Short list of Pantheons you choose from?

[Kadence]

I know the pantheon you pick depends on the map you get, and the civilization you choose.

But I think most typically have a short list of favorite pantheons, ones they pick among based on the situation.

Which pantheons are your favorites? Likewise, are there any that are generally considered inferior by most players?

 

[poxpower]

In order:

Stupid:

- +1 faith from desert. For free the best one in the game when you can have it.

Top Tier

- +1 culture from pastures. An average empire has tons of pastures and they are tiles you always work.
- +1 faith for copper, iron and salt. Almost strictly better than other pantheons if you get copper or salt start.
- +2 faith from quarries. Really strong early pantheon to get a religion that works on many starts
- +1 culture from jungles. Really powerful with banana/cocoa/citrus starts and can spiral out of control mid/late game with jungle cities and trading posts.

Second tier
-+1 culture and faith for gold/ silver. Strong early game if you have those
- +1 food from citrus, banana and wheat. Situational but can be 10+ food empire-wide.
- +1 production from fishing boats. Good on some maps and starts. I love to roll silly fish starts so I'm biased here
-+2 faith from gems and pearls. Very decent provided you get the right start ( usually gems)
- +4 faith from natural wonders. Situational but can be a good one to get a religion.
- +1 culture and faith from wine and insense. Can be ok if you settle 2 cities on those luxuries.

Third tier

--God king. Sometimes you're stuck with this.
- +1 culture from plantation. Pretty bad since plantation are garbage but sometimes you have a lot of them
-+1 food from camps. Sometimes this is the last thing you can have...
- 15% production of ancient/classical wonders. Requires a weird game plan, better for lower difficulties / multiplayer probably.
- +1 happiness from cities on water. Weird situational wide empire pantheon.
- +1 culture from shrines. Weird wide empire gimmick

The rest is just too crap to ever pick.

GOD TIER FOR AI:

30% increase in city Ranged Combat Strength

IF YOU ARE AN AI AND THIS IS AVAILABLE, PICK IT!!!!!!!! IT'S SO GOOD!!!!!

 

[agonistes]

Well, that's interesting.

I got Civ V when it came out, but didn't play it for long. With Civ VI coming out soon, I've returned to it and been playing it for a few weeks. I haven't been exposed to the philosophies and opinions about Civ V on the forums, for the most part, and it seems my opinion of the pantheons is quite different from yours, and possibly quite different from the Civ Fanatic mainstream.

My first preference is Goddess of Love (+1 happiness for cities with 6 population). Of course, I had yet to see any of the ideologies when this was my go-to choice. Playing as Russia, with, oh, call it 30 cities at least, I found myself with 100 extra happy faces at one point once I could start picking ideologies. So this choice may move down my list. But doubtful. Culture and Faith you can pick up almost at will. Happiness is a very finite resource. Every little bit of it has great value.

The God-King one I found pretty valuable in a 1 city game as the Byzantines (the bonuses to the 1 city).

My most recent start I chose Goddess of the Sea because Kyoto had 5 crab and 1 pearls. Throw on Exploration and an Iron Works, that's some good production. Although its ultimately a waste, I couldn't resist the explosion of shields. Plus, combined with the Samurai... mmmmm.

If I'm playing as Egypt on a TSL, I might pick the +1 faith from desert tiles. Maybe. I have in the past. But, again, Happy Faces are a finite resource.

 

[poxpower]

If I'm playing as Egypt on a TSL, I might pick the +1 faith from desert tiles. Maybe. I have in the past. But, again, Happy Faces are a finite resource.

Desert faith is insane because it gets you a fast religion and it keeps growing. If you have a lot of desert in your empire it'll be generating 30+ faith per turn in your empire.
Getting a fast religion also lets you pick pagodas, which you can then build way faster thanks to your unfair pantheon

Even if you would get your own religion eventually on a low difficulty game with the +1 happiness, desert faith is insanely faster.

Just a quick calculation here.
Desert Faith ==
1- build shrine turn 15. Get pantheon turn 30. Instant +4-5 faith per turn. Get religion turn 50. Get pagodas. Turn 70 get first pagoda. Turn 85 get second. Turn 95 get 3rd.

At turn 150 you should be looking at +20faith per turn from desert, +20 from pagodas, +20 culture, +20 happiness

Happiness pantheon:
1-turn 15 shrine. Pantheon. Build second shrine somewhere turn 40. Build third shrine turn 50. Fourth shrine turn 60. Turn 100: Get religion with pagodas ( if still available ). Turn 100+ Build temples or wait. If wait: First pagoda turn 120. Second maybe turn 138-140.

