Just played through a couple games already, and here are some thoughts about just the religious mechanics:
1) Some sides now are going to be ridiculously boosted in particular areas. For instance, take the Aztecs: their Floating Garden already boosted Food to higher than normal levels in vanilla, especially when combined with Tradition SP's and closer. Now, add in various religious mechanics that bolster food, and that percentage bonus from Floating Garden is going to be very noticable very early.
2) Certain religious bonuses drastically change how I already look at start-bias. This may be obvious for the new Civs (Celts with forests), but think about Harun Al-Rashid from the original civs: now, all those deserts, with the religious belief of Desert Folklore or whatever it is, can really build up Faith quickly.
3) Siam. With extra Faith now beyond just the old extra Food and Culture, I'm looking at a very potent side. Because some religious beliefs add culture, Siam's cultural path is a bit easier than it already even was.
4) Ethiopia's UB, the Stela, gives them the ability to pump out 4 early faith producers via Tradition.
5) Players who used to go wide are probably, like me, sitting and seeing the extra faith per temple from one of the first SP's in Piety, where they used to see extra happiness, and panicking. This is a huge change. It used to be that I could play as anybody, build a bunch of cheap temples, and expand rapidly without worrying about happiness so long as I got the first SP in Piety. Now, however, the only way to get happiness from that SP is to use the extra faith to pick up a Great Prophet and enhance a religion in order to pick up the happiness boosters. In a way, if I already have been playing with Faith-production as an emphasis, this isn't so bad. But if I am simply a puppetting-warmonger, well, the extra faith may or may not easily equate to the extra happiness that Piety used to give directly for that first or second SP.
1) Some sides now are going to be ridiculously boosted in particular areas. For instance, take the Aztecs: their Floating Garden already boosted Food to higher than normal levels in vanilla, especially when combined with Tradition SP's and closer. Now, add in various religious mechanics that bolster food, and that percentage bonus from Floating Garden is going to be very noticable very early.
2) Certain religious bonuses drastically change how I already look at start-bias. This may be obvious for the new Civs (Celts with forests), but think about Harun Al-Rashid from the original civs: now, all those deserts, with the religious belief of Desert Folklore or whatever it is, can really build up Faith quickly.
3) Siam. With extra Faith now beyond just the old extra Food and Culture, I'm looking at a very potent side. Because some religious beliefs add culture, Siam's cultural path is a bit easier than it already even was.
4) Ethiopia's UB, the Stela, gives them the ability to pump out 4 early faith producers via Tradition.
5) Players who used to go wide are probably, like me, sitting and seeing the extra faith per temple from one of the first SP's in Piety, where they used to see extra happiness, and panicking. This is a huge change. It used to be that I could play as anybody, build a bunch of cheap temples, and expand rapidly without worrying about happiness so long as I got the first SP in Piety. Now, however, the only way to get happiness from that SP is to use the extra faith to pick up a Great Prophet and enhance a religion in order to pick up the happiness boosters. In a way, if I already have been playing with Faith-production as an emphasis, this isn't so bad. But if I am simply a puppetting-warmonger, well, the extra faith may or may not easily equate to the extra happiness that Piety used to give directly for that first or second SP.
