desert folklore very powerful pantheon

[smellymummy]

+1 faith per desert tile, and this includes flood plains

that being said, think about all those times when your game start puts you in the middle of a desert, usually on the sides of a river with a few hills here and there. more food than you can ever eat, plenty of commerce, decent industry, and to top it all off loads of faith

and when the river is kinda long and you end up having a second decent flood plain city site?

follow up with holy warriors and maybe the buy pagodas with faith, and might as well pick tithe for the gold you get from all your citizens eating all that flood plain food

suffice to say i'm really enjoying this combo so far

now if i can build the petra wonder first...

 

[onslaught49]

yeah couple that with the petra wonder that gives +1 food gold and production and you have a beast of a starting spot

 

[Nyanko]

I think Stone circles is far, far more powerful. 2 faith per Quarry, which unlike desert tiles, are ones you actually use

 

[gozpel]

I thought it said (not including floodplains)?

Quarries? Can't remember when I ever had more than 3 in my games, well with the exception of puppets.

 

[janboruta]

And people were complaining that this (and Dance of the Aurora) are the weakest Pantheons. Your example is the confirmation of the Desert belief, and quill 18's video let's plays on youtube show that Aurora can also be powerful - he settled a city with half of its tiles being tundra and it really helps him getting substantial amount of faith.

 

[Nyanko]

I thought it said (not including floodplains)?

Quarries? Can't remember when I ever had more than 3 in my games, well with the exception of puppets.

yeah, though you can easily work quarries, get production and food for two faith, each quarry equals a temple in faith production. So really its very powerful in getting an early religion

 

[black213]

My current game is as Arabia on a Sandstorm pangaea map script. Desert Folklore proved itself to be a VERY powerful pantheon.

 

[buchengshi]

While you're at it, imagine all of those flood plains having polders. 5f1p3g each. The worthless deserts next to them are 3f1p1g. An "Egypt" style start would be pretty powerful (at least after economics).

Edit: SS of what Petra in a desert can look like.

 

[Lyoncet]

I thought it said (not including floodplains)?

Depends on which you mean by "it." Petra doesn't improve floodplains, but Desert Folklore does. Naturally, this makes it incredible in quite a few games, since 1) some civs have a desert start bias, 2) those starts often have lots of floodplains and/or desert hills, and 3) it's a pantheon that probably won't help your enemies much if you spread it to them via religion. I'm in the middle of an Immortal game as Arabia where I founded my pantheon on turn 5 (met Jerusalem turn 2, Vatican City turn 4 ) with 2 desert hills and probably 6 or so flood plains around Mecca. The same turn someone else founded the map's second religion, I enhanced mine. On Immortal. That's how good that belief can be. Although granted the CS head start was largely responsible for that, too.

 

[bhavv]

Will Petra be awesome in this city, or will Petra be awesome in this city?

Spoiler :

3 fish, 5 wheat, 1 salt, 1 sheep, normal continents map, normal resources, lolwut, I dont even get legendary starts this good!

I think that Petra maybe awesome in this city, but it might turn out to be awesome instead of awesome.

(I took sacred waters instead of desert folklore currently to try out maximum ).

I had to buy 4 tiles though to stop Persia's capital getting them first, waste of gold, but it should be worth it in the end, like 30+ population.

 

[Drawmeus]

Good lord, that's a desert city site.

 

[KillingMeSoftly]

Desert Folklore combined with Petra in your Capital is a gamewinner. Seriously, if you start in the desert these two things should be your number 1 goal. My first G&K victory was Ethiopia on Emperor difficulty, starting in a rather worthless desert area save for a river, a couple hills, and some incense. Yet I stuck with it and managed to get these two things, and became the most powerful civilization. 3 of my four cities were all in the desert, the other half in the desert and half in some plains.

Once I saw what Petra did to my capital, this was my reaction:

 

[bhavv]

But I actually like Sacred Waters more for riverside cities than Desert Folklore

 

[Flaviusx]

I think Stone circles is far, far more powerful. 2 faith per Quarry, which unlike desert tiles, are ones you actually use

I'd say they are equally powerful and which one is better depends entirely on what circumstances appear in any given game.

Very rarely both deserts and stones will be abundant in your starting area. But mostly that's not the case, one or the other will be common.

If you do have such a start...make sure you're playing Byzantium. They can grab both pantheons!

 

[Drawmeus]

Honestly, I think the Pantheon beliefs are a brilliant way to solve marginal terrain. Started on tundra? Started in a desert? Focus faith first and take the right belief, and you're in luck.

It's a much different kind of game than if you start on grassland surrounded by cows, but very powerful and very cool.

 

[KillingMeSoftly]

Honestly, I think the Pantheon beliefs are a brilliant way to solve marginal terrain. Started on tundra? Started in a desert? Focus faith first and take the right belief, and you're in luck.

It's a much different kind of game than if you start on grassland surrounded by cows, but very powerful and very cool.

I agree, the flexibility that Religion enables is amazing. The only issue is losing out on these beliefs because someone picked them first.

 

[SatanasOz]

I'd almost say it works a bit to well. What got me thinking is this: It is either garbage or a no-brainer.

In my 2nd G&K game, I rolled Maya in the middle of the desert. A river & floodplains right through it. 4 incense & 1 marble. Even on Emperor, the game was decided after 100 turns. Desert folklore & Petra is brutal.

I have never had it so easy. In the end, the capital size was 38 and I had ALL non-military wonders. And perpetual GA. Hard to beat.

If an AI builds this in the right spot - I'd say: build an army and take it, before he puts it to use.

 

[KevinJK]

Desert Folklore is gamebreakingly powerful, but only on a civilization with a desert start bias.

In my current game as Arabia (Emperor/Huge/Marathon/Pangaea Plus) I got the third Pantheon (Celts and Ethiopia were first) and took this. I had the second religion and enhanced second, one turn after Ethiopia enhanced. Currently I'm producing 113 faith in my cities, about 60 of which is from Desert Folklore. It starts out extremely powerful and remains a very useful benefit for the entire game. At first it let me spread my religion, and now it lets me pray wonders into existence.

Things to remember:
- Oases are desert.
- Floodplains are desert and yet have the same benefit as grassland on river.
- Desert hills have the same benefit as normal hills, yet get the faith bonus.
- Desert carries coal fairly commonly and has oil extremely commonly.
- Desert still carries many luxuries or other bonuses, which don't stop the faith

All of these work with Petra too except for Floodplains, so a desert start bias can be incredibly powerful. Arabia even gets bonus gold on oil/oasis, so an Arab city in the desert with Petra ends up being amazing.

 

[bhavv]

I honestly think that desert folklore needs the same restriction as petra, that it shouldnt affect floodplains. Both also shouldnt affect oasis tiles.

Can Byzantine pick two Pantheon beliefs? If so imagine Sacred Waters + Desert Folklore

 

[homan1983]

Desert folklore is fine. It makes desert locations attractive to civs that specialize in it, as should be the case. Its nice to see with religion they are finally making different civs want different city locations instead of the old grassland+hills from previous civ games.

Now you can get +1hammer from fish boats, and with a commerce+statue of zeus you can get insane coastal cities.

Likewise you can have cultural powerhouses with the jungle +1culture bonus.

I'm very happy with this addition.