Best utility pantheonons

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Wojciech_R

Chieftain
Joined
Dec 15, 2015
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Hi,

By utility pantheon I meant pantheon which is not giving you faith (IE you are sure to found religion via alternative means), but other bonuses.

My favorite ones:

1. God of craftsmen - +1 hammer looks like crappy boost, and it is... But since at the beginning you are really hammer starved - looks usefull.
Used to be my favorite one, then I saw reason:) Added bonus - kinda christian start (if you assume that Jesus worked as carpenter:) ).

2. Messanger of Gods - looks like Twitter to me:)
+2 science per city connected via road. Then you apply all the % bonuses and you have few more points. Looks good if you are desperate or Carthage.

3. Fertility rites - WOW! 10% growth rate bonus! Nuff said. If you expect to keepu happiness on manageable level - very strong. Pair it with ToA, and Swords to plowshares for extra fun:).

4. God king - OCC only, but strong. Never took it - since I never play OCC\Venice
 
Fertility rites is not as strong as it seems. It's 10% is applied on extra food so if your city is producing 11 food, and it's citizens consume 8 food, the 10% is applied to the surplus so you get 0.3 out of it. The problem is that because it only applies to extra food it won't scale properly. It might be somewhat useful when your cities are small population, but later on it's usefulness fades (since you still get a small amount of food out of it).

I do not recommend having biases towards any pantheon because they are very terrain dependent. Everything about religion is situational, and depending on the start, going for a pantheon might even be a waste of resources.
 
As stated above, there's not really a "best" pantheon, everything is dirt dependent.

If we're stating "utility" as not faith generating, and therefore likely to lose your pantheon to an overpowering religious force, then food is usually the clear winner. Something like Sun God, Goddess of the hunt, those types of things. Special mention for God of the Sea, since early hammers are really important.

God King is also used as above - not really OCC as much as it is "Well, Ethiopia and Theodora are my neighbors, guess I'll only have this for 50 turns..."
 
My favourites of the non faith ones are:

Sun God - very nice for early boost. Does not matter to much if you lose it later either.
God of the Sea - makes awesome sea-tiles!
Goddess of the hunt - makes huge difference in starved tundra. Allow you to work gold tiles from elephants, furs and truffles.

I also like culture from shrines if i'm going for shrines in expos playing liberty or piety-games. Or mayans! :D
 
I also like culture from shrines if i'm going for shrines in expos playing liberty or piety-games. Or mayans!
Click to expand...

I find culture usless in the long run. MAYBE CV, and MAYBE if you somehow manage to convert it to turism.
 
At higher level culture is extremely important to get through the policies and tenets quickly enough.
 
Early culture boosts can be powerful, I've picked Oral Tradition once or twice when there was a high plantation potential. Same goes for Sacred Paths.
 
I love me some God of the Open Sky. +1 Culture for Pastures. Pastures are probably one of the highest priority improvements out there, it gets built early and it's strong.
 
I love it when I can get uluru or another faith nw plus lots of jungle. take sacred bath and hurry up to education and rush buy unis. With a trading post, you get 2 food, 2 science, 1 gold, and 1 culture. Very map dependent, but strong if it all comes together.
 
Wojciech_R said:
I find culture usless in the long run. MAYBE CV, and MAYBE if you somehow manage to convert it to turism.
Click to expand...

Totally wrong, culture is probably one of the most powerful things in the game to stack.

More culture = more policies. More polices = faster everything.

More culture = less ideological unhappiness. More happiness = faster growth, more everything.
 
Chum said:
Totally wrong, culture is probably one of the most powerful things in the game to stack.

More culture = more policies. More polices = faster everything.

More culture = less ideological unhappiness. More happiness = faster growth, more everything.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Also just about the rarest yield in the game, and the earlier you get it going the better off you are.
 
It's probably my Prince talking but:

1. Too much culture means I go throught Liberty too fast
2. I go theought liberty too fast - I am not ready with acustics
3. I have to dip into something else than Rationalism.
4. I take too long to finish Rationalism afterwards (due to culture inflation).

