Sun God, Sacred Path, or Oral Tradition

[Enonwnn]

I've just come across one of the hardest decisions yet whilst choosing a pantheon.

I have three options:

> Sun God (+) for Banana, Citrus and Wheat;
> Oral Tradition (+) for every plantation;
> Sacred Path (+) for a load of jungle.

My thoughts:

> Sun God: Awesome amount of food, and I'm the Netherlands, so this should be a no-brainer in other circumstances;

> Oral Tradition: There are loads of plantation resources available, but I can't get the culture until the plantations are built. The cities would work these tiles over plain jungle tiles, however, hence will see a longer term benefit;

> Sacred Path: I love taking this as Brazil due to the amount of jungle tiles. If you see below, you'll notice how powerful this pantheon could be, not to mention that this culture will be instant.


I'd just like to know what you would do in this situation.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

It looks like I've got the island to myself too... for now at least.

 

[Resipsa]

Sun God, +4F on turn 20 is a helluva drug

 

[klaskeren]

sun god, 100%

 

[subtledoctor]

I'd be tempted by one of the culture ones (prob Oral Tradition so you have no compunction against plantationing those bananas). You're not hurting for food on this map. Whereas, the extra culture you could start receiving very early with plantations that you're going to build anyway, isn't something that you can make up another way.

Do polders give culture? I don't remember. If so then Amsterdam is looking at like +8 cpt from terrain alone, that's insane. You can get as much terrain-based culture on this map as France, without having to play as France or build Chateaus.

 

[Calouste]

I'd be tempted by one of the culture ones (prob Oral Tradition so you have no compunction against plantationing those bananas). You're not hurting for food on this map. Whereas, the extra culture you could start receiving very early with plantations that you're going to build anyway, isn't something that you can make up another way.

Do polders give culture? I don't remember. If so then Amsterdam is looking at like +8 cpt from terrain alone, that's insane. You can get as much terrain-based culture on this map as France, without having to play as France or build Chateaus.

If you want to go for culture, Sacred Path is far better, you'll get 4 cpt immediately. Polders don't give culture btw.

I'd be tempted to pick Sacred Path and go for a Tradition/Liberty hybrid, although I would need a better look at the map. There are at least 3 different luxuries within reach and your first three settled cities would start producing 4 cpt (Liberty opener, free Monument and working a Jungle tile) from the turn they are founded. Also depends if one of the city states is Mercantile.

Sun God looks very attractive, but there are not that many good tiles available for your excess population to work, just a lot of jungle and grassland. Amsterdam won't have anything to work but 2 tiles for quite a while if it grows bigger than size 6.

 

[Halcyan2]

Sun God IMO.

Oral Tradition isn't as great since Jungle Bananas are usually better off without a plantation.

Sacred Path isn't that great since Citrus will lose the Jