i have a little bit of input but also some talking about my game because i'm pretty happy about it, hope you guys don't mind
(also this post ended up being kinda long probably, sorry)
i just finished a shoshone game using this, emperor and standard size/speed, but i changed a couple of other settings (inland sea map, hot, wet, youngest earth age), start bias disabled.
won on turn 144, but i feel there was room for improvement. i didn't think to get a printscreen but i have the save from the turn before if anyone wants it or whatever
i got lucky with ruins and by that i mean i actually found some, in one of my practice games i didn't get any :O so i ended up getting my best start yet. i got the free settler from liberty on turn 22 lol, and religion "could have" been founded (RNG) on turn 40, when my previous fastest had been with 50 also as shoshone. t100 reformation (should have been t99 but i misplayed and settled a city on like t96 or so which bumped up the cost, oops). finished with +80 tourism per turn
like i said i had practiced the opening a few times, this was probably my 6th or 7th attempt. for this one i decided i would try a new thing which i haven't seen here yet: don't build an early shrine. instead, take a faith ruin on turn 20 or as soon as possible to get the free faith (in my experience i never have enough faith for a pantheon before that point anyway, unless i'm ethiopia or probably maya/celt which i didn't try). luckily i had found one in the corner of the map behind me, so a freshly built pathfinder (i built path - monument - path) was able to get it safely while an existing one camped another ruin somewhere else.
anyway i got that and it gave me a pantheon next turn, and my other one walked into a ruin immediately after... and gave me the "discover a great prophet" ruin! turn 21, pantheon founded and 78 faith towards religion! i had no idea that i could get that immediately after the 20 faith ruin, but i guess it's because they have different names? that combined with the desert folklore and a second city almost immediately after also in desert gave me that early religion i mentioned.
before this game i felt that shoshone was a good option but probably not as good as some of the others (egypt byzantium etc), but seeing this makes me realize they have some crazy potential. they still have the slowest monument (assuming everyone goes scout - monument) which is annoying but as far as i've seen so far the fastest religion, at least of the liberty starters. AND guaranteed culture ruin to make up for monument being delayed a few turns. i mean i guess "anyone can get it" but nobody else is guaranteed
i also considered spain as the person above me said, because you can probably go straight piety and buy a few settlers to make up for not getting reduced price, but it seems super luck based and i always play with start bias disabled so i didn't want to change that
on a normal size map, would you be able to get enough cities with spain to buy your faith buildings?