Neat/Unique civ + religion combos

[schondette]

Inca + Earth Goddess - Never thought I would find a use for Earth Goddess until i realized mountain tiles are always breathtaking which makes them insane with Inca who can work those tiles.Cogs, Corn, and Birds!

Poland + Crusade - Pretty fun little synergy. Culture bomb a forward settlement and attack with +10 combat strength.I like this combo with God of War pantheon on more domination leaning games where you use Faith as supplemental resource for military.

Poland + Monastic Isolation - better for a more religious route for harvesting Relics.

What are some of your favorites? Any cool or unique synergies that may not seem immediately obvious to a passerby? I only discovered these by playing the civs relentlessly after 100s of hours of game time. They feel like black swans.

 

[PhilBowles]

Haven't used it specifically (I actually went for Earth Goddess on my current playthrough as I have a mountainous area - I can't farm the mountains like the Inca, but most of the surrounding tiles are also breathtaking), but Khmer play well with River Goddess because they want holy sites on rivers anyway and the benefits of the pantheon happen to be very synergistic with the growth bonuses the Khmer get from holy sites on rivers. I also invariably give them Reliquaries.

 

[Sostratus]

I played through a game with Khmer river goddess. It was crazy. You get what, +2 amenities and +3 housing for the riverside holy site? You can slam down aqueducts for extra faith, amenity, and food to grow into that housing, and then later you can place down IZs to leverage your aqueducts. Probably one of the few games where EC/colosseum was totally unnecessary.

I really like Mali+desert folklore. You can settle pure desert, get up to 6 food and faith for each city, drop the holy sites for up to 6 faith each, then drop sugubas for 5-8 gold each. (See my sig for suguba guide.)
It's just so much fun having SO MUCH yield in normally worthless terrain.

The ottomans can be a real hoot if you get crusade just because janissary+ibrahim's promo+crusade is such a ridiculous bonus that you can roll over cities like it's nothing.
Spanish conquistadors+crusade is also a very fun religion game. The conquistador ability with religious units is unique and feels great.

Germany+work ethic+meeting house has very strong productivity vibes. Passively building work ethic and just having farms around makes you quite a monster later in the game.

 

[Ziad]

Phoenicia and Religious Colonization. Free loyalty in all founded cities during the initial settler rush and allows me to save early Faith to spread to other civs (so they spread in turn) or on early GP buys.

Baal be praised.

 

[Victoria]

kupe and earth goddess I find pretty strong. A choice of coastal tiles, often a wonder.

Pericles and Coral music
Gorgo and god of the forge

 

[enKage]

Ottpmans - 25% production into ancient/classical units + Ibrahim + policy card = 95% unit production to take everything before jannissaries come. It also applies to catapults due to great bombard ability. And because janissaries are also twice cheaper, you win domination having produced units at double speed

Spain works better with bonus strength in home land near the cities of own religion, not with crusde. You take a city with conquistadors and dont worry with a counter

Canada and hunt pantheon, obvious choice

Russia and Aurora - crazy faith generation

Hungary are nice with free envoy upon convertion of city state. Convert to gain suzerain, than levy for +2 another envoys. And for the pantheon, I like bonus production to first district.

Nubia and bonus production to firts distict also shines

Egypt + early wonder production - easy deity hanging gardens, mids or even bath

Macedon - +25% ancient/classical units = no GG to AI and your encampments are more effective in science than campuses

Eleonor and additional great work slot from religion buildin I dont remember the name

 

[Moxx]

Aztec + Jesuit Education (can purchase Theater & Campus buildings with Faith) + Faith Generating other Beliefs / Pantheons. You then settle as many extras cities outside your core cities as possible in bad spots and insta-build a Campus with workers which you then can purchase their buildings easily with faith. It's normally pretty easy to squeeze in 5-10 extra cities tightly together, especially if you are near the arctic to generate a huge amount of science (or culture via Theaters)

 

[Mr. Shadows]

As Poland I like Choral Music and Defender of the Faith. Choral Music gets you the culture you need to unlock your Winged Hussars, and the Holy Sites provide the faith to buy them. Defender of the Faith will keep you alive with a minimal garrison until your Hussars are ready to go.

 

[SaiH]

I like Norways Stave Church + God of the Sea pantheon.

 

[Troy Bruckner]

Canada and hunt pantheon, obvious choice

Aurora for Canada can be very nice as well coupled with feed the World.

Russia and Aurora - crazy faith generation

Krussia : add feed the World and religious colonization and go nuts with monumentalism.

Georgia + the trait that gives you a bonus envoy the first time a CS adopts your religion (3 envoys for a few missionary charges FTW)

 

[MarigoldRan]

Kongo (bonuses to reliquaries) + Kandy (free reliquary for each natural wonder you explore) + Religious Reliquaries + Mercator (GS that reveals the world upon activation) + Monumentality (faith buy builders and settlers).

Also: Choral Music and Indonesia.

 

[Abaxial]

I have never yet seen Mercator.

 

[kb27787]

I have never yet seen Mercator.

Perhaps that's from a MOD? Never seen such GS either.

Kandy + Cree in the game is pretty nice for Kongo... Let him explore for you, then once you have enough envoys dump them in then ally him on the same turn before AI makes you lose suzerain status.

Done properly this gives you an explosive power spike in medieval