The Celts

[Polycrates]

Yeah you're pretty much guaranteed the first pantheon, and the bonuses it gives can be far greater in those vital early turns. Take Goddess of the Hunt to build big cities faster; take the culture from pastures one to save on needing monuments; or even better take one of the faith-multiplying ones and start getting huge faith really early. Small benefits right at the start can translate to huge benefits later, and unlike anyone else, you don't need to waste hammers on buildings when you could be spending them on workers or settlers or units instead.

You're getting enough reliable ongoing faith to make getting the first or second religion almost guaranteed as well. Only Ethiopia and Maya are going to be consistent rivals for early religion, and they don't start the hunt as early or get the extra faith from the rather excellent UU either. The rest need to rely on being extremely lucky, because 1 faith from shrines is realistically only getting you as far as a pantheon for a looooong time, and at considerable opportunity cost early on.

Once you've got your religion you can pretty much chop 'em down or lumbermill 'em if need be, they've already pretty much done their bit for the cause. I'd be inclined to leave one per city though because you don't have to actually work the tiles and hey there's always other tiles you can work.

[Pangur Bán]

Originally Posted by Corm

Specifically since the vast majority of the Eastern Lowlands of Scotland were settled significantly by Angles circa 600AD. Modern Scots are as much Anglo Saxons as the Modern English are.

That's historic nonsense. The English settled in a small area of the Borders, basically Berwickshire, Roxburghshire and East Lothian, that wasn't even regarded as part of Scotland until the 13th century. This in size is to Scotland what Cornwall is to England or the Pale is to Ireland. Anglicization of the "eastern lowlands" is late medieval and has nothing to do with the Anglo-Saxons, but rather with Normanized English from the East Midlands.