Plantation starts too weak compared to Mine resource starts

[Idleray]

On Deity I feel that plantation are just too weak and often are a trap to lure people into getting a religion start.

I recently started a game where I had 4 wines near my start, which lead me to go into Piety in the belief that I could use monasteries to rake in some massive culture/religion goodness.

Well I got Monasteries alright, and even though each wine hex was making me 1F 1P 3G 2F 2C, I was still getting hammered by my aggressive AI neighbour and by turn 105 could only manage 27 beakers / turn.

Meanwhile on another start with the same Civ (Germany) with 3 Silver, Tradition start, I'm seeing 80 beakers on the same turn count. Granted my 2 aggressive AI neighbours were fighting each other this time so that may have made more of a difference, but I just wanted to point out how weak plantation resources are compared to mine and camp (which can be made good with God of the Hunt pantheon) starts, and how un-viable Piety is on Deity.

 

[Idleray]

I feel a variety of factors are to blame: too many AIs snatching up the good Pantheons/Beliefs, the Piety tree not offering anything concrete in terms of beaker generation/happiness, the utter uselessness of the Piety policy that gives you benefits of a second pantheon (seriously, who has ever made this work? The coincidences/work/time required to get this policy to kick in just makes it a complete waste of a policy slot), and religion counting for more than it looks in the score page.

 

[kaspergm]

It doesn't help that Cotton, Silk and Dyes doesn't even have a belief that adds Faith to them, while with the new patch, Salt (lol?) gets one ...

 

[Dogmouth]

It doesn't help that Cotton, Silk and Dyes doesn't even have a belief that adds Faith to them, while with the new patch, Salt (lol?) gets one ...

I didn't notice that. Doh. It's not like salt needed a buff!

 

[phillipwyllie]

Usually you'll want to unlock the reformation belief and build the Great Mosque of Djenne if you open Piety. My personal favorite is Glory of God where you can buy any great person with faith, really handy if you save up your faith.

To answer to OP, Pantheons should be chosen to give you an early game start in something. I, however always chose God of War as when the AI attacks(usually late game) the faith keeps on rolling in.

 

[civ54lyfe]

yep, Cotton/Silk/Dye needs a Textile Mill.

 

[fyar]

On Deity I feel that plantation are just too weak and often are a trap to lure people into getting a religion start.

I recently started a game where I had 4 wines near my start, which lead me to go into Piety in the belief that I could use monasteries to rake in some massive culture/religion goodness.

Well I got Monasteries alright, and even though each wine hex was making me 1F 1P 3G 2F 2C, I was still getting hammered by my aggressive AI neighbour and by turn 105 could only manage 27 beakers / turn.

Meanwhile on another start with the same Civ (Germany) with 3 Silver, Tradition start, I'm seeing 80 beakers on the same turn count. Granted my 2 aggressive AI neighbours were fighting each other this time so that may have made more of a difference, but I just wanted to point out how weak plantation resources are compared to mine and camp (which can be made good with God of the Hunt pantheon) starts, and how un-viable Piety is on Deity.

Based on the thread title, I think you've miscast the blame. Plantations aren't the problem, Piety is the problem. Especially if you're trying playing Deity. Now, I haven't gotten to playing Deity yet, but in my Immortal game I was able to use Goddess of Festivals to found a religion without Piety because I had 3 wines in my capital, 7 total in my first three cities. At Immortal, I was the second to found a religion and had those crazy 1 1 3 2 2 wine tiles, even without opening Piety. (I did eventually open Piety, but as my third policy tree after getting Consulates, in order to get Jesuit Education.)

Especially in Deity, you just can't afford to skip the growth in Tradition. You might still be able to get Monasteries without Piety, but you'll never get the growth that you need with Piety. I suspect that if you had opened Tradition instead of Piety in your wine plantations game, you would've done very well in science AND faith/culture.