Anyhow that's probably my Prince talking:D
 
^^
This is one reason why I feel it is a bad idea to spend too long playing at the lower difficulty levels (which is the mistake that I made). It causes to you get bad habits which then hamper your play when you move to higher levels. On Deity, I often feel as if I'm playing a totally different game that only has the basic mechanics in common with the lowest levels. But I'm not a good player.
 
Wojciech_R said:
It's probably my Prince talking but:

1. Too much culture means I go throught Liberty too fast
2. I go theought liberty too fast - I am not ready with acustics
3. I have to dip into something else than Rationalism.
4. I take too long to finish Rationalism afterwards (due to culture inflation).

Anyhow that's probably my Prince talking:D
Click to expand...

If you finish too early due to high culture it's fine, you'll catch up even with filler. If that's because your tech speed is too slow, you need to learn how to tech to renaissance faster. If you can control how much culture you get because of certain tiles or culture specialists, you can try to delay so that you get another SP just after renaissance. Also you don't have to finish rationalism, all you need is 2 policies in it to take secularism. You can save a GW and/or GA to help.
 
On Prince you can even skip rationalism entirely, you will be ahead the entire game so you can afford to dip into other trees for variety.
Also it is normal to have 2-3 policies between finishing the starter tree and unlocking rationalism. Having extra culture early on will let you finish that starter tree faster. For tradition it is essential because basically the finisher is the strongest; on the other hand for liberty this may vary because Collective Rule is the strongest (and some strategies involve only picking 3 policies in liberty and continuing with a different tree), but if you want to finish liberty to get a free great scientist to plant it for extra beakers, then you will want to finish the tree as fast as you can because the earlier you get those beakers the more they count. There are plenty of viable options for starting different trees before you are able to unlock rationalism, it all depends on what you want, there is no sense delaying the finish of the first tree just so you can pick up rationalism right after that.
 
My slower tech progression is caused by me playing wide.
If I move to higher levels I will have to play more optimal games, which looks boring to me:(

Maybe I should move to KING
 
Well, it depends on what kind of challenge you want. Believe me, there is nothing boring about having a swarm of Zulus or Huns heading for your cities, which is quite common on Deity. They have a killer instinct, and will exploit any weakness!! Peaceful play is probably more relaxing, but I find it is also soporific. Which is OK if you want to go to sleep :)

The game is all about decision-making, and as you go up the levels you have to make better and more targeted decisions. You have to do things for the right reasons, or you will suffer for it. Some people like this, so they play at high levels. Others just like to build things and prefer a level where they can go about things in a lower-risk environment. But I would think that most of the people who have answered your post are used to playing on Deity or Immortal at least, so their views will be coloured by that experience. I'm sure they would encourage you to move up a level (or two). But the great thing about having levels is that it allows you to pick one that suits you. :)
 
GotS is my favorite utility pantheon by far, but of course really begs for a coast start. Even if my cap has no sea resources, the hammer boost to expos is usually very significant.

Messenger of the Gods is useless -- except for Carthage for whom it is OP.

Wojciech_R said:
My slower tech progression is caused by me playing wide.
Click to expand...
Hmm, I like to play wide as often as I can. That noticeably slows my policy acquisition more than my tech progressing. But you say policy acquisition is not a problem for your wide play?

But as far as I am concerned, the game gets less boring at higher levels. There wide margin between “more optimal than you are playing now” and “optimal enough for Deity”. And even at Deity there is quite a bit of flexibility.
 
Wojciech_R said:
My slower tech progression is caused by me playing wide.
If I move to higher levels I will have to play more optimal games, which looks boring to me:(

Maybe I should move to KING
Click to expand...

Isn't life more exciting when you have a chance to lose?

If I know I'm going to win every game I load up, that's boring to me. Learning the ins and outs and little bits of efficiency makes the sandbox emperor games I play on the weekends with my friends far more entertaining to me. I have heard more than once something like "Oh, you just entered the atomic era. That's cool, I'm just over here stacking rocks and stuff...."
 
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