Is pantheon = religion?

TheHanzou · Jul 23, 2012

If i dont plan on going for any kind of religion, is it worth getting a single shrine to form a pantheon, then sell the shrine? It doesnt really make sense to wait 103 turns for a great prophet to form my own religion especially when i can just wait for other players religion to spread in my land.

does my pantheon change when i get the religion of an opponent? or does it not?

I find religion is pretty much go big or go home. So im trying to play a strategy that ignores religion. This way i still get the useful follower believes from other civilisations religion but dont need to invest into faith buildings. Founder believes are almost exclusively money bonuses and not that important (in multiplayer anyway).

SalemSage · Jul 23, 2012

No. You don't have a religion yet. You need to accumulate faith to get a Great Prophet just as you need faith for a Pantheon.

Also, I'm pretty sure your pantheon changes if you adopt another civ's religion.

EDIT: Then I realised I didn't read your post. If you're not really interested in getting any sort of religion, then it's probably best to put the resources you'd normally dedicate to founding a religion/pantheon to other things, such as more soldiers or science or a new city or something.

Founder beliefs can be pretty helpful in the long run, and your bonus for founding a religion is to pick the bonuses YOU want. If you adopt another civ's religion, you're not necessarily going to get the best beliefs for you. Such as if you adopt a religion with a pantheon that gives +1 production to work boats, but you're landlocked. That sort of thing.

nefloyd · Jul 23, 2012

You either fold your pantheon into a religion of your own founding or it will get destroyed by another civ's religion spreading to your cities. A pantheon exerts no pressure.

You can certainly opt to just assume another civ's religion for its follower beliefs. A pantheon is relatively cheap to get, so yeah, you should get one for as long as it'll last. I don't think you should necessarily sell the shrine or ignore building anything that generates faith, though, since the religion you end up with might have a faith-spender or you can at least use it for great people purchasing later in the game.

n00bxqb · Jul 23, 2012

If you're not going to get a religion, it's pretty much just wasted resources.

That said, I rather enjoy religion; you get some pretty nice bonuses.

If you just take another Civ's beliefs:
a) You only get the Follower beliefs (2/5)
b) You have no control over what bonuses you get, which means they may be completely useless to you
c) They may have the Just War enhancer belief, which means they get +20% Strength near your cities with that religion

FeiLing · Jul 23, 2012

Pantheon beliefs are extremely good early game bonuses (food/growth/production bonuses mainly). You'll sure find something that makes up for building a Shrine easily within a few turns. And it can take thousands of years for the enemy to spread his religion, which might be super useless to you, to you.

Not sure if skipping Faith completely us any good idea unless you plan too win with an early domination rush because even with mediocre faith gain you'll find yourself able to buy the one or other great person late game without having actively spread your religion.

hobbsyoyo · Jul 23, 2012

TheHanzou said:
I find religion is pretty much go big or go home. So im trying to play a strategy that ignores religion.

Sometimes I find myself wishing for a 'start a glorious cultural revolution' button to reform everyone into good little communists and stamp out religion. Why can't I have an atheist society :confused:

?

Scam · Jul 23, 2012

I was thinking the same thing as the OP. I was playing a no-religion strategy my last game as Bismarck. After a few no-religion games, I realized that yes, i preferred to get a shrine as my first building, just to get a pantheon (I usually take the +30 hp healed for units next to your cities). This works great for warring.

My question: Does the pantheon last all game? I haven't tracked this yet, and will keep an eye on it in the future. I did notice that ater taking Askia's capitol that my units did not heal +30 next to his former capitol, but they did heal +30 next to my original cities. (btw, your units will heal a total of +50 from this ability. +20 from in friendly territory and +30 from faith healers).

Edit: my original cities had taken on other religions (christianity and islam) and the pantheon symbol was non-existent in my cities at this time, but I seemed to get the healing bonus next to those cities.

hobbsyoyo · Jul 23, 2012

Scam said:
I was thinking the same thing as the OP. I was playing a no-religion strategy my last game as Bismarck. After a few no-religion games, I realized that yes, i preferred to get a shrine as my first building, just to get a pantheon (I usually take the +30 hp healed for units next to your cities). This works great for warring.

My question: Does the pantheon last all game? I haven't tracked this yet, and will keep an eye on it in the future. I did notice that ater taking Askia's capitol that my units did not heal +30 next to his former capitol, but they did heal +30 next to my original cities. (btw, your units will heal a total of +50 from this ability. +20 from in friendly territory and +30 from faith healers).

Edit: my original cities had taken on other religions (christianity and islam) and the pantheon symbol was non-existent in my cities at this time, but I seemed to get the healing bonus next to those cities.

The benefit of your pantheon gets folded into whatever religion you end up founding, if you found one. Therefore, any city that contains the religion you founded will get the bonus. But any city with another religion will not.

Is pantheon = religion?

TheHanzou

Chieftain

SalemSage

Warlord

nefloyd

King

n00bxqb

Warlord

FeiLing

Deity

hobbsyoyo

Deity

Scam

Chieftain

hobbsyoyo

Deity

Similar threads