on pantheons

[agonistes]

I almost always try for river goddess, because I then shoot for + food from shrines, temples, and guarda (sp.), as I have found that combo to be unbelievably powerful. Its not only an increase to city and empire growth, its also a bonus to production because you are getting food from a 'free' or 'bonus' tile, so you can work production tiles and keep growing.

Most others are pretty niche. The % bonus to production is a good second choice, but that one gets gobbled up fast by the ai.

 

[rschissler]

Religious Settlements: 15% increase in border expansion rate
Oral Tradition: +1 Culture from Bananas, Citrus, Cotton, Dyes, Silk, Spices, and Sugar Plantations

If border expansion is your primary objective for choosing a pantheon, does anyone have a clue how these might compare? Is there a formula for culture to border expansion?

 

[WillowBrook]

Religious Settlements: 15% increase in border expansion rate
Oral Tradition: +1 Culture from Bananas, Citrus, Cotton, Dyes, Silk, Spices, and Sugar Plantations

If border expansion is your primary objective for choosing a pantheon, does anyone have a clue how these might compare? Is there a formula for culture to border expansion?

According to this thread https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ-vi-how-do-city-borders-expand.602481/, the formula is
10 + (6*n)^1.3 culture, where n is the number of tiles that the city has already obtained by culture.

So initially, when the only source of culture in a small city is population, an additional culture point from a tile is worth more than +15% growth. But at some point, that single point (or maybe two) will be worth relatively less, as the city gets more culture from other sources.

So if most of your cities have at least one of the oral tradition resources, it's probably better to go with that. Obviously, if none of those resources are around, religious settlements is better. But more careful analysis is needed to figure out how many oral tradition resources make it worth it.

 

[ShakaKhan]

According to this thread https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ-vi-how-do-city-borders-expand.602481/, the formula is
10 + (6*n)^1.3 culture, where n is the number of tiles that the city has already obtained by culture.

So initially, when the only source of culture in a small city is population, an additional culture point from a tile is worth more than +15% growth. But at some point, that single point (or maybe two) will be worth relatively less, as the city gets more culture from other sources.

So if most of your cities have at least one of the oral tradition resources, it's probably better to go with that. Obviously, if none of those resources are around, religious settlements is better. But more careful analysis is needed to figure out how many oral tradition resources make it worth it.

I'm guessing this is implied, but some may be overlooking it: you also have to factor in that both bonus culture and bonus border growth will increase the rate of border expansion, but bonus culture also helps you speed through the civics tree whereas a boost to border expansion will not.

 

[gettingfat]

Production, production, production.....so I generally pick Lady of the Reed and Marshes with a desert floodplain start, God of the Sea playing England, Norway, Australia (this one becomes so much better with the recent patch), and God of the Forge with an early UU (this is VERY powerful, but unfortunately the AI love it). Then it is between divine spark and God of the open sky.. Dance of Aurora and Desert folklore can be useful in some starts.

 

[empresskiova]

I like Fertility Rites and River Goddess if there aren't terrain obvious ones available. Fertility Rites + Hanging Gardens pretty much lets you expand cities well into Industrial/Modern era and still come out with a fairly decent sized city (provided you put effort into it!). River Goddess is great for when your a religious civ who doesn't have mountains or forest nearby...

 

[JustifierNA]

God of the Open Sky or God of the Forge are my staple picks however if God of the Forge is banned and Open sky is taken then my pantheon is completely dependent on my land.

(Multiplayer perspective)

Except for choosing a pantheon, I basically ignore religion as I'm not interested in a religious victory. However, if an AI civ converts one of my cities to a religion, does it still keep the pantheon benefits?

Yes.

 

[magha77]

If there isn't a major reason to pick something else (and especially if you're the Aztecs), I'd go for God of War -- you get faith for winning a battle within 8 tiles of *any* holy site (not just your own), and you can use your warmongering faith gained to help gain extra great people for even a Science or Culture victory. This can add up in the later eras when the faith gained continues to increase, as opposed to something where the +2 faith per turn never scales. (I play large map, Emperor to Immortal, 12/18/fractal/low sea level)

One of my favorite games was one were I had God of War, set a warrior on a hill in front of my city and barbarian after barbarian came after me. I have never gotten a religion earlier. And that warrior became the mother of all Immortals later!

