Rate the Pantheons

[Mrdarklight]

Here are the pantheons available in Civ 6:

• Dance of the Aurora: The Holy Site District gets +1 Faith from adjacent TundraTiles.
• Desert Folklore: The Holy Site District gets +1 Faith from adjacent Deserts Tiles.
• Sacred Path: The Holy Site District gets +1 Faith from adjacent Rainforests Tiles.
• River Goddess[1]: +1 Amenity to cities if they have a Holy Site District adjacent to a River.
• Monument to the Gods: Construct Ancient and Classical Wonders 15% faster.
• Divine Spark: +1 Great Person Point from Holy Site (Great Prophet), Campus(Great Scientist), and Theater Square (Great Writer) Districts
• Lady of the Reeds and Marshes: +1 Production from Marsh, Oasis, and Floodplains.
• God of the Sea: +1 Production from Fishing Boats.
• God of the Open Sky: +1 Culture from Pastures.
• Goddess of the Hunt: +1 Food from Camps.
• Stone Circles: +2 Faith from Quarries.
• Religious Idols: +1 Faith from Mines over Luxury and Bonus Resources.
• God of Craftsmen: +1 Production from Mines over Strategic Resources.
• Goddess of Festivals: +1 Food from Wine, Incense, Cocoa, Tobacco, Coffee, and Tea Plantations.
• Oral Tradition: +1 Culture from Bananas, Citrus, Cotton, Dyes, Silk, Spices, and Sugar Plantations.
• God of the Forge: +25% Production toward Ancient and Classical military Units.
• Initiation Rites: +50 Faith for each Barbarian Outposts cleared.
• God of Healing: Increases healing by +30 in your Holy Site District, or any adjacent Tiles.
• God of War: Bonus Faith for each enemy Unit killed within 8 tiles of a Holy Site District you own equal to 50% of their strength.
• Fertility Rites: City growth rate is 10% higher.
• Religious Settlements: Border expansion rate is 15% higher.
• Goddess of the Harvest: Harvesting a Resource or removing a feature receives Faith equal to the other yield's quantity.

I can't say I've tried most of these, so I'll reserve judgement for now. I have to say that my favorites so far are:

1. Divine Spark. By far my favorite. You need either a lot of Great Prophet points or a lot of faith at the beginning to get a religion. And if you don't get a religion, before long your pantheon won't matter. This increases your GP points by 1 per holy site, which that early in the game is huge. As if that weren't good enough, it also increases Great Scientist and Great Writer points.

2. Stone Circles. This is 2nd for me, but it's a distant second. I've never actually managed to buy a GP with faith because they're all gone long before I can do it. But if you manage to get a religion by other means, this can help with faith, if you have stone and/or marble around.

 

[kampori]

Divine Spark is also my favourite by an absolute landslide. I went for it on my 2nd game because none of the others I wanted were available. Since then I've never taken another pantheon. It's crazy powerful, and none of the others even come close in my opinion.

The only other ones I consider if Divine Spark is taken are also Stone Circles, because quarries are usually very plentiful.

And lady of the reeds/God of the sea. But only if majority of my cities have enough of these to be worth it. Which is almost always never.

Fertility rites if absolutely nothing else left.

 

[miaasma]

goddess of festivals or oral tradition can be good depending on terrain and resources nearby. the extra culture from the latter is really nice early on

divine spark is also good

 

[Onii-chan]

