Religion | New in expansion cgk Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
Basics
The Faith system fills up the gap created by the basic game, in which there was no option like this.
Each part of this system requires Faith points. You can obtain them just like Culture - by building new building and (with time) making new geographical and technological discoveries and thanks to City-States.
The impact of the Faith system on the game is considerable. Each civilization can have its own Pantheon, but not each can start a religion. Usually, the number of religions that can be started is less than half of the players in the game. That's why you should do it as soon as possible. The one controlling a religion has influence on all its followers. If our religion has a bonus depending on the number of followers (e.g. Tithe - 1 gold per turn for every 4 followers), it's important for it to spread as much as possible. Thanks to religions, you can also summon Great Prophets and build some buildings thanks to Faith points.
Of course we should care about having our own religion and not believing in something not fitting us. That's why the first technology you should develop after setting a city is Pottery. Thanks to it you will be able to build a Shrine - the first building giving you 1 Faith per turn. With time you should learn more technologies, letting you build further religious buildings.
After building a Shrine and waiting a few turns, it's time for the next step...
Pantheon
The first step to starting your own Religion is collecting a dozen or so Faith points. You can get them by exploring ruins, from City-States and by building a Shrine. Once you have enough (usually 10-15, depending on the map) you will be able to start your own Pantheon - the main pillar of Faith. There are numerous possibilities - as much as 22 - though you must choose only one. Choose wisely! You cannot change your decision later on, just polish it.
Each option has a certain bonus to collecting a given resource or to a different aspect of the game. I won't try to point out the best one - you should decide what's best for you.
Overall no option gives us a large development boost, though there are a few more useful. The ones influencing production seem a good choice - though you should check out which are more useful for you. The option which increases the food growth is also useful, as the city will develop faster.
The only option for those who want to use Faith to boost science is the +2 Science in cities with a Trade Route. Overall, not very useful further on in the game. As pretty much every option really.
Apart from that, most Religions focus on gathering Faith - which is useful for buying units, but only those low level ones....
After creating a Pantheon, you will have to wait a bit. In order to start your own religion, your civilization must give birth to a...
Great Prophet
The Great Prophet can do a number of things:
- Convert people in other cities to your religion. He can do it four times before disappearing. However if he does it even once, he won't be able to do any of the three other things.
- He can build a Holy Site on the map which will take place of any other improvement, connect strategic resources (but not Luxury ones!) with your empire and give us a bonus from the upgraded field in form of 6 Faith points.
- He can Enhance your Religion if you already have one. The upgrade lets you choose two additional beliefs, therefore two bonuses to your religion.
- He can also (finally!) Found a Religion, assuming you don't already have one and there's still place for it in the world.
The best way of obtaining the first Great Prophet is investing in... Culture and the Liberty tree. In return for filling up the whole tree (spending six points) you will get one free Great Prophet. With your civilization developing at a proper rate, you should have the social policy tree filled up way before you can obtain him with Faith.
After obtaining the Great Prophet, send him to one of your cities (at best the capital) and choose "Found Religion"...
Religion
Founding a religion is most of all making a few choices - firstly the symbol and name. You can already see your basic Belief (bonus, right below the name), to which you can add two more - a Founder and Follower Beliefs.
The Founder Belief is a bonus just for you - as you have founded the religion. The range of these bonuses is vast - you have to decide on something. Generally it's better to take something tangible - that is gold. If you're however planning on aggressively expanding your religion, you might want to choose an option which gives you Science for each converted citizen.
Follower Beliefs are bonuses given by followers of a given religion present on a given territory. One of the best is adding 1% production for each follower in the city.
Now you can also choose an additional Belief if you're playing as the Byzantines. You choose is from the available Pantheon Beliefs, which is very good as their bonuses are the largest.
From now on, the Faith points start to be useful - you can use them to buy certain buildings (Cathedral, Monastery, Mosque, Pagoda) is you choose a proper Belief, spend on special units (Missionary and Inquisitor) and also pre-industrial units after choosing a proper Belief.
Improving the religion
If you decide to use another Great Prophet, you can (or even should) improve your religion. That way you can add two additional Beliefs to it.
The second Follower Belief can be chosen from the ones left. The list becomes smaller as new religions are created, so it's best to improve yours as fast as possible.
Enhancer Beliefs let you improve the possibilities of spreading your Religion. You can choose between various ways of influencing the followers. The possible options are, for example, increasing the speed at which the City-States are converted or the power of missionaries.
Only after enhancing your religion can you use Faith to summon Inquisitors. It's a useful unit in case a different religion starts in your city. You can't always fully convert all infidels, though an Inquisitor can root out a religion - all infidels will become pagans or convert to the dominating religion.