Played out my test game into pretty much the end game. I confirmed that Monastic Isolation belief does indeed prevent loss of religious pressure when a missionary/apostle gets murdered by a military unit (not just death in religious combat). This is significant because it means that we can send a flood of units across the border, and even if each gets just one spread it before dying we can overcome them. And if they build Inquisiters then even better! Even if we lose the exchange 3:1, we will be gaining influence over a wide area for the few that we are able to kill.
We can send sacrificial mounted units to cover our apostles. Martyering a unit takes a movement point (not automatic anymore). Russian Cossacks would be able to kill them since they keep their remaining movement points, but all other attackers would use up all movement points killing the covering unit and wouldn’t be able to kill the missionary on the same turn. A mounted unit could soak up a couple attacks, and even a scout might work as an escort, although it only has 3 moves compared to the missionary’s 4.
The +1 housing didn’t impress me much, but I was playing so fast that I wasn’t doing any forward planning at all. Mostly I was trying to confirm how Monastics Isolation belief worked. I took the +2 per foreign converted city belief which did make a noticeable difference as enemy cities started getting converted. For the category, that might be the best available belief remaining when we found our religion.
Gold was an issue as I built a ton of Mamluk to cover my missionaries. But routing trade routes to city states went a long way towards keeping gold in the black.
Hmm, so we are thinking about going with a religious victory. Very interesting, Russia is going to be the problem there. As you said Cossacks, and the fact they most likely will be able to get more faith then us. However it is a good goal to shoot from. If they are our neighbor then that may make converting them a bit easier.
Ultimately you make the decision since you are stuck with the consequences (whether they be good or bad) and I will support you in whatever path you take. I do think though that Arabia is uniquely equipped to pursue religious victory from the very beginning. The strong science is a key, allowing to keep up in military tech while devoting additional resources to religion. Arabia gets +1 for each foreign city converted so that is an additional advantage for spreading the faith wide. Basically you can pursue science and faith while lagging in other areas.
Russia has an early advantage in faith due to half price HS, but our worship building and Madrassa gives us a long-term advantage. And the main faith generation doesn’t really ramp up until Theocracy. I think that Russia should be one of our first targets, to catch them unaware. If they take Jesuit Education that will be a large drain on their faith output.
If you do decide to go religious victory then Oracle I think is unnecessary and a distraction from the goal. We’ll want to use every last point of faith towards victory, and no GPerson that I am aware of aids religious victory directly. An early monument will provide as much culture as the inspiration that will be skipped. And the additional cigs can build a commercial hub or HS.
Goddess of the Harvest I think takes top pantheon spot due to denial from other players. If that is gone, then Stone Circles does look like a strong backup option.
The religious conversion formula was un-earthed on Civ Fanatics: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/f...648/page-3 I link to 3rd page because that is where things get figured out. I did skim through the rest of the thread. It says that the thread is closed due to obsolete information, but in reality the mechanics seem to be the same, just the major UI overhaul in the Fall 2017 patch. The new thread is here: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/s...on.623723/ and has some useful information but doesn't have the formula.
To sum up:
Pressure for each religion is stored separately
In a shocking break from the norm, the UI actually reveals the actual amount of pressure accumulated for each religion yes, the actual numbers for the accumulated pressure are revealed when each religion is moused-over! [Why these, but not the amount of food in the box or science invested in a tech ]
The number of converted citizens is found by the following formula ... calculated independently for each religion:
Based on the formula, it is much more difficult to convert cities which follow another religion. For civs which follow another religion, Apostles look like the way to go rather than missionaries. Translator for 3x effective can quickly catch up and overcome an existing religion. The promotion which reduces pressure of another religion by 75% reducing the other pressure of a religion is very valuable, especially at cities with an entrenched religion.
It is almost impossible to convert all pop of a city. It is very difficult to get beyond about 70% of the population converted, therefore the +1 per 4 citizen beliefs are much inferior to +2 per converted city.
Ok only a couple screenshots from this turn and the next. Turn 26 report will have all info for ya.
First me met Krill of Japan
He was making 10 a turn, so I think he has met a gold cs some where.
Back at home
Moved our warrior back to the safety of the river. Not sure what happened to the scout, I think that one is a new one from the south. 4 turns until settler is complete, and next turn I can place the campus down.
Ok so Japan has a second city, I also sent him the 1 per turn for 1 per turn trade to signal no hostile intentions.
Settler is 3 turns from completion. I also placed the campus, since I think it is better to just built that than the monument. Now the second city has a better science site between those two mountains. Do we build a builder in the second city? Or better to build some units what do you think?
Is that a Holy Site or Campis that Krill planted? I see a white flag in the center which I take to mean HS, which means that Krill is probably planning on getting a GProphet the traditional way. Rome will probably get Stonehenge, this getting us the free prophet in a reasonable timeframe.
Krill is 16 tiles away, and the northern pin at the river fork is 9 tiles from us and 7 tiles from him. It is also in his first ring of expansion in that direction (no closer fresh water to his southeast). Kumasi is also 11 tiles away from us vs. 7 for Krill. I’m sensing some early border tension. We need to consider carefully how we want to approach this border, whether we want to set up a comfortable and peaceable, or agressive border. Krill will have an early GGeneral advantage. Not something that needs to be decided immediately, but soon-ish. It would be nice to get some scouting intelligence in the south and west early on so we can better assess our geopolitical situation.
I think it will be better to just plant the Campus ASAP on the 1-adjacency tile the turn you found the 2nd city, rather than waiting for a builder and chopping the forest. Lock in the cost and get it out of the way, then place a later HS in the 2 adjacency spot. Let the chop value scale up and then chop it in the future. Not sure on the first build for 2nd city though. I’m leaning towards slinger so that the capital can go straight into another settler after the campus. I fear if we go Builder first we will run into barb trouble and have to hide the builder in the city and get out another military unit anyway.
Are you planning to start moving the slinger down soon to tackle the western barb camp?
I also took a screenshot of our scouting efforts in Krill's lands.
Here is the motherland with the score included, I think I have filled it all out correctly, forgot to check Krill's gold and gold per turn though.
I placed some markers for our future cities. What do you think about city #3 being very close to krill? Also thinking things over If you want to skip the oracle we can. Just wanted to see if we could get use out of it.
I really do want stone circles though, I think we have 3 cities that can really benefit from the belief, it just makes those spots better for production instead of just harvesting them. However if you think the long term success of our victory really lies on the harvest pantheon we can grab it. We shall pursue a faith victory, so while I am in favor of steady faith the harvest may be better.
Our settler is complete in 2 more turns and the slinger is heading down towards the barb camp. Warrior is returning home just to be there for escort support. I just don't like letting my settlers go by them selves, even though I think he is safe.
Other than that I am getting irrigation to one turn, and same with EE.
per foreign converted city belief which did make a noticeable difference as enemy cities started getting converted. For the category, that might be the best available belief remaining when we found our religion. 
for each foreign city converted so that is an additional advantage for spreading the faith wide. Basically you can pursue science and faith while lagging in other areas. 
yes, the actual numbers for the accumulated pressure are revealed when each religion is moused-over! [Why these, but not the amount of food in the box or science invested in a tech 
]
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