Pantheon Strategies

[Ticio]

Hi everyone!

I wanted to ask all of you about what do you think about some Pantheons and some doubts I have about them.
I uderstand that it always depend on the start and your civ but I wanted to know some opinions:

1) Religious Settlements: border expansion +15% means that it accelerate the "purple tile annexetion rate" by 15% in all the cities?
Only that make it super powerfull, isn't?
Seems to be the favourite of every one, the growth is one of the reasons, or only for the colonist would be on of the best?

2) Fertility Rites: I think is quite powerful, but I read something that the growth is not the same that with the high gardens. Something about the game making the percentage after the food is consumed?
Anyone knows if there is something different with the city growth offer by this pantheon?

3) City Patron Goddess: This is a Pantheon I normally take, I think that +25% for the first district is quite useful when you found a new city. It will help a lot making the city start. Also you can combine it with the 20% al Liang so 45% on your first district.

But I have the feeling that no much people takes it, is for any reason? or only because the others are better? for example, are the bonus of growth, tile expansion or River goddes better making a new city useful?

4) River Goddess: I never took it before, but in my last game I had some problems with amenities for the first time and now, +2 amenities and housing seems to be quite good.

I understand that is very useful to civs like holland, but seems very easy to fulfil and I think could help a lot if you want to expand for any civ.

Maybe is better than City patron goddess, bacause it let you growth taller, and I been choosing wrong.

5) Divine Spark: Some times I taki it, others not... I like it but something in my inside make me take other pantheons. I do not know why. What do you think about it?


What do you think about these pantheons? are there better objectively? (not having a specific start that would make taking them indispensable, as with God of the Open Sky)

 

[tedhebert]

I feel like you have the vanilla game only, judging from your comments ?

Religious settlements recently changed to award 1 free Settler also. THAT'S why everyone is now saying it's their # 1 ;-)

Please state what version of the game you have (vanille, R&F or gathering Storm), it will help us give you answers adequate to your situation !

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Religious settlements recently changed to award 1 free Settler also

Yeah it should really be border expansion is -15% given how strong an early Settler is!

 

[GunsGermsandSteel]

Depending on the map I find Earth Goddess to be the best for faith production. This is because it's passive for any tile with charming or better appeal. Essentially you have to do very little and you get a lot of faith. You don't necessarily even have to go for religion since faith has many uses.

Divine Spark is another go-to for obvious reasons. I find it a bit boring though.

City Patron Goddess is one I have taken. Although you have to realize the pantheon has to spread to that city in order to take advantage of it. Sometimes you'll end up building the first district before that city takes the pantheon... something to consider.

 

[The Highwayman]

Religious Settlements: Best default pantheon in the game. A free settler early is huge as it allows one to claim land and resources faster. The border expansion is icing on the cake. This used to be border expansion only - and it was trash.

Fertility Rites: That's the free builder +10% growth? The growth is negligible and is wasted upon reaching the housing cap. I usually harvest my way to pop ten, or have other means of growing adequately (if I want to grow at all). The free builder isn't worth taking. +1 builder charge for all builders (or a free builder upon founding x amount of cities maybe) would make it quite good and allow this one to be strongly considered. That will never happen, so I'll never consider this one.

City Patron Goddess: Getting any district online faster is a good thing, but this generally isn't worth taking as Goddess of Festivals, Religious Settlements, Earth Goddess, or occasionally others is more valuable.

River Goddess: Faith economy is important, so early holy sites are a consideration in science and culture games. This received a nice buff last year so now the +2 amenities/housing can be quite good. Thinking Scotland or Maya for example. Maybe Japan if none of the better ones fit the map.

Divine Spark: Was the default when nothing else made sense. Got nerfed when the tier 1 building was required for the campus and theater square. Not terrible by any means, as GW points, GS points, and getting additional faith from your holy sites via overflow GP points has value.

 

[Ticio]

I feel like you have the vanilla game only, judging from your comments ?

Religious settlements recently changed to award 1 free Settler also. THAT'S why everyone is now saying it's their # 1 ;-)

Please state what version of the game you have (vanille, R&F or gathering Storm), it will help us give you answers adequate to your situation !

I have GS and R&F, sorry, i did the post very quickly and maybe the sentences are not well structured. I will edit it!

I was wondering if Religious settlement was a good choice even without the settler (15% expansion on tiles seems to be quite powerfull by itself) so.. with the settler makes it the best pantheon in general.

