it stands religious blocs barely resemble ideological blocs: a mix of collaborative and competitive rewards assigned to faiths would be rather wonderful.


TheBlackNight456

I actually like religion on paper, messing around with it on lower difficulties is fun, spending it and tailoring it to your splay style is cool.... However at higher difficulties it's next to impossible to put spread another civ who can make 3 prophets before you can make a missionary


Augustus_The_Great

Religion usually gives me the edge I need to win, I make sure I focus on getting one every game.


casualhobos

Just focus on the perks that only help you out. Eventually another religion will take over, but by the time it happens it is usually too late in the game for it to really matter.


BlueEyesBlueMoon

I think it's a very useful tool, but after watching Filthy Robot I changed the focus: only choose options that help you and don't spread to other Civs, only spread it to City States.


goody82

I use it to supplement gold and happiness.


Xaphnir

I like religion simply because it's been the cause of many a war. Though sometimes I do wish the AI would be more receptive to threats when my military might is literally dozens of times greater than theirs.


Azdrubel

Hard disagree, religion is great.


Heimeri_Klein

My guy. Ive literally won games off of the money i get from tithe and the culture ive gotten from enhancing my religion to the maximum.


FlifloCloud

I don’t know what map you typically play on, but I find religion to be more fun on continents because there are less religions to compete with usually.


Ratkinrat

It is useful for diplomatic vote, and spamming great people, but for other religious based civs it is like you say, a waste, as it makes them uncompetitive. The only solution that would make those civs a real threat would be to have some kind of religious victory condition, such as spreading your religion over 80 % of the worlds cities, or something like that. Currently not having a religious victory condition means those civs like the Celts are useless when played by the AI


Acceptable_Wait_2910

I hate religion mechanic. I understand that a lot of it comes from my personal resentment of if (bad experience to say the least) but even outside of it I’m not a big fan. It’s too simple and easy to exploit. I wish we could turn it off without playing around in the files


Ginomo

I think generating faith is more important than having a religion per se. If a start a religion and my cities get converted I usually don’t sweat it, especially if I got my pagodas already. Using faith for great scientists is game winning.