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What is the Point of Religion in Civ 5?

The point of religion in Civilization V is multifaceted, serving as a powerful tool to enhance your civilization’s growth, solidify your strategic advantages, and, most notably, significantly boost your chances for a Culture Victory. Religion provides crucial bonuses such as founder and follower beliefs that are tailored to boost certain aspects of your civilization. Most significantly, spreading your religion to other civilizations grants a massive +40% tourism bonus against those civilizations, which drastically accelerates your progress towards a Culture Victory. Beyond the cultural aspect, religion provides flexible buffs like production, faith generation, happiness, and even military strength. In short, religion offers a customized path to victory depending on the beliefs you choose and how effectively you spread your faith throughout the world.

Understanding the Religious System in Civ 5

Religion in Civ 5 isn’t just window dressing; it’s a dynamic system that can profoundly influence your game. Early game focus on faith generation allows the player to establish a Pantheon with perks that help the civilization through early game. Later building temples and shrines and growing cities help in building faith to generate a Great Prophet.

The Path to a Pantheon

The first step is accumulating enough Faith. This is achieved by constructing early religious buildings like Shrines and Temples, exploiting natural wonders that grant Faith, or through specific civilization abilities (like Ethiopia’s). Once you’ve accumulated enough Faith, you can found a Pantheon, a pre-organized religion.

Founding and Enhancing a Religion

With your Pantheon established, the next goal is to generate a Great Prophet. This requires accumulating even more Faith. Once you have a Great Prophet, you can found a formal religion in one of your cities. This act lets you choose Founder, Follower, Enhancer, and Worship Beliefs, defining the core tenets of your religion and the bonuses it will provide.

Spreading the Faith

After founding a religion, you’ll want to spread it! This is primarily done through Missionaries and Great Prophets. Spreading your religion to your own cities and those of other civilizations is crucial for maximizing its benefits, including the all-important tourism bonus.

Strategic Advantages of Religion

Religion offers a buffet of strategic advantages, allowing you to tailor your game plan to your specific victory condition:

Culture Victory: The tourism bonus against civilizations following your religion is a game-changer. Selecting beliefs that further boost tourism, like religious art slots or increased great work generation, can drastically accelerate your cultural dominance.
Domination Victory: Religious beliefs can provide military bonuses, such as increased combat strength near your cities or extra faith generation for each city you conquer. These buffs can give your armies the edge they need to conquer the world.
Science Victory: While less direct, religion can still aid in a Science Victory. Beliefs that boost science output or provide bonus gold for research agreements can help you race ahead in technology.
Diplomatic Victory: Some beliefs provide bonuses to city-state relations, making it easier to secure alliances and votes in the World Congress. Additionally, a shared religion can foster stronger diplomatic ties with other civilizations, giving you an advantage in trade and alliances.

Countering Religious Opponents

While spreading your own religion is crucial, you also need to defend against the influence of others. Here are some strategies:

Inquisitors: These units can remove foreign religions from your cities, effectively purifying them and reinforcing your own faith.
War: As mentioned in the source article, going to war can be a drastic but effective way to cripple a rival religion. Capturing their Holy City and using an Inquisitor to eliminate the religion there can be devastating.
Diplomacy (Limited Effectiveness): While the diplomatic option to ask another civilization to stop converting your cities is often ignored, it’s worth trying, especially if you have strong relations with them.

Is Religion Good in Civ 5?

As stated in the source article, religion is very advisable, although not essential. The benefits that religion provides often give it more importance.

FAQs: Your Burning Religious Questions Answered

Here are some frequently asked questions about religion in Civilization V to further illuminate its intricacies:

How does Faith accumulation actually work?

Faith is generated by religious buildings, natural wonders, religious city-state alliances, and certain civilization abilities. The more Faith you generate per turn, the faster you’ll be able to found a Pantheon, generate Great Prophets, and purchase religious units like Missionaries.
What are the best beliefs to choose when founding a religion?

The best beliefs depend entirely on your intended victory path. For Culture, prioritize tourism bonuses. For Domination, choose military buffs. For Science, select beliefs that boost science or gold. The flexibility of religion is a major strength.
How many religions can exist in a game of Civ 5?

The number of religions that can be founded is limited and depends on the number of civilizations in the game. Typically, it’s half the number of civilizations plus one. So, in a standard eight-civilization game, five religions can be founded.
Can you completely eliminate a religion from the game?

Yes, if you capture the Holy City of a religion and use an Inquisitor to remove that religion from the city, it will be permanently destroyed and cannot be refounded.
Is it possible to steal a religion from another civilization?

No, you can’t take control of another civilization’s religion. However, you can convert to their religion, and then use their religion to compete with other faiths, essentially using it against them.
What’s the difference between a Missionary and a Great Prophet?

Missionaries are cheaper and more numerous than Great Prophets. They are less effective at converting cities but are ideal for spreading your religion to a wide area quickly. Great Prophets have a powerful conversion ability and can also create Holy Sites, but are limited in number.
Can City-States have religions?

Yes, you can convert City-States to your religion using Missionaries or Great Prophets. This can grant you religious influence and bonus faith, especially if the City-State is a religious one.
Can you rename your religion in Civ 5?

Yes, in the Gods & Kings expansion, you have the option to rename your religion when you found it. This allows you to customize your faith and make it more relevant to your civilization.
Does difficulty level affect religion?

Yes, the AI receives bonuses on higher difficulty levels, including faster Faith generation. This makes it more challenging to found a religion early in the game.
What’s the best way to defend against religious pressure from other civilizations?

Position Inquisitors in your cities to remove foreign religions and ensure that your own cities are primarily following your faith. Building Temples and Cathedrals can increase the strength of your religion in those cities, making them more resistant to conversion.
What are the best wonders to build for religion?

Stonehenge is a great early wonder that grants a free Great Prophet, while Notre Dame provides a happiness bonus to all cities following your religion. These wonders can significantly boost your religious influence and stability.
What are some good Pantheon beliefs to choose early game?

“Goddess of Festivals” for +1 Culture from Wine, Incense, Silk, and Dyes is great if you have those resources. “Faith Healers” can heal nearby units. “Messenger of the Gods” improves science generation.
How much faith do you need for a Great Prophet?

It needs at least 200 in a standard speed game to have a chance to spawn a Great Prophet.
Can Gurus in Civ 6 spread religion?

Based on the article, Gurus can move adjacent to religious units and grant movement bonuses; however, they don’t directly spread religion.
How do you win through religion?

To win through religion players will need to make their own faith the majority in every civilization on the map, and the best way to do that is through a pair of religious units: the Missionary and the Apostle.

Conclusion: Mastering Faith for Victory

Religion in Civilization V is not merely an optional add-on; it’s a powerful tool that can significantly impact your game. By understanding the mechanics of Faith accumulation, religion creation, and religious spread, you can leverage religion to achieve your desired victory condition. Whether you aim to dominate the world through cultural influence, military conquest, or scientific advancement, mastering the art of religious manipulation is crucial to securing your place in history. Also, exploring game theories and educational applications can enhance your understanding of strategic gameplay, consider visiting the Games Learning Society at GamesLearningSociety.org to learn more.

What is the point of religion in Civ 5?