Turn 150 comparison: +0 faith from pantheon, +6 from pagodas, + 6 culture, + 9-12 happiness. -5/6 gold per turn from shrine maintenance.

Just another quick calculation:
Desert faith
total faith generated by turn 150 = About 1800+
Total culture generated = 450+

Not desert faith =
total faith generated by turn 150 = 100ish
Total culture generated = 100ish

Guess who's more likely to win

 

[Matthew.]

I really like Goddess of the Hunt. Camp tiles are usually decent anyway (deer, elephants for circus) and the +1 food basically acts like putting a farm over the tile.

Also, map generation usually packs in a ton of camps in some areas to compensate for being near tundra. It is not that uncommon to get like 3 deer 3 fox in one city location.

I often don't focus on strong religion, so if I can't do much with it I usually just get God King to get the early boost before neighbor religions take over.

 

[agonistes]

That's certainly a perspective.

I can usually get pagodas with Stonehenge and 4 shrines. +1 happiness from a size 6 city, +1 happiness per 2 cities with my religion, pagodas and itinerant preachers, and I'm looking pretty good. Now, how much desert do you have?

A few faith wonders makes up for the loss, in my estimation.

I can certainly see the value, particularly for early conquest and using faith to buy units. I imagine Germany starting near some desert would have an insane early army burst, especially using Honor to scout out camps.

 

[poxpower]

That's certainly a perspective.

I can usually get pagodas with Stonehenge and 4 shrines. +1 happiness from a size 6 city, +1 happiness per 2 cities with my religion, pagodas and itinerant preachers, and I'm looking pretty good. Now, how much desert do you have?

A few faith wonders makes up for the loss, in my estimation.

Well you need to ramp the difficulty of the game up to understand
On Deity you don't get stonehenge. Meanwhile the AI will often open piety and build discounted shrines in all their cities very quickly while you're just still making granaries. If you don't have a faith pantheon the only hope you have is generally to rush theology and build Hagia Sophia first, which is really a gamble. Then you might still be able to get a religion ( on standard that's around turn 110 at most maybe ).

Desert faith meanwhile is like starting the game with stonehenge already built.

Some other faith pantheons like faith from gold/gems/copper/silver require you to work production-only tiles which is great early game but bad later.

Faith from plantation ressources requires you to work dumpster ressource tiles.

Faith from pearls requires you get navigation and produce expensive and slow work boats.

Faith from quarries makes you tech masonry, a generally crap tech path

But desert faith? No improvements or techs needed

 

[Sclb]

Some other faith pantheons like faith from gold/gems/copper/silver require you to work production-only tiles which is great early game but bad later.

Do you ever not work these high yield tiles?

 

[poxpower]

Do you ever not work these high yield tiles?

It depends how big my city is and how many there are I guess.
I just hate to be working a silver mine with a 4-5 pop capital when I can be working a granary / improved granary resources of pasture instead.

Same for expansions where you can't be working a mine with a 2 pop city before a while.

So those mine pantheons are great for starting and when you make settlers but then have a little lul in them before your cities grow again. I still obviously consider them top notch.

 

[Libertyforall]

It really depends on your start location. If you have a desert start then use desert folklore. If you have a lot of salt or copper then choose the pantheon that gives bonus faith from those. If you don't see any good faith pantheon you can get just go for god-king.

 

[Volcanon]

Faith from no-forest tundra isn't the worst thing in the world. Probably "2nd tier" per the guy above.

Natural wonders is only good if you're spain or somehow spawn with three mount fuji beside your capital or something.

 

[cain3456]

The last couple of games RNGeezus has given me some crazy amounts of wine. Naturally I take Goddess of Festivals, then I augment that by taking the Monastery belief which gives even more faith & culture for wine. Drink to that!

 

[Redaxe]

Not sure if Monument to the Gods belongs even as 3rd Tier.

To be fair it will also help you build the Classical National Wonders faster
1) National College
2) National Epic
3) Heroic Epic
4) Circus Maximus

But as a production boost in the early game your capital will be sitting at probably no more than 15 base hammers so at the very best you are getting an extra 2.25 hammers when building wonders.

Compare that to God of Craftsmen (considered universally as perhaps the most garbage pantheon of all) and you get 1 hammer for everything, for the rest of the game (assuming you get a religion).
Assuming you expand to 4 cities and that is 4 hammers you will get (better then Monument to the Gods).

So I dunno both are pretty weak I guess.