Nowadays, it depends on which Civ I am playing, I try to go for Desert Folklore as Arabia, Egypt, Persia or Arabia on an Earth map. Stone circles for England. Looking forward to a Russia game with tundra one.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I have never gotten a religion earlier.

God of War gives Faith not Great Prophet points though?

 

[comatosedragon]

I pick Divine Spark, every time. I don't see the point in picking anything else, unless it's RP or you just want to handicap yourself (which is fine!).
I think it only happened to me once that it wasn't available, In which case any food boosts. [Immortal]

 

[magha77]

You can buy a great prophet with enough faith points

 

[Noble Zarkon]

You can buy a great prophet with enough faith points

Ah yes of course, nice strategy!

 

[cazaderonus]

My default pantheons when nothing else seems good are divine spark or border growth. I considered city growth in the fisr games i played but as food is pretty much useless in CiVI, i dont bother anymore.

If i see 6/7 stone\marble\gypse around, i will always take the +2 faith pantheon for quarries. as i dont build holy sites it's a painless way to get some faith which will get me a free GP at some point or a few buildings from a foreign religion.

With egypt and its start bias, the +1hammer on flood plains, marches etc is quite nice. It generates a decent production early on while growing the cities, helping a lot during the settler spam phase.

Other than that, god of the open sky is nice. or the +1hammer for boats if you have enough sea resources to make it worthwhile.

The plantations pantheon arent my thing. most of the luxes\bonus resources affected make for horsehockey tiles to work so one extra yield wont make them that interesting. I think spices are the only exception there but i havent got a spice heavy start so far.

I picked god of the forge a few times. It's really not that usefull considering that if you prioritize mines, you can already spam ancient\classical units using the right policies. So the extra boost from god of the forge feels redundant. Still a solid choice for a few civs, especially macedonia imo.

 

[Tacgnol]

Divine Spark is generally the go-to, it's not that huge a bonus but one that is useful in pretty much every game, and the AI doesn't seem to like it so it's usually available.
God of the Forge on the other hand is far and away the strongest if you're going for an early rush, and with how bad the combat AI is that's usually the best strategy, the AI does love to take this one however.

Reeds and Marshes and the faith and culture ones can be situationally useful but only on very specific starts.
God of the Sea is great, much better than Divine Spark on water maps, not very useful if you're landlocked though, and also tends to get taken rather quickly.

One that hasn't been mentioned that's quite valuable is Goddess of the Harvest, +faith when you clear tiles or harvest resources. It might not add up to as much cumulative faith over the course of the game as Stone Circles or something but due to how it's generated, in bursts you can actively trigger by clearing more tiles and frontloaded to the early/middle game when you're clearing territory and developing your civ, I find it's a lot more useful. Again, the AI tends to take it fast though.

 

[UWHabs]

Divine Spark is generally the go-to, it's not that huge a bonus but one that is useful in pretty much every game, and the AI doesn't seem to like it so it's usually available.
God of the Forge on the other hand is far and away the strongest if you're going for an early rush, and with how bad the combat AI is that's usually the best strategy, the AI does love to take this one however.

Reeds and Marshes and the faith and culture ones can be situationally useful but only on very specific starts.
God of the Sea is great, much better than Divine Spark on water maps, not very useful if you're landlocked though, and also tends to get taken rather quickly.

One that hasn't been mentioned that's quite valuable is Goddess of the Harvest, +faith when you clear tiles or harvest resources. It might not add up to as much cumulative faith over the course of the game as Stone Circles or something but due to how it's generated, in bursts you can actively trigger by clearing more tiles and frontloaded to the early/middle game when you're clearing territory and developing your civ, I find it's a lot more useful. Again, the AI tends to take it fast though.

A good way to "cheat" with the harvest one is to clear lots of gold-producing resources. I think you get twice the gold when harvesting copper as you do hammers when you harvest stone, for example. But you also will get twice the faith if I'm not mistaken. And I do think unless if you have a very quarry-heavy area, it might give you more faith overall. 5 quarries with stone circles for 200 turns gives 2000 faith over the course of a game. But if the average chop gives about 100, you only need 20 chops to pay it off. And since late game chops go for 200 or so, plowing a jungle late game can give you a ton of faith. It does encourage you to fully pillage your lands, as suddenly plowing that jungle banana tile becomes nearly twice as valuable.

 

[Canadian Bluebeer]

+1p to fishing boats on inland sea is really really nice.
I'll go for that one on those maps.

If I see a lot of stone, then yes, quarries it is.