Soger and I are discussing the rest of the beliefs and how to best use them: Enhancer, Founder and Worship. Learn more about Enhancer beliefs.
Holy Order: Efficient Proselytization
Holy Order offers a strategic advantage in spreading your religion cost-effectively, reducing the faith expenditure on missionaries and apostles by 30%. This belief is particularly valuable for civilizations prioritizing aggressive religious spread or defending against competing faiths. Its utility is magnified when combined with theocracy discounts, making religious units significantly more accessible, especially for faith-rich civilizations like Mali.
Religious Colonization: Auto-Conversion of New Cities
Religious Colonization emerges as a powerful tool for passive religious expansion, automatically converting newly founded or acquired cities to the founder’s faith. This unique ability extends to AI civilizations if they adopt your religion early, facilitating a wider religious influence without direct intervention. The strategic benefit here lies in its capacity to secure a religious presence in expanding empires, reducing the need for active proselytization efforts.
Crusade: The Militant Spread of Faith
Crusade caters to civilizations adopting a militant approach to religious spread, granting a combat bonus in foreign cities following your religion. While its applicability may be niche, centered around leaders like Basil II who inherently combine religious fervor with military conquests, Crusade can offer a decisive edge in religious wars. However, its effectiveness is contingent upon successful prior religious conversion, limiting its utility in broader strategic contexts.
Missionary Zeal: Accelerated Religious Mobility
Missionary Zeal significantly enhances the mobility of religious units, allowing for rapid deployment across the map. This belief is advantageous for civilizations looking to quickly establish or defend their religious influence. Nevertheless, its strategic value is partially offset by the inherent need to invest faith in religious units, which could be allocated towards other faith-based initiatives.
Monastic Isolation: Defensive Spiritual Sovereignty
Monastic Isolation ensures that your religious followers remain resilient against external religious pressures, safeguarding your cities from conversion by other faiths. This belief is strategically vital for civilizations aiming to maintain a homogeneous religious identity without the constant need for defensive religious units. It’s particularly effective in tightly contested religious landscapes or in close proximity to aggressively missionary neighbors.
Holy Waters: Enhanced Religious Recovery
Holy Waters increases the healing of your religious units in friendly territory, offering strategic depth to civilizations engaged in theological combat. By bolstering the recovery rate of your religious units, this belief allows for sustained religious engagements and enhances the durability of your religious spread efforts. It’s an advantageous pick for those engaged in protracted religious struggles, ensuring their missionaries and apostles remain effective over longer periods.
World Church: Cultivating Global Influence
World Church is a cornerstone for civilizations with a wide religious reach, offering culture for every foreign city following your religion. This belief underscores the synergy between religious spread and cultural victory conditions, making it a strategic choice for those aiming to leverage their faith to accelerate cultural dominance. It’s especially potent in games with numerous civilizations and city-states, where your religious influence can span continents.
Cross-Cultural Dialogue: Science Through Conversion
Cross-Cultural Dialogue converts foreign followers into a scientific boon, providing science for every foreign city that adopts your religion. This belief aligns well with civilizations that balance scientific advancement with religious expansion, offering a unique avenue to boost scientific output through faith. It’s a strategic enhancer for leaders looking to parallel the growth of their religious and scientific endeavors.
Lay Ministry: Synchronizing Faith with Governance
Lay Ministry offers additional culture and faith from each Shrine and Temple, when combined with Theater Squares or any other district. This belief encourages a multifaceted approach to city planning, integrating religious infrastructure with cultural or other developments. It’s particularly strategic for civilizations that emphasize balanced growth, enhancing both spiritual and cultural outputs.
Sacred Places: Incentivizing Wonder Construction
Sacred Places rewards civilizations that integrate wonder construction with their religious strategy, providing additional faith, science, culture, and gold from cities with World Wonders. This belief is tailor-made for wonder-focused strategies, amplifying the benefits of monumental achievements. It’s a powerful choice for civilizations that can consistently secure wonders, multiplying their benefits beyond mere admiration.
Stewardship: Faith and Science Hand in Hand
Stewardship strengthens the connection between faith and science, offering additional science or culture from Campuses and Theater Squares adjacent to Holy Sites. This belief is strategic for civilizations that plan their cities with district synergies in mind, fostering a closer relationship between their spiritual, scientific, and cultural advancements.
Pilgrimage: Faith from Foreign Followers
Pilgrimage boosts your civilization’s faith output for every foreign city following your religion, supporting strategies that rely on high faith generation for various purposes, from military to cultural victories. It’s beneficial for civilizations that can spread their religion widely, using the increased faith to fuel their agendas.
Tithe: Economic Prosperity through Faith
Tithe translates the widespread adoption of your religion into economic strength, providing gold for every four followers of your religion in other civilizations. This belief is instrumental for civilizations looking to bolster their economy through religious spread, offering a steady stream of gold to support military, scientific, or cultural endeavors.
Papal Primacy: Enhanced City-State Influence
Papal Primacy strengthens the bonds between your civilization and city-states following your religion, increasing the effectiveness of your envoys. This belief is a strategic boon for civilizations aiming to dominate the city-state landscape, leveraging religious conversion to secure unwavering loyalty and the diverse benefits city-states provide.
Religious Unity: A Coalition of the Faithful
Religious Unity uses your religion as a tool to forge a stronger alliance network, providing bonus envoy points for each civilization that follows your religion and has made a declaration of friendship. This belief is a strategic enhancer for diplomatic victories, solidifying friendships and alliances through shared faith.
Worship Buildings: Diverse Benefits for a Tailored Strategy
Worship Buildings, such as Mosques, Pagodas, and Gurdwaras, offer unique bonuses ranging from extra faith, amenities, to even diplomatic favor. These buildings provide strategic flexibility, allowing civilizations to choose enhancements that align with their immediate needs and long-term goals. Whether focusing on military strength, cultural influence, or scientific advancement, the right worship building can significantly impact your strategy.
Enhancing Strategic Religious Deployment
The strategic deployment of enhancer beliefs hinges on a civilization’s overarching goals and the specific challenges posed by the geopolitical landscape. Holy Order and Religious Colonization stand out for their broad applicability and potential to significantly impact religious dynamics. Conversely, Crusade and Missionary Zeal offer more situational benefits, tailored to specific playstyles or scenarios.
Picking the right enhancer beliefs in Civ 6 is kind of like assembling the ultimate toolkit for your civ’s victory path. It’s all about figuring out what your endgame looks like and how you’re gonna get there. You’ve got to match those beliefs with your victory goals like a chef pairs wine with a meal. Whether you’re spreading your faith on the cheap, flipping cities to your side without lifting a finger, or beefing up your troops with some divine inspiration, how you mix and match these beliefs can really make or break your empire’s story.
