Walkthroughs

Sid Meier's Civilization VI tips and tricks - Everything you need to win with religion

Set down some Holy Sites and gather your Apostles, we're getting churchy.

Sid Meier's Civilization VI tips and tricks - Everything you need to win with religion

The word of God, peaceful, loving, kind. Well, that’s only if you want it to be. The world of Civilization VI allows you plenty of wiggle room when it comes to waging war or peace, and in this guide we’ll show you how religion can be used to dominate the world.

The tips in this guide can also be applied to the real world, though we can’t guarantee they’ll be all that helpful in that situation.

Nevertheless, the word of religion is a strong one indeed, powerful enough to even win a game of Civilization VI, so read on to get the low down on ruling with religion, one of the best and sneakiest victory conditions in Civilization VI.

The coming of God

First you need to prepare you citizens for your new religion. Early on you should get at least one policy choice which will help bring in faith, and it’s good to stockpile it early so you’re in an advantageous position later.

Build monuments which can help bring in faith and culture, and it won’t be long until other buildings such as Holy Sites will be available.

Take note of any policies, buildings or civics etc. that mention faith, it’ll come in handy later.

Mother nature

Wherever you’re placed on the map, there’ll be a pantheon you can join to help your future conquest.

Pantheons are the basis for a religion, and will help it take form. You can choose a Pantheon specific to your starting location, such as the Desert Folklore Pantheon, which will boost faith Holy Sites receive near desert tiles.

Whichever kind of tile you’re on or near, pasture, desert, tundra, etc., there’ll be a Pantheon that can help speed up your faith build up.

Missionaries and apostles

Once you’ve started amassing a decent amount of faith, you’ll be able to summon Missionaries and Apostles on your Holy Site.

There units are great because they can spread your religion to other cities, and altogether wipe out other religions, assuring your dominance - especially if you get at it early.

Missionaries can only spread religion, while Apostles can enter into religious warfare, which can defeat other Apostles and Missionaries, with the victories boosting your religion in that territory.

Cities neighbouring one another and sharing trade routes will also share religion. Strategically surround your enemies with cities supporting your religion, and soon the rest of the world will follow.

Theocracy

Theocracy is the kind of goverment you want if you’re a primarily religion, or theistic, society. It’ll make it easy to build more faith, and better yet, you can turn that faith into district upgrades or military units.

Yep, you don’t have to be a religion of peace. Sure, that’s nice and everything, but warfare is a bit more fun.

Once you have Theocracy unlocked you can start using all of that faith you stockpiled into making your cities as modern as possible, and building up a massive army.

You’ll need a Holy Site in any city you want to spend faith in to get military units.

World domination

Now that your faith alone can create military units, the rest of the world will soon follow.

Just keep up the pressure - use missionaries and apostles to convert cities, and Gurus can be set on alert and though they can’t start religious warfare, they’ll defend it to the death.

If any other rulers get upset with you? Time to bust out that newly found military might!

Dave Aubrey
Dave Aubrey
Dave is the Guides Editor at Pocket Gamer. Specialises in Nintendo, complains about them for a living.