Am I the only one who ends up mostly picking the same religious beliefs all the time?

[iammaxhailme]

The pantheon varies most, depending on what's nearby. But for my follower belief I pretty much always take Work ethic (+1% production per follower), and I also almost always pick Tithe. They just seem so much more powerful in general.

 

[Tech Osen]

For me it's usually the culture for religious buildings, defender of the faith and Stupas. Divine spark for pantheon, earth goddess if still available which is almost never.

 

[XplosiveLun]

Most often you'll focus on a set of beliefs for several games. After a while, you will discover and consider new combinations. I'll not discuss on pantheon in this post.
While I agree +% production and Tithe are generally good, here are my takes on other specific situations:

Founder Beliefs:

• +Gold or +Faith if you are confident to spread religions outside your realm.
• +Envoys on City-states when adapting religion if you have lots of city-state neighbours or you'll benefit most from city-states ( Greece, Hungary, etc. ).

Follower Beliefs:

• Shrines and temples buffs (+Housing / culture) are more powerful when you will definitely build Holy Sites (As Russia, Japan, or even mountainous start).
• +Faith from wonders as China.
• x3 yields from relics if you found one from ruins or as Khmer.
• +% Production for non-religion focus.

Enhancer Beliefs:

• Defender of Faith if you think you'll be killed by AI in Ancient Era.
• Crusade if you can rush your opponents and have secured sources of iron and horses. You can combine with Oligacy, spamming units, getting a general, and spreading religion to overwhelm your opponents.
• Holy Site culture bomb for Poland
• 30% cheaper religious units combines with +Faith from foreign cities following your religion.

 

[Vandlys]

The pantheon varies most, depending on what's nearby. But for my follower belief I pretty much always take Work ethic (+1% production per follower), and I also almost always pick Tithe. They just seem so much more powerful in general.

I took Work Ethic a couple of times, and then I thought about it. I need 40 production in one city with a pop of 10, to get 4 production extra. In contrast, take housing, allowing for two extra pop to grow. Those two pop can work two jungle hills for the same bonus as work ethic, or mines for something better.

For me it's mostly the one that makes shrines give housing, plus a pagoda (3 housing = district, so free holy site basically). Tithe I choose often too, because if I spread religion I spread it to perfection.

But it also depends on early-game goals, difficulty level, map layout, etc. Tundra areas + dance of the aurora = yum yum.

 

[Kmart_Elvis]

I think both Work Ethic and Tithe are both poor beliefs, considering there are better options. Work Ethic sounds good, but let's do the math. Assuming you had a size 10 city with 30 production, assuming every one of your pop is a follower, you are getting 10% production of 30, which comes out to an extra 3 production. If in that city, you only had 5 followers, maybe a rival religion is poaching some of yours, then it's only 5% or 1.5 production. It's a Follower Belief, and there's better ones that I'll show below.

Tithe was really good in Civ 5, but you're better off doing Church Property. CP gives you straight up 2 gold, whereas you can only match 2 gold in cities with at LEAST 8 followers. That's not pop, that's followers. You can convert a size 10 city once you get 5 followers, but you'd only get 1 gold with that. You'd have to convert an additional 3 to match CP.

Pantheons:
Dance of the Aurora: An absolute must for Russia. So much synergy with their tundra bonuses and lavras. Even Canada too; I just won a religious victory with them tonight and this works pretty well with them.
Desert Folklore: Great for Nubia, Mali.
Sacred Path: Perfect for Brazil. You can get +2 faith per adjacent rainforest tile for your holy sites!
Earth Goddess: Always a reliable choice. Synergizes with civs that can add appeal like Mapuche, Egypt, or Persia.
Divine Spark: Especially helpful for civs with no bonuses to generating great prophets, also helpful with scientific and cultural victories.
Goddess of the Harvest: Can be absolutely broken when used with Magnus. Insane amounts of faith.

Follower Beliefs:
Choral Music: Probably the most powerful belief. Works best if you're building shrines/temples in all your cities. Allows you to sail through the civics tree without having to worry too much about theatre squares. Culture is very hard to come by, and this is a valuable source.
Jesuit Education: Synergizes faith and culture/science depending on your victory type. Saves so much production on buildings and you don't even have to wait for them. Instant amphitheatres and libraries.
Zen Meditation: Easy source of amenities. You're going to have at least 2 districts in every city, so it's basically just a free amenity.

Worship Buildings:
Mosques if you want to go for a religious victory. That extra charge is necessary. Stupas for amenities, meeting house for production, or wats for science are always nice for other victories.

Founder Beliefs:
Lay Ministry or Stewardship make great support depending on if you're going for a CV or a SV.
Papal Primacy: Fantastic for Georgia. As Georgia, you get 2 envoys if a city-state shares your religion. This makes it so when it sends those 2 envoys it reinforces that city-state into staying your religion by putting pressure on it. So you get another 2 envoys...and then send more religious pressure back. Creates a positive feedback loop.
Pilgramage: Allows you to snowball to a little degree if you want a religious victory. Convert 30 cities worldwide, and that's 60 faith per turn just from this belief alone!

 

[Siptah]

Before R&F I always took papal primacy. Since it was nerfed, I chose different ones in each game, depending on what I want to do. I often chose Jesuit Education in vanilla, but with the expanded use of faith, I stopped doing that. The only beliefs I stay away from are bonuses from foreign cities following your religion and work ethic

Scripture is very handy if you want a religion but don‘t intend to spread it past your lands, the opposite is true for cheaper apostles.

Similarly for the buildings: I take the mosque if I want to spread my religion to other civs. I take Stupas or Synagogues if I don‘t have any issues in my cities (like weak production or food). I don‘t think that fire temples are worth it.

