Can someone help me understand religion and some other things?
I'm a newer player to the game, and I think I understand most of the basic mechanics (training vs science vs civics, different houses, etc). But I can't figure out religion.
- How impactful is it?
- Should I embrace another leader spreading religion into my cities or is there some kind of penalty for me or benefits for them?
- Are there downsides to building shrines if I'm going to eventually get a state religion?
- Is a state religion better than paganism?
- Do the cult shrine things you get from events/story bits have a negative effect?
Unrelated to religion, I had a few other questions:
- What is the best build order? I've typically let the default settler be built for an early second city, and use an early builder to get a farm resource up (like barley or wheat), then I'll usually build another settler or military unit depending on my training vs food yield. I'll often go for an early farm/camp/mine specialist for the extra yields to those as well. Depending on the shrine adjacency bonuses I'll get some of those down fairly quickly too.
- I keep having issues with family houses getting pissed off and rebelling, even when I'm trying to keep their cities close together, appease them with resources they like, appointing them to positions, marrying into their families, etc. For whatever reason they just hate me. Is there a downside to picking just one family and running with them? I know you don't get the house bonuses from the others but is this a poor choice overall and why?
- Is Carthage just awful? I've tried several times to play Carthage and the idea of buying tribal units sounds fantastic so I can focus on things like culture, science and gold. But every time I play them I feel I have to leave a unit nearby the tribal areas to see the units so I can actually buy them (unless there's another way that I'm not aware of). I also only get a few units and none of them seem to be particularly great. And arguably the biggest issue is that to expand you're likely gonna have to wipe out those little tribes anyway, making her ability seem even worse.
- What wonders are worth it? The Oracle seems pretty awful compared to many others. The ones I've prioritized in my few games (with many restarts, usually because I learned something new) are the Necropolis, Hanging Gardens, Maseum, and Petra. Are these ones bad and which ones am I missing out on?
- What maps are your favorites or the best ones to learn on?
- Are the city projects worthwhile? Like the council, forum, festival, etc? Are they a one time boost or continuous?
I've played quite a bit of Civilization games (4 through 7) and some other games as well, so I understand a lot of the 4X mechanics, but each one has their own flavor, and this one in particular has a lot of moving parts.
Thanks!