So we often talk about the balance of the various pantheons, but I thought it was be fun to talk about how to use the various pantheons. This is part balance, as there are some pantheons I personally have never found a good use for, and I'll be curious what other people have come up with.
Ancestor Worship - Never use
Earth Mother - This is good off a pyramid rush if you have a mine based monopoly. The key is a strong expansion with lots of workers to get your mines up as soon as possible, with the extra monument bonus getting you city a leg up.
God of All Creation - Its a good early rush pantheon where you don't really care about founding. The goal is to dominate a neighboring civ early with your strong science and production bonus.
God of Commerce - Good to combine with trade focused civs like Morocco or Portugal (when going Progress). You want a quick early expand and then beeline for trade. Perfect scenario you have some desert to go Petra, which increases the value.
God of Craftsman - Takes a very precise play I found to make it work. I use it with quarry monopolies and generally a Tradition focused play, you beeline hard for the Mausoleum. I find the optimum play is then to go trade heavy. Use the power of your stone works to make production based ITRs, and turn your capital into an omega productive city. You can then produce whatever you want, whether its wonders or an army.
God of the Expanse - Good to take with Russia, also fun to use with the border blob strat (2 tradition + 2 authority, for fast expanding borders that give you yields).
God of the Open Sky - Rare one for me, I just don't find a lot of starts good with it.
God of the Sea - Tremendously strong on heavy water resource starts, and one of the few pantheons that can make a lot of island spots attractive. The trick is to use your main city to pump out fishing boats, so that your new cities instantly have water resources online when they settle, giving you that pantheon bonus as quick as possible.
God of the Stars and Skies - A solid pick on tundra, but the key is there has to be enough tundra to make this work.
God of the Sun - If you have a lot of farm resources, you can make unbelievably strong cities. I find this best with progress openers, and you often want to pack in your cities, as even 1 wheat resources can cover your city, and so you want to divide them up when you can. However, there is a big negative to Sun, and that's culture. You need granaries to get enough faith to found, but if you sacrifice your monument times your culture can tank. Even on heavy wheat starts I won't always choose sun unless I have some means of covering my culture, like a natural wonder or a cultural CS.
God of War - Frankly I don't like this pantheon much, as I think there are better war pantheons. Hammers and happiness are my limiting factors in the early rush, and the +10% military boost just isn't enough.
God-King - Never had much use for it, but I've been trying it out more lately, as the +2 hammers right off the bat can be useful if you can grow your faith quickly.
Goddess of Beauty - The default for a Stonehenge opener. Tradition + Stonehenge + Beauty is a rock solid opener. Your practically guaranteed to found, and then you'll get your first artist and engineer out early. The drawback is its usefulness falls off a cliff, so you want to get your bang for the buck early, generally by using the engineer for an early wonder.
Goddess of Festivals - Use to be the default for the Netherlands, now with luxs being harder to trade I'm not sure if it holds up.
Goddess of Nature - Great pantheon on mountain heavy starts, or if you get 2 natural wonders in close proximity. The key is that mountains can feed multiple cities, so you want to ring your cities around the mountains to maximize your bonus. Its often good to lead into aggression, as the nature bonus tends to fall away late game and your left with a lot of mountain spaces you can't use.
Goddess of Protection - Great with Japan or Persia, in some ways one of the best war pantheons. Forward settle an enemy, and then use your boosted healing to bring power you normally can't bring. Crazy good with Persian immortals. Also good to use with citadels, as you can pressed into your opponents borders and activate your healing. This is not a pantheon for yields, its for conquest.
Goddess of Purity - Best for a tradition start off a huge lake, you can very easily found with this one.
Goddess of Renewal - Its best for forest heavy places that has resources you won't kill trees for (like deer). Can turn another otherwise ho hum spot into a literal gold mine of resources. The key is the markets so you want to get trade, but its often a balance on whether to prioritize markets or herbalists first.
Goddess of Springtime - This is another one that works best off a strong expansion. While the plantations are important, its vital to get those herbalist up early for the faith, otherwise you will have trouble founding.
Goddess of the Home - This is best on a food poor start. You go progress left side to maximize building potential, and you go shrine first in your satellite cities. This lets you turn all those hammers into food. Its surprisingly tough to found with this one, but the reward is a growth bonus that will last you all game long.
Goddess of the Hunt - Deer = win, if you have a heavy deer start this is beautiful. This tends to be a strong pick on tundra starts, because they tend to have a lot of deer along with the extra food bonus you get.
Goddess of Wisdom - Best with a strong expansion play. Ironically I find the best way to utilize the specialist bonus is with markets (instead of libraries) because libraries often take too long. I can go markets and with my merchant specialist, now have a solid mix of gold, science, and faith.
Spirit of the Desert - Obviously great for deserts.
Tutelary Gods - This one is a niche one, I find the best use for it is off a Tradition play when I'm getting pressure from my neighbors. Instead of going right for culture, you go left for hammers...and you will have a really strong production start. You use this either expand quickly or build an army for war. Use your early great engineer to bag a good war wonder to continue the pressure.
