Zhahz
PC Gamer
Religion adds to your options but it's not overpowered.
For the other civs - ability to become a player on the religions front depends on rare lucky happenings such as stumbling onto Religious City-States ...
P.S. Why do you name Maya here? They can't generate more faith than any other civ, they just gain science from Shrines.
It's really not that difficult to produce faith for any civ if they commit to it, and there's enough effective pantheons that even if you don't get to choose the first few, you still can get powerful ones.
can't deciede between Maya or Celts.
I've found religion is anything but useless. Sure there is no Religious victory, but there are just so many options and things to select from religion to enhance your civ, it really does change the game. My old tried and true Babylon kicks even more scientific ass with the ability to purchase GP with faith. I've really got to try one of the new civs to check this out, and can't deciede between Maya or Celts. Any suggestions and/or tips for religious options with those two?
I especially like the Pantheons. Not only for powergaming (though they ARE good) but they give more of the feeling that your early civ is growing organically with its environment, not as a stack of abilities plopped down onto a random map (are you around deserts? Maybe the people will find something cool and interesting about the desert spaces). I also like that there isn't necessarily one "best" choice--it all depends on the situation you find yourself in.
shrine +1 faith per turn
Mayan replacement - Pyramid +2 faith, +2science per turn
And it is early enough in the tech tree to matter in the Pantheon and Establish Religion races that occur at the start ...
Highly versatile, lots of CHOICES (something sorely lacking is virtually all games these days), I'm enjoying it.