 

[Tech Osen]

I'm not too fond of the housing options because I regulary run into amenity issues.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Nope, different almost every time, though I almost always take faith based buildingd every time. Sometimes I want gold per city, sometimes I want gold per follower. Not sure what I took this time, but I wish I had taken Papal Primacy this time around.

 

[Archon_Wing]

IMO....

Founder Beliefs:

Choral Music is the best since a boost of 6 culture from buildings that you are already going to be building is solid and nothing can match that yield. I can see Russia taking Feed the World with a food poor start. If you get lucky with relics/find Kandy, you can check out Reliquaries. Work Ethic is good on paper if you factor in chops but I feel like it's always a mistake to take it over Choral Music. If you just happened to stumble across a religion, either because nobody wanted the last prophet or you mugged someone for their HS's, then Zen Meditation isn't a bad idea. Also, if you're Arabia....

Founder Beliefs

Church Property is always better than Tithe, unless you like, don't spread your religion or something. Tithe I take when the former is gone. Papal Primacy is Georgia specific. Maybe Greece? probably not.

Enhancer Beliefs

Before GS, I would say Defender of the Faith is better simply because it requires less setup and you can use it offensively just by having ranged units shoot out of your territory. It's also easier to bring inquistors along to guard your holdings. I guess Crusade is good to take advantage of bad AI, and it might be the better choice. However, I prefer the defense against early aggression.

Worship buildings

Honestly, they all are overpriced and sorta blow. I guess Mosques for the extra charge, Stupas for an amenity, or Cathedral to hold art. But honestly, unless you're Arabia, spending an Apostle and even more faith to get the building seems to be a huge waste to me. Pretty much just meme value.

 

[Disgustipated]

I used to always take work ethic and tithe, but lately I see the value in happy and ecstatic cities, and I take zen meditation and Stupas. I still often take tithe for my last belief.

 

[Ivan Hunger]

I always customize my religion to match the civ I'm playing as. You want to choose beliefs that make it easier for your civ to do what they do.

Since my default civ is Arabia, I'll use them as an example:

Follower Belief
Choice 1: Divine Inspiration
Arabia gets science from spreading their religion, but they need faith to spread their religion, so any belief that generates more faith is good for them.
Choice 2: Reliquaries
This is a good belief for the same reason as above. However, it's my second choice because acquiring relics is a little more involved than building wonders.
Choice 3: Religious Community
Arabia has no housing bonuses and tends to hit their population caps early. This belief can help you avoid that problem by constructing two buildings that you were almost certainly going to build in every every city anyway.
Avoid: Jesuit Education
This is a very good belief for some civs, but bad for Arabia. If you're spending faith on buildings, that means you have less faith to spend on religious units, and when you're Arabia, you should always be spending faith on religious units.
Avoid: Warrior Monks
For the same reason as above. This belief is designed as a faith-sink. Good for some, but not for a civ that has something even better to spend faith on.
Avoid: Feed the World
This is a strong belief for any civ with a housing bonus, but for everyone else, it just means hitting your population cap sooner.
Avoid: Zen Meditation
Arabia is not a militaristically aggressive civilization, so war weariness will rarely be an issue. That extra amenity would just be wasted on cities that are already happy.

Worship Belief
Choice 1: Mosques
Easily the best worship building for any civ that intends to be religiously aggressive. That extra charge will save you loads of faith in the long run, especially if you can also get a few early golden ages and build the Hagia Sophia.
Choice 2: Dar-e Mahrs
Alternatively, you can just generate more faith directly. Make sure to protect your holy sites from barbarians and natural disasters!
Choice 3: Synagogues
Doesn't generate as much faith as dar-e mahrs, but it's better than nothing.
Avoid: Gurdwaras
Again, civs without a housing bonus will just hit their cap if they have too much food.
Avoid: Cathedrals
Arabia lacks both the ability and the motive to generate lots of great artists. Those slots will just end up going empty.
Avoid: Stupas
Again, war weariness is not a problem for peaceful civilizations, so amenity bonuses are wasted on them.

Founder Belief
Choice 1: Papal Primacy
This belief is useless for anyone except Arabia and Georgia, but amazing for those civilizations. It allows you to spread your religion in a way that doesn't cost any faith, which is rare.
Choice 2: Pilgrimage
This belief lets religious units pay for themselves over time. A good alternative in the unlikely event that papal primacy has already been chosen.
Choice 3: Lay Ministry
Arguably better than pilgrimage if you end up going very wide, but not as good for Arabia since they don't have as much reason to expand as many other civs.

Enhancer Belief
Choice 1: Missionary Zeal
I like to play on huge maps, so this belief allows my religious units to zip around the world with ease. Also good for setting up theological combat ambushes.
Choice 2: Holy Order
Even better than missionary zeal on smaller maps, and a good second choice on any map.
Choice 3: Scripture
This belief will make it harder for a rival religion to convert a densely packed group of cities.
Avoid: Crusade
You want to choose an enhancer belief that helps you spread your religion, which is most of them. This belief is better for aggressive civs that don't really care about converting anyone other than their next target.
Avoid: Defender of the Faith
Despite being named after Saladin himself, this isn't a great choice for Arabia for the same reason as the one above.
Avoid: Burial Grounds
Even though you're going to be building many holy sites, this belief doesn't really help you spread your religion either (unless you're playing as Poland), so there are much better enhancer beliefs to choose.

 

[Laurana Kanan]

Moderator Action: Please do not necro an old thread talking about beliefs pre-NFP as there was a significant change to them with the June 2020 update. Feel free to start a new thread about the state of the current game, but this thread is closed.