• Dance of the Aurora: This is potentially super strong for Russia as it synergizes with their unique ability and their Lavra. For other civs, not so much
• Desert Folklore: I've never used this myself yet but I guess it could be situationally useful with a flood plains + desert start for example, so it might be decent with a start like that (though only if Lady of the Reeds and Marshes isn't taken already, otherwise that'd still be better)
• Sacred Path: This one is absurd as Brazil, you can literally get +12 adjacency bonuses from holy sites already in the ancient era. You don't even have to build buildings in the holy site to get faith
• River Goddess: Seems pretty weak to me, I have other things than holy sites I want to build next to rivers
• Monument to the Gods: 15% this early in the game is not a lot. Pretty weak pantheon even if you're going to build early wonders honestly
• Divine Spark: Probably the most solid pantheon in the game if you don't get a very biased start (I.E. making a different pantheon extra strong). When going wide (like you normally do right now), this will yield crazy amounts of great person points over time and keep scaling over the course of the game. Very strong
• Lady of the Reeds and Marshes: If you get a flood plains start, this is incredibly useful. Lots of free hammers on tiles you'd want to be working anyway
• God of the Sea: Sea resources are pretty weak in the base game so I don't think much of this there, but if you get any mod which buffs them (and water tiles in general) then this isn't bad for a coastal start
• God of the Open Sky: If you get enough pasture resources in your start, this is extremely powerful. This pantheon alone can more than double your culture output instantly in the early game, and you want to work pasture tiles anyway. One of the best for sure
• Goddess of the Hunt: Never used this, seems pretty weak. Maybe if you get a tundra start with a bunch of deer, otherwise idk
• Stone Circles: In my last game, I actually had a total of 9 stone in my first 3 cities. Needless to say, this pantheon was pretty powerful for me that game. However, it's also the only time I've taken it. Pretty situational
• Religious Idols: Ehh sounds super weak to me, don't know why I'd ever pick this
• God of Craftsmen: Even worse than the above given that there are almost no strategic resources that require mines, and strategic resources are rare in this game to begin with. Possibly the worst pantheon in the game
• Goddess of Festivals: Situational, if you get a rainforest start with a ton of these resources, this can be very strong. I've never taken it myself yet but I've seen some areas of the map with like 10 cocoa in the same chunk of rainforest; this would really powerful there
• Oral Tradition: Again, early culture yields are very strong just like with God of the Open Sky, Bananas are quite common and Spices are the best tiles in the game. Situational of course, but potentially very strong
• God of the Forge: Personally I would never take this, but I reckon this would be quite useful in multiplayer where you're always fighting each other. Seems quite pointless in single player though
• Initiation Rites: Even when facing lots of barbarians, you'd get more consistent faith from other pantheons. Maybe with raging barbarians this would be useful, if that option is implemented. Otherwise probably not
• God of Healing: I guess you could use this strategically somehow by placing an aggressive holy site right on your border or something... but it sounds very gimmicky. Doubt this is actually going to help you much
• God of War: Similar to Initiation Rites, it's just not consistent enough to be worthwhile compared to other faith-yielding pantheons
• Fertility Rites: Not bad, but since city population is mostly decided by housing in this game, it's not as strong as in Civ V. An average pantheon I would say
• Religious Settlements: On the flipside, this is much stronger than in Civ V since border expansion is so much slower. If you don't have anything better to pick, why not go for it
• Goddess of the Harvest: I have never used this, nor do I think I ever will. Sounds pretty useless to me, though I've heard there's supposedly some bug with it causing it to give way more than it's supposed to in certain scenarios (not sure exactly what that was or if it's even true though)

Sooo in summary:
Divine Spark is the most consistent one I think
God of the Open Sky and Oral Tradition give the best yields if you get a start with many of the appropriate resources for them. Lady of the Reeds and Marshes is similar for a flood plains start
Dance of the Aurora and Sacred Path are amazing for Russia and Brazil respectively, the others not quite so much
Religious Settlements (and maybe Fertility Rites) are decent picks if you don't have anything better to go for
Some others might also be decent for very specific starts, but they're a bit too unlikely to be reliably good picks

 

[Libermmucist]

God of the Forge worked superbly in my Aztec game, Eagle Warriors are quite expensive to build early on.

 

[Jarms48]

• God of Craftsmen: Even worse than the above given that there are almost no strategic resources that require mines, and strategic resources are rare in this game to begin with. Possibly the worst pantheon in the game

This is probably tied with God of the Sea in my opinion, but it at least scales over the course of the game. You have Iron, Nitre, Coal, Aluminum, and Uranium. The only problem is that the game will most likely be over by the time you unlock its full potential.

 

[Onii-chan]

This is probably tied with God of the Sea in my opinion, but it at least scales over the course of the game. You have Iron, Nitre, Coal, Aluminum, and Uranium. The only problem is that the game will most likely be over by the time you unlock its full potential.

Yeah and you probably have on average maybe one of each resource in your starting area, which would be a total of about 5 extra empire-wide production across an entire game. And out of those, iron is the only you can reveal before the Renaissance era. Compare that with something like Lady of the Reeds and Marshes which will probably give you more like 10 extra production total from the very beginning of the game on tiles you always want to work. It's like night and day in comparison

Even God of the Sea at least has its resources visible from the start, and generally in decent quantity

 

[Jarms48]

Yeah and you probably have on average maybe one of each resource in your starting area, which would be a total of about 5 extra empire-wide production across an entire game. And out of those, iron is the only you can reveal before the Renaissance era. Compare that with something like Lady of the Reeds and Marshes which will probably give you more like 10 extra production total from the very beginning of the game on tiles you always want to work. It's like night and day in comparison

Even God of the Sea at least has its resources visible from the start, and generally in decent quantity

Let me just first clarify. I'm speaking from more of a multiplayer standpoint.

I wasn't saying it's great, just that it has the potential to scale. Any additional production, even an additional +1 or +2 in the early game can be infinitely more useful compared to some of the other pantheons. Compare it to some of the faith generating ones, you'll never be able to win a religious victory online, and as a whole religion is probably the weakest of the resources (unless you're using a faith purchasing strategy). Compared to Monument to the Gods, or God of the Forge, it can provide a similar benefit from its additional raw production and doesn't become obsolete. When playing online you don't really want to settle on the coast, unless you have to, because of the lost tiles and poor yields, so the benefit of God of the Sea can be limited. If you have Balanced Start on, there's a good chance you'll have iron close to your territory. I typically get 2-3 iron throughout my first 4 cities, the add in the other potential strategic resources.

Again, not saying it's a great pantheon, but if you're one of the later players to get one than it can be more useful than others. Personally if I was to choose a production pantheon I'd get Lady of the Reeds and Marshes, it makes marsh tiles very desirable without improvements, and makes desert settlements much more viable. LotRaM + Petra + any UI, amazing city.

