[R&F] AI Pantheon choices

[Karpius]

Am I the only one who thinks Divine Spark is the goto pantheon, especially when you're in a foot race for religion?

Nope, not alone. I go Divine Spark virtually every time as well. Early on, I really do like to chase those Great Admirals. There are two of them that give Loyalty points. Couple that with Halicarnassus which doubles the charges for Admirals and Engineers and it can be quite the bonus. Throw in Venetian Arsenal and you just saved yourself tons of resources towards navy and loyalty.

 

[Softly]

Nope, not alone. I go Divine Spark virtually every time as well. Early on, I really do like to chase those Great Admirals. There are two of them that give Loyalty points. Couple that with Halicarnassus which doubles the charges for Admirals and Engineers and it can be quite the bonus. Throw in Venetian Arsenal and you just saved yourself tons of resources towards navy and loyalty.

The awkward moment when I have to tell you Divine Spark only affects Great Scientists, Prophets and Writers.

 

[Karpius]

The awkward moment when I have to tell you Divine Spark only affects Great Scientists, Prophets and Writers.

The awkward moment when I become Homer Simpson and say, "Doh!"

Well, it still works for me...I guess.

 

[Unaha-Closp]

I'm almost married to DIvine Spark at this point. I think I've chosen something else one time over it. Not having done the math on it but with Pingala in my Cap with his Great People Perk - I think it's worth. Could be wrong but that's okay.

 

[PMac67]

I like Divine Spark it's not situational.. Always Strong ! I always consider other options but this is a safe bet... And touch wood... Always there ! But that faith could buy a lot of builders ! Interesting...

 

[Victoria]

Errr, do I understand it right that the rest are considered only later, when these have gone?

Each civ considers the pantheons based on how well they would do in their lands. When it comes time to choose they will choose the highest value.
So likely Earth goddess goes first, second goddess of the harvest, third god of the forge but an individual civ may take one that suits them better individually like sacred path.

Divine spark is very good for great writers but goddess of the harvest is quite scary with monumentality and Magnus. Buy a worker for 300 faith and 5-7 chops later it’s made 1000 faith, enough to purchase a settler and worker.... and so it goes.

 

[heinous_hat]

Sort of interesting that you need to hit the early faith jackpot in order to select the strongest faith generating pantheon.

I don't think I knew Earth Goddess even existed until recently, when I rolled a big tobacco start, met 3 virgin religious City States, and stumbled into into a faith village. "What's this, a new pantheon for R&F?", I thought. "I'll try that, but it probably stinks". Well, no... it doesn't.

I'd say Earth Goddess needs the bat, but it does force you to keep dirty improvements away from your nice things, which can be challenging on some maps. And it's an extremely rare selection.

 

[Casualty of war]

It's a combination of advantages but if you can get Earth Goddess/Magnus/Monumentality going, it's pretty much Good Game, Sir. Add things like Ancestral Hall so you get a free Builder when you settle and leveling up Magnus so it doesn't cost you a Pop when you Faith-buy a Settler; it's glorious!

I have had the option of taking Earth Goddess and passed but it is rare. I'm also fond of the Free Hammer Pantheons like God of the Sea and Lady of the Marshes, the ones that give you something meaningful for the tiles you were going to work anyway. Divine Spark is tempting if I'm going to be building a heap of Campuses and Theater Squares, but I usually let my adversaries build Holy Sites.

 

[PeterChu]

I usually picked God of the Sea for my colonization game, especially if the capital city was located just on the seaside. Then I would give governor Liang a go. God of the Sea + Aquaculture, my simple formula for maritime empire.

 

[isau]

One belief I tend not to pick is the desert adjacency one. Mainly because desert is much less predictable than Tundra.

If I want mega Faith generation and I start deep to the North or South of the map, I can reliably count on founding 3-4 cities with huge adjacency bonuses. With the desert or rainforest belief, not so much (tho I did mod the rainforest one to also work with regular forest, its still not as reliable as the Tundra one.)

 

[Esperr]

Hah, even the AI knows harvest is good.

Which kinda sucks, because it makes for such a huge variance. I think it should see the nerf bat.

I think magnus needs the nerf more then anything. Stupid harvest>Magnus>instrumentality is ruining MP games.

