[GS] Pantheons other than Religious Settlements

[nauberry]

Lately, I have been choosing the one that gives production and faith to strategic resources. That provides value during the whole game, and really helps you in the early game, as you would want to settle near those resources anyway.

 

[Ondolindë]

The real thing Religious Settlement gives you is time. At that time you are producing settlers whatsoever, and Religious settlement saves you that time.

Time (turn) is the most valuable resource in Civ6.

I absolutely agree that time is the most valuable resource, whether you want to finish your game fast or whether you want to have the time to build and manage your beautiful civilization just the way you want it. But Religious Settlement is not the only one that gives you that, although it is quite useful. For example, playing the Inca, I love using Earth Goddess (however it is not the only one I use with them) because eventually having readily available faith in combination with certain Beliefs, Policies, City States etc., I can buy settlers, workers and other things in no time. I think choosing the right pantheon for the location, civ and especially what you are playing in any game you are can buy you the time you need to accomplish that, maybe not immediately as Religious Settlement does, but later when you most need it. Sometimes choosing not to eat the cookie in front of you now, can give you an opportunity to have more later.

The rest of the pantheons range from weak to untakeable. It would be nice to have another round of pantheon balancing.

I would suggest using either Infixo's or pokiehl's pantheon mods from time to time. They spice things up.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

Religious Settlements - The overall best pick with a few exceptions. Getting a free early settler starts the snowball earlier and helps claim precious land.
Earth Goddess - With a Civ that can easily take advantage, such as Egypt, Persia, Maori, or Inca, is often the better pick since it allows the Classical Monumentality golden age to be of tremendous value. Expanding and applying your uniques takes further advantage of the potentially massive faith output. Can be a solid choice with any Civ with perfect map conditions.
Dance of the Aurora - Russia or any civ with a tundra-heavy start for amazing faith gen.
Desert Folklore/Sacred Path - Extremely rare but worth mentioning as an option as it has the potential for decent faith gen.
God of the Open Sky/Oral Tradition - Religious Settlements was gone, the faith generating pantheons don't apply and enough of applicable resources are available to justify. Both can be solid to good.
Divine Spark - All of the good pantheons are gone or don't apply to the given map and I must default to something. Having to build the library and amphitheater lowered it's value imo. I suppose it's nice to help secure a religion for the Civs who heavily benefit from a religion but have no such way to speed up the process, such as Georgia, India, or Spain. But overall feels bad.

The rest of the pantheons range from weak to untakeable. It would be nice to have another round of pantheon balancing.

If you already built/ is building >=2 Holy Sites besides river, then river Goddess is a really solid choice.

If you have a lot of sea resources (for example, >2 in all of you first 3 cities) you shall choose the fish boat +1 production one.

If you need a religion but afraid of being short on GP point, then choose Divine Spark. The main use of Divine Spark is to help you win the prophet race.

 

[lotrmith]

If you need a religion but afraid of being short on GP point, then choose Divine Spark. The main use of Divine Spark is to help you win the prophet race.

If my sole intention was to get a prophet, I'm sure I'd rather just run prayers once rather than lock myself into a pantheon that I otherwise didn't want.