Depending on the map I find Earth Goddess to be the best for faith production. This is because it's passive for any tile with charming or better appeal. Essentially you have to do very little and you get a lot of faith. You don't necessarily even have to go for religion since faith has many uses.

Divine Spark is another go-to for obvious reasons. I find it a bit boring though.

City Patron Goddess is one I have taken. Although you have to realize the pantheon has to spread to that city in order to take advantage of it. Sometimes you'll end up building the first district before that city takes the pantheon... something to consider.

Seriously? I thought you choose one, and all your empire had the bonus. How do you spread it? with your religion or something??

 

[tedhebert]

Seriously? I thought you choose one, and all your empire had the bonus. How do you spread it? with your religion or something??

you spread it with religious units. In the early game, to your own cities, pretty much with missionaries

 

[Samouraibapt]

The pantheon is applied for all of your cities, all the time, no matter what is your religion.

 

[GunsGermsandSteel]

We'll that's good to know!
Swear it happened to me where I was trying to use a pantheon bonus and didn't have it at one of my new cities... could've been a bug.

 

[enKage]

My strategy for pantheon is decided by resources.

My top picks are
a) any culture pantheon (pastures/plantation) as it speeds up PP / feudalism / civil service significantly and allows to forget about monuments for some time. And because CS gives sooo much to Cree, I want to reach this civic in classical age
b) the alternative is faith approach. If breathtaking appeal seems reliable, earth goddess. If quarries around - stone circles. What I want is to have at least 10 faith from pantheon in 3 cities, so I can try monumentality in classical era, so I can buy a settlet as soon as it starts and at least 2 more during this era
c) I love bonus food and hammer from camps. Camp resources are strong and if I have a chance and reason for it, I can even choose it over faith pantheon
d) (here comes religious settlements, except Maya and maybe Mali)
e) 25% to district or divine spark is my veryvery reserve, if above 3 don't fit and religious settlement is already taken

 

[Casualty of war]

I like the Pantheons that improve upon what I'm already doing. Earth Goddess is great, but not if you don't want to work those tiles. It is my preferred second option though, because a Faith-fueled Golden Classical with Monumentality is generally going to lead to a strong game.

I am also particularly fond of Goddess of the Hunt, if you have the Camps to justify it. It seems like quite a few people chop their Camps, so I might be off-base there.

Getting Culture from your Pastures is phenomenal, because those are tiles I improve early and want to work. Plantation Culture comes too late in my opinion and you often don't even want to work those tiles.

Divine Spark is fine; you know you are going to want some Great Persons throughout the game and this helps. City Patron Goddess is a good option if you have a civ with an early Unique District, or Alexander who really wants to get those Encampments down.

If my neighbor is a Holy Site-spawning maniac, I will sometimes take God of War. You can rake in a pretty preposterous amount of Faith that way.

Religious Settlements is in a class by itself. Establishing an additional production source is almost incalculably good. If I can, I try to build my first Settler followed soon after by a Pantheon Settler.

 

[Bibor]

Religious settlements or the culture ones (pastures / plantations). That culture is not negligible, though nothing beats the Religious Settlements. As I play on emperor, that pretty much puts me on equal footing with the AI in city count.
Sometimes the camps pantheon makes sense, with 3+ camps in capital. The possible +3F +3P is actually pretty significant if it comes early (and you'll want to work those tiles anyway).

Earth goddess is a tricky one, as I tend to go heavy on the mines. I guess it could work but... mountainsides are prime real estate and production is just too scarce. I'd take 2 production over 2 faith.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Free Settler or Culture from Pastures are imho the two strongest Pantheons. I rarely take Spark because it comes online so late, but it's good. I think desert/tundra adjacency can be very good situationally, but you rarely get big deserts/tundra compared to Civ 5 maps now. Production from boats is occasionally good.

 

[Victoria]

@Ticio border expansion works in rings so will not expand to ring 3 until ring 2 is complete. In ring 2 the good tiles get selected first and you are often not fussed about many of the others. A monument with give an early city of 3 pop a 100% border expansion rate in comparison. Yes you get to the good tiles 15% sooner but buying those tiles get you there right now and right now is what you want early. the later game is fairly irrelevant for that 15%, it is the early that counts and something like extra faith or more Food/production or more GP points just outweighs it.
When they added the extra settler to it, it changed from one of the worst to normally the best by a country mile.
Give it 50% and I may consider it by itself but even then, I can buy the tile I want which is only of value if I can work it.