 

[Victoria]

Yes whoever gets harvest wins I imagine, certainly get more faith than earth goddess.

 

[isau]

Magnus just needs to be hit with the nerf hammer. A 30% bonus would be decent. A 100% bonus unlocking at Tier 1 is hilariously OP, especially given the other abilities that are like +20% toward districts. Magnus by himself counts more towards building a World Wonder than if you stacked a pantheon, policy card, and government bonus all together just for that specific purpose.

 

[craney1987]

The awkward moment when I have to tell you Divine Spark only affects Great Scientists, Prophets and Writers.

Lol. Took me so long to realise this. It was my go to. Then one day I actually read the text and was like " awwwww. Nnnnooooo."

 

[kaspergm]

Magnus just needs to be hit with the nerf hammer. A 30% bonus would be decent. A 100% bonus unlocking at Tier 1 is hilariously OP, especially given the other abilities that are like +20% toward districts. Magnus by himself counts more towards building a World Wonder than if you stacked a pantheon, policy card, and government bonus all together just for that specific purpose.

I kind of disagree. Yes, the 100 % probably needs to be toned down to 50 % - and/or chops need to be adjusted in general - but overall Magnus is not that strong, it's more that most of the other governors are decidedly lacklustre to the degree that once I have promoted Magnus, one or two promotions on Liang (or whatever she's called), plus perhaps a level on Pingala and put Amani in whatever city states, the remaining promotions seem completely useless (Amanis tier 3 promotion is also good, I guess).

 

[Art Morte]

Sort of interesting that you need to hit the early faith jackpot in order to select the strongest faith generating pantheon.

I don't think I knew Earth Goddess even existed until recently, when I rolled a big tobacco start, met 3 virgin religious City States, and stumbled into into a faith village. "What's this, a new pantheon for R&F?", I thought. "I'll try that, but it probably stinks". Well, no... it doesn't.

I'd say Earth Goddess needs the bat, but it does force you to keep dirty improvements away from your nice things, which can be challenging on some maps. And it's an extremely rare selection.

With Russia - thanks to +1 faith from tundra - you have a decent chance of getting a pantheon first or second.

 

[Esperr]

Yes whoever gets harvest wins I imagine, certainly get more faith than earth goddess.

It just combos with faith to generate to much free production. I mean with monumentality your producing thousands of hammers through faith.

I kind of disagree. Yes, the 100 % probably needs to be toned down to 50 % - and/or chops need to be adjusted in general - but overall Magnus is not that strong, it's more that most of the other governors are decidedly lacklustre to the degree that once I have promoted Magnus, one or two promotions on Liang (or whatever she's called), plus perhaps a level on Pingala and put Amani in whatever city states, the remaining promotions seem completely useless (Amanis tier 3 promotion is also good, I guess).

Im not sure if I would like the others to be boosted to Magnus level, it makes the game more swingy if they all have power moves. I think a fine compromise would be to make Magnus ability at tier 2 or something, but even then I think you would just spend all early promotions beelining it.

 

[Abaxial]

I have to say I usually like the ones that give a boost to population growth or border expansion, as these are still useful later on.

 

[Phoenix1595]

For those who say they never get a chance with the elusive Earth Goddess, I was able to snag it two games ago after a chance goody hut relic and first contact with Yerevan. I can see why the AI grabs it-- very powerful faith generator. I have the Better Reports mod, and the numbers as the game progresses are scary-- I saw 200-300+ faith per turn just from EG. I went for Eiffel Tower, and well, let's just I never had to worry about Apostle invasions from the AI ever again. It almost feels like cheating.

Perhaps that is why the designers made EG so difficult to obtain. Still, as someone who likes the religion game, EG is one of my favs.

 

[PYITE]

Emperor, Immortal and Deity AI opening moves significantly changed with RF. They used to get all bonus settlers on turn 1 and go from there, but now they only get their extra settler(s) once they have settled a city. The extra starting warriors tend to stay close to their settler and not go out exploring like they used to. The AI tries to do it’s scouting with scouts who tend to get killed quite easily under their control. All this means that early exploring is much more rewarding for the human than it used to be because the AI is much slower to get free first envoys and goody huts. This is why it is so much easier to get the top level pantheons in RF than it was with vanilla.