 

[Amrunril]

1. Divine Spark. By far my favorite. You need either a lot of Great Prophet points or a lot of faith at the beginning to get a religion. And if you don't get a religion, before long your pantheon won't matter. This increases your GP points by 1 per holy site, which that early in the game is huge. As if that weren't good enough, it also increases Great Scientist and Great Writer points.

Divine Spark is absolutely a strong choice, almost certainly the best when it comes to competing for a religion. Do note though, that in Civ VI (unlike Civ V) you keep your pantheon even if you don't found a religion.

Other than Divine Spark, the major faith generating pantheons (Stone Circles, Dance of the Aurora, Desert Folklore, Sacred Path) seem strongest to me. They may not help much with founding a religion, but they make a huge difference to enhancing and spreading one quickly. Or patronizing great people. Or faith buying buildings/units. Pantheon choice is, of course, highly terrain dependent, but none of the others are likely to give you +6 anything in a single city or +2 anything from a single (often common) tile.

 

[AmtrakQuebec]

As has been mentioned, Divine Spark is strong... especialy on higher levels when getting a Religion is much more difficult.

If you're playing on the Island Plates map and get a good starting location with some Whales, the God of The Sea can be useful.

 

[Haggbart]

On immortal/deity I don't think Divine spark is that useful. The problem with ranking pantheons is that some are very situational.

One example of this: I started one tile off the coast in my last game, but chose to move to the coast (a fjord, so it wouldn't eat up too many city tiles) to get the sailing boost because of two whale resources. So I improved them really quick (so I could sell one) and chose the God of the sea pantheon for two early hammers (which is much more than 25% production for the units early on) that were really helpful to conquer Russia real quick.

I didn't get that many accumulated hammers over the run of the game, but sometimes it's all about getting that early game momentum going. This is the main problem with ranking the pantheons on a general basis.

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

As someone who plays Immortal+ and never goes for a Religion -- God of the Open Sky wins, hands-down, if there are any pasture spots nearby. I'm too busy building piles of slingers early on to worry about building a monument, and this is a culture-doubler (or more). God of the Forge or Religious Settlements otherwise.

 

[redwings1340]

I've gone god of the sea a few times when I've had costal starts, I think it's giving me about +20 or so production per turn right now in my Russia game, it can be good when there are a lot of sea resources nearby. I've also decided, because of the pantheon, that I could do a midgame mass expansion to a nearby island and the (for whatever reason) unsettled coast of the other continent, which should help my empire in the long run. It's not the most powerful, but can be pretty good.

 

[joncnunn]

Divine Spark would be my default choice unless there's a massive bonus from one one of the terrain based ones.
Divine Spark has direct benefits towards three of the victory conditions. (Religion, Science, Culture)

 

[PlayAsPericles]

Divine Spark is good as it has some bennies that really get you a good start early on with GP and supports three different victory conditions. The rest are just meh and very situational.

 

[Kizo]

Consistently good
Goddess of the Harvest
Stone Circles

Situationally good
Dance of the Aurora
Desert Folklore
Divine Spark
God of the Open Sky
God of War
Lady of the Reeds and Marshes
Oral Tradition
Sacred Path

Okay
God of the Forge
God of the Sea
Goddess of Festivals
River Goddess

Bad
Fertility Rites
God of Craftsmen
God of Healing
Goddess of the Hunt
Initiation Rites
Monument to the Gods
Religious Idols
Religious Settlements

Judging all of them in their theoretical optimum scenarios, my favorite is God of the Open Sky, followed by Stone Circles and Oral Tradition.

 

[CaiusDrewart]

I think the ones that give production or culture tend to be the best. Those make a big difference in the early game. Production is the most important yield in the game by far, and getting to Political Philosophy earlier is great. Food pantheons are OK, but in the early game I usually run into the housing cap quickly, so food becomes pointless, and in the late game a little bit of pantheon food makes basically no difference. An exception to this is God of the Sea, because sea resources are STILL meh tiles to work, even with the pantheon bonus. So I wouldn't bother with that one unless I had only sea resources. I really don't like faith pantheons. The faith just isn't good for much.

Divine Spark is a great choice if you want to found a religion, but really, why would you?

God of the Forge is quite solid, since early rushing is a great strategy in Civ VI. If you want to take out 2-3 AIs before the Medieval Era, that pantheon helps. (At least in theory it should help. I think it's bugged right now.)

 

[Jewman]

God of open sky is the best one, I don't even consider the others even if I only have like 1 or two pastures. Lady of the Reeds and Marshes helped me make a Monster city one game, but it was really just one city that benefitted from it.

 

[Namæless]

3 games so far, two of them with God of War. Fairly good, since 8 tiles are more than enough to get the faith after almost every combat (in a defensive semi-offensive scenario). Third game must still be concluded, but ain't got the chance to found a religion myself

 

[Lee Saxon]

Pantheons sound generally weaker than in Civ V. None of the situational (certain terrain/resource) ones are as powerful as say God of the Stars and Sky, certainly, and Monuments to the Gods is definitely weaker than Goddess of Beauty.