Ancestor Worship - Never use
Earth Mother - This is good off a pyramid rush if you have a mine based monopoly. The key is a strong expansion with lots of workers to get your mines up as soon as possible, with the extra monument bonus getting you city a leg up.
God of All Creation - Its a good early rush pantheon where you don't really care about founding. The goal is to dominate a neighboring civ early with your strong science and production bonus.
God of Commerce - Good to combine with trade focused civs like Morocco or Portugal (when going Progress). You want a quick early expand and then beeline for trade. Perfect scenario you have some desert to go Petra, which increases the value.
God of Craftsman - Takes a very precise play I found to make it work. I use it with quarry monopolies and generally a Tradition focused play, you beeline hard for the Mausoleum. I find the optimum play is then to go trade heavy. Use the power of your stone works to make production based ITRs, and turn your capital into an omega productive city. You can then produce whatever you want, whether its wonders or an army.
God of the Expanse - Good to take with Russia, also fun to use with the border blob strat (2 tradition + 2 authority, for fast expanding borders that give you yields).
God of the Open Sky - Rare one for me, I just don't find a lot of starts good with it.
God of the Sea - Tremendously strong on heavy water resource starts, and one of the few pantheons that can make a lot of island spots attractive. The trick is to use your main city to pump out fishing boats, so that your new cities instantly have water resources online when they settle, giving you that pantheon bonus as quick as possible.
God of the Stars and Skies - A solid pick on tundra, but the key is there has to be enough tundra to make this work.
God of the Sun - If you have a lot of farm resources, you can make unbelievably strong cities. I find this best with progress openers, and you often want to pack in your cities, as even 1 wheat resources can cover your city, and so you want to divide them up when you can. However, there is a big negative to Sun, and that's culture. You need granaries to get enough faith to found, but if you sacrifice your monument times your culture can tank. Even on heavy wheat starts I won't always choose sun unless I have some means of covering my culture, like a natural wonder or a cultural CS.
God of War - Frankly I don't like this pantheon much, as I think there are better war pantheons. Hammers and happiness are my limiting factors in the early rush, and the +10% military boost just isn't enough.
God-King - Never had much use for it, but I've been trying it out more lately, as the +2 hammers right off the bat can be useful if you can grow your faith quickly.
Goddess of Beauty - The default for a Stonehenge opener. Tradition + Stonehenge + Beauty is a rock solid opener. Your practically guaranteed to found, and then you'll get your first artist and engineer out early. The drawback is its usefulness falls off a cliff, so you want to get your bang for the buck early, generally by using the engineer for an early wonder.
Goddess of Festivals - Use to be the default for the Netherlands, now with luxs being harder to trade I'm not sure if it holds up.
Goddess of Nature - Great pantheon on mountain heavy starts, or if you get 2 natural wonders in close proximity. The key is that mountains can feed multiple cities, so you want to ring your cities around the mountains to maximize your bonus. Its often good to lead into aggression, as the nature bonus tends to fall away late game and your left with a lot of mountain spaces you can't use.
Goddess of Protection - Great with Japan or Persia, in some ways one of the best war pantheons. Forward settle an enemy, and then use your boosted healing to bring power you normally can't bring. Crazy good with Persian immortals. Also good to use with citadels, as you can pressed into your opponents borders and activate your healing. This is not a pantheon for yields, its for conquest.
Goddess of Purity - Best for a tradition start off a huge lake, you can very easily found with this one.
Goddess of Renewal - Its best for forest heavy places that has resources you won't kill trees for (like deer). Can turn another otherwise ho hum spot into a literal gold mine of resources. The key is the markets so you want to get trade, but its often a balance on whether to prioritize markets or herbalists first.
Goddess of Springtime - This is another one that works best off a strong expansion. While the plantations are important, its vital to get those herbalist up early for the faith, otherwise you will have trouble founding.
Goddess of the Home - This is best on a food poor start. You go progress left side to maximize building potential, and you go shrine first in your satellite cities. This lets you turn all those hammers into food. Its surprisingly tough to found with this one, but the reward is a growth bonus that will last you all game long.
Goddess of the Hunt - Deer = win, if you have a heavy deer start this is beautiful. This tends to be a strong pick on tundra starts, because they tend to have a lot of deer along with the extra food bonus you get.
Goddess of Wisdom - Best with a strong expansion play. Ironically I find the best way to utilize the specialist bonus is with markets (instead of libraries) because libraries often take too long. I can go markets and with my merchant specialist, now have a solid mix of gold, science, and faith.
Spirit of the Desert - Obviously great for deserts.
Tutelary Gods - This one is a niche one, I find the best use for it is off a Tradition play when I'm getting pressure from my neighbors. Instead of going right for culture, you go left for hammers...and you will have a really strong production start. You use this either expand quickly or build an army for war. Use your early great engineer to bag a good war wonder to continue the pressure.