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Conquering Souls: A Comprehensive Guide to Religious Victory in Civilization VI

So, you’re aiming to spread the divine word and achieve a Religious Victory in Civilization VI? Excellent choice! This path demands cunning, faith, and strategic thinking. A Religious Victory isn’t just about spamming Missionaries; it’s about building a spiritual empire that resonates within the hearts of your rivals. To achieve a Religious Victory in Civ 6, you must ensure that your religion is the predominant one in at least 50% of the cities in every other civilization. This means converting their citizens to your faith until your religion claims the majority. It sounds simple, but the journey is filled with challenges.

The Pillars of Faith: Key Components for Religious Victory

Achieving religious dominance requires a multi-faceted approach. Here’s what you need to succeed:

A Strong Faith Economy: This is the bedrock of your religious empire. You need a consistent and substantial Faith income to produce religious units, purchase Great People, and maintain your religious infrastructure.
A Well-Chosen Religion: The beliefs you select for your religion are crucial. They should complement your strategy and provide significant bonuses, such as extra Faith generation, combat strength for religious units, or increased appeal for Holy Sites.
Effective Religious Units: Missionaries, Apostles, and Inquisitors are your soldiers in this spiritual war. Understanding their strengths and weaknesses is essential for successful conversion and defending your faith.
Strategic City Placement: Building cities in locations that favor Faith generation, such as near mountains, forests, or natural wonders, is crucial. Also, consider city placement in relation to your rivals, allowing for easier spread of your religion.
Diplomatic Savvy: Maintaining good relations with other civilizations can help prevent religious wars and keep your missionaries safe. If possible, establish alliances based on shared religious beliefs.
Civ Choice: Several civilizations are well-suited for religious victory. Consider Arabia, India, Indonesia, Mali, Russia, and Byzantium.

Crafting Your Religious Victory Strategy

The key to a religious victory is a carefully constructed and executed strategy. Here’s a breakdown of the key phases:

Early Game: Laying the Foundation

Focus on Faith Generation: Prioritize building Holy Sites in your cities and selecting a Pantheon belief that boosts Faith output. Religious Settlements is a popular choice.
Secure a Great Prophet: You must generate Great Prophet points to found a religion. Focus on constructing Shrines and Temples in your Holy Sites as early as possible.
Choose Your Beliefs Wisely: Select beliefs that complement your strategy and provide long-term benefits.
Expand Your Empire: The more cities you have, the more Holy Sites you can build, and the more Faith you can generate.

Mid Game: Spreading the Word

Produce Religious Units: Start producing Missionaries and Apostles as soon as you have enough Faith.
Target Vulnerable Cities: Focus on converting cities that are not already following a religion or that have a weak religious presence.
Use Apostles to Enhance Your Religion: Apostles can be used to spread your religion and to launch theological combat, converting or even eliminating rival religious units.
Establish Trade Routes: Internal trade routes will send your religion to all your cities. Sending trade routes to foreign cities can also spread your religion.

Late Game: Securing the Victory

Maintain Religious Pressure: Continue producing religious units and spreading your faith to every corner of the world.
Defend Your Religion: Use Inquisitors to purge heretics from your cities and protect your faith from rival religions.
Diplomacy is Key: Negotiate open borders agreements to allow your religious units to travel freely.
Monitor Your Progress: Keep track of the religious composition of each civilization and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Preventing a Religious Victory

Even if you’re not pursuing a Religious Victory, you need to defend against others who are. Here’s how:

Found Your Own Religion: This is the best defense. By having your own religion, you can use Inquisitors to eliminate rival faiths from your cities.
Convert Cities to Your Religion: If you can’t found your own religion, try to convert your cities to a strong, defensive religion.
Declare War: If a civilization is aggressively spreading their religion, you can declare war and attack their religious units.
Limit Open Borders: Refuse open borders agreements to prevent enemy religious units from entering your territory.
Be Vigilant: Keep an eye on the religious landscape of the world and take action when necessary.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What’s the best Civilization for a Religious Victory?

Arabia stands out thanks to its unique leader ability, Righteousness of the Faith, which reduces the cost of faith buildings and provides bonuses to Faith, Science, and Culture. Their unique Madrasa building also provides a Faith boost. Russia is also strong due to its Lavra which is a great holy site.

2. How much Faith do I need to found a Religion?

Initially, you need to amass 16 Faith to trigger the Great Prophet race. However, the faith threshold increases as the game progresses and other players secure Great Prophets. Act quickly!

3. What happens if I lose my Religion in a city?

With the Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm expansions, losing your religion in a city can negatively impact Loyalty. A city following your religion gains +3 Loyalty, while one that doesn’t loses -3 Loyalty.

4. Can I found a Religion after being converted?

Yes, it’s possible to earn a Great Prophet and found your own Religion even if you’re already following another. It will be more difficult if many other players have already founded a religion.

5. What are the key Beliefs to choose for a Religious Victory?

Prioritize beliefs that boost Faith generation, religious unit strength, or spread. Some popular choices include:

God King: Adds culture, faith, gold, production, science to your capital.
Religious Settlements: Provides a free settler with your first religion.
Tithe: Generates gold for your religion.
Mosques: Increase Faith output, Holy Site appeal, and provide a free Missionary charge.
Choral Music: Holy Sites provide culture.
Defender of the Faith: +5 Combat Strength to religious units fighting within friendly territory.

6. How can I protect my Religion from being converted?

Use Inquisitors to purge other Religions from your cities. Also, ensure your cities have a strong following of your Religion by stationing Apostles or Missionaries nearby.

7. Is a Religious Victory the easiest in Civ VI?

It’s situationally easy. Smaller maps favor Religious Victories due to less distance to spread. However, AI players can be quite adept at religious defense, making it challenging.

8. What’s the maximum number of Religions allowed in a game?

The number of Religions is limited and depends on the map size. It follows the formula: (Number of Players / 2) + 1.

9. Can I destroy another Civilization’s Religion?

Yes. You need to conquer their Holy City with an army, then use a Great Prophet and an Inquisitor of your Religion to completely eliminate their faith from the city. Without a Holy City, there can be no religion.

10. What’s the role of Great People in a Religious Victory?

Great Prophets are essential for founding a Religion. Great Writers and Great Artists are useful for culture victories. The Great Admiral improves your naval strength.

11. How important is Diplomacy for a Religious Victory?

Very important. Open borders are necessary for spreading your religion.

12. What are the Victory Conditions in Civ 6?

Civilization VI features Domination, Science, Culture, Diplomacy, and Religious Victory conditions.

13. What are Gurus useful for?

Gurus can heal and provide extra movement to adjacent religious units. But, they are not useful for converting rival cities.

14. Is religious victory the best option for beginners?

Domination and science are better options. This is because religious victory needs so much micro-management to look over your city and determine if you have been converted.

15. What do I need to prevent a religious victory from the AI?

Build Holy Sites, produce religious units, declare war, or form alliances with civs who are being converted.

Achieving a Religious Victory in Civilization VI is a rewarding challenge. By understanding the mechanics, crafting a solid strategy, and adapting to the ever-changing game world, you can lead your chosen civilization to spiritual dominance. Remember to check out GamesLearningSociety.org for more insights into gaming and learning. Go forth and spread the Word!

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