Best Civ For Religious Victory Civ 6
Linh Calvin
India looks like a solid choice if you're going the religious route. That's mostly thanks to its leader, Gandhi, who gets lots of faith bonuses just for meeting new Civs and not waging war with them. India also offers a special tile improvement called Stepwell that generates bonus faith if it's next to a holy site.
In an interview with PC Games Network, Civ 6 associate producer Sarah Darney argues that Scythia and its leader, Tomyris, is the best option for religious victory. That's mostly thanks to the Kurgan, a unique improvement for the civilization that lets you build up faith early in the game. Play your cards right and you could score a religious victory before your enemies can defend themselves.
Spain, led by Philip II, offers lots of bonuses geared towards a religious victory. Philip's special El Escorial leader ability gives his religious units a bonus against other religions. Spain's unique Conquistador units also get a damage boost when you link them with a non-combat unit, like missionaries or apostles.
Arabia, led by Saladin has strong religious capabilities as well. Your leader ability, Righteousness of the Faith, lowers the cost of faith building and gives you additional bonuses in faith, science and culture. Arabia also gets a unique Madrasa buildings that provide an extra faith boost.
Start early with missionaries, and deploy your apostles later on to fight against enemy religious units. You'll also want to pay attention to the civic and tech tree to unlock extra bonuses. For example, learning writing will help your civilization spread religion even faster.
As with all Civilization playthroughs, it's not going to be possible to assemble a complete, step-by-step guide to Religious Victory, simply by virtue of Civilization's ever-changing elements in every game. Instead, we've put together our best tips and advice for a Religious playthrough, covering various aspects of the game:
If your lust for Civilization 6 knowledge is still going strong, expansion owners should take a look at our Civ 6 Rise and Fall guide hub which takes you through the basics of everything new, whilst we have dedicated pages on Governors and Loyalty, along with how to earn Golden Ages, Era Points and Era Score through Historic Moments, and a full list of new Civs in Civ 6 Rise and Fall and other DLC. Otherwise, our Civilization 6 guide, tips and tricks covers the essentials before you master early game, mid-game and late-game strategies. We also have tips on the new Districts feature, a Leaders list with their Traits and Agendas, plus the best ways to get Gold, Science, and Faith, how to win by Religious Victory, and how to earn the elusive Science Victory and Military domination victory. Finally, here's the Culture Victory, Foreign Tourism, and Domestic Tourism explained in depth.
This unique approach to faith and science is capable of generating an amazing payout, catapulting Arabia in front of its peers. Needless to say, Arabia can pursue a religious victory just as well as they can pursue a scientific one. For the fastest path to a science victory, you can spend some of your faith income on great scientists so you can quickly move through the tech tree with boosts and other bonuses.
In the hands of a skilled player, these bonuses can help boost a science victory quite quickly, and make Russia into a powerhouse. As long as you expand and settle in tundra as much as possible, Russia can achieve any victory condition in the game.
Curiously, while you of course want to spread your own faith, Gandhi is tolerant of other religious beliefs, earning the follower bonus from every religion that has at least one convert in a city. That makes India a religious powerhouse that thrives on peace and punishes war, generating immense amounts of faith and rewards from different beliefs.
After a long wait, Diplomatic victories finally made their way back to the franchise with the release of Gathering Storm. Here are the best factions to backstab and cajole your way into victory through the World Congress.
Those looking for a more advanced path to cultural victory, a Gorgo-led Greece offers flexibility. She relies on military might to generate bonus culture from defeated units. A bonus wildcard policy gives her an edge early on.
While Ghandi certainly wants to spread his own faith throughout the world, he is tolerant of other religious beliefs. He earns the follower bonus from every religion that has at least one convert in a city.
Ultimately there are six different ways to secure Victory in Civ 6, and one way is to target a Religious Victory. As the name implies, doing so will require a heavy focus on religion and use of religious units all throughout the map.
If you want to take a more aggressive stance, it is best to utilize a combination of Apostles and Gurus to wage Theological Combat on the units belonging to enemy religions. The most important locations in enemy Civilizations to convert are cities with a Holy Site. Once converted, that Civilization will be unable to create more Religious Units in that city for their own Religion.
Just about any Leader and Civilization combo can pursue a Religious Victory, except for Mvemba a Nzinga of the Kongo. However, these few Civilizations and Leaders stand out from the rest as some of the best choices if you want to aim for a Religious Victory in Civ 6.
Each leader in Civilization 6 comes with their own set of abilities, strengths, and weaknesses that can determine what should be focused on during the game. To win a game of Civilization 6, players must achieve certain victory conditions for either domination, culture, science, or religion. Depending on what victory conditions players strive for, the best leaders in Civ 6 can vary. Note: This guide only includes leaders from the base game.
Domination victories are typically the easiest to achieve due to the simple victory conditions. To win via domination, the player must conquer the original capital of each civilization. Many of the leaders have military abilities, but some have more of an advantage when pursuing domination victories.
Religious Victories can be achieved by having every civilization predominately following one religion. For a civilization to predominately follow one religion, 50% of the population must follow that religion. Religious Victories can be the hardest victory types to win with, but some civilizations thrive on religion.
Saladin is a great leader for pursuing a religious victory because he is guaranteed a Great Prophet and is capable of using science and faith to build a large kingdom. Saladin's "Last Prophet" Civ ability grants him the last remaining Great Prophet if he has not earned one yet. The ability also grants +1 science for every foreign city following Saladin's religion. His leader bonus "Righteousness of Faith" makes Worship buildings 90% cheaper to purchase with faith, and any city with that building receives a +10% bonus to culture, faith, and science. Saladin can also build the Madrasa in the Campus district, which provides faith bonuses based on the district adjacency bonus.
Peter can be a jack-of-all-trades leader, but if pursuing a religious victory, his unique district and tundra tile bonuses can be extremely useful. Peter can build the Lavra district, replacing the Holy Site district. The Lavra is one of the most useful unique districts because it costs half of the usual production, grants double Great Prophet points, and provides Great Writer, Great Artist, and Great Musician points as buildings are built in the district. Russia also receives a +1 faith and production bonus for every tundra tile, which can be very helpful with the "Mother Russia" Civ ability. The ability grants Peter five additional tiles in founded cities, which means Peter can gain a lot of land quickly, all while earning a variety of bonuses.
Science Victories require several steps to achieve, but many civilizations are capable of earning this victory type. To get a Science Victory, a player must finish the Earth Satellite, Moon Landing, and Mars Habitation projects at the end of the tech tree.
Many of the base leaders have similar bonuses and abilities that can be helpful for a science victory, but Fredrick stands apart with his ability to construct extra districts and receive production bonuses. Germany's "Free Imperial Cities" ability allows one more district than the population normally allows to be built, meaning Germany can build Campus districts along with another district early on. Germany can also construct the Hansa district, replacing the Industrial district. It can be built with half the usual production, and can substantially boost production, which is important for Science Victories.
There are a lot of benefits to establishing your own religion and is even part of a victory condition, but honestly, in Deity mode, you should completely ignore it. Part of this is because Deity Mode makes getting a Religion an annoying and difficult process in the first place.
Traders are a huge help, harbors are great if you can build them, and having a few campuses and theater districts are all ideal for expanding your efforts. Most victory conditions need one of the three and focusing on all of them will give you options.
Considering you also will need a strong military to survive and conquer the Wonders and resources you need it only makes sense to synergize these efforts with a Domination victory. Get a variety of units built, establish powerful armies, and start progressing towards nuclear submarines and nuclear weapons.
Finally, the main thing to keep in mind is that the AI is a lot faster and more efficient than you are thanks to their bonuses and you need to even the playing field. Making active and continual efforts to sabotage the plans of other civilizations is critical to your victory.
Back to Civilization VI
There are five different victory conditions in Civilization VI: Science, Culture, Domination, Religion, and Score (with a sixth, Diplomacy, added in Gathering Storm). In order to win, you must reach one of these victory conditions (apart from Score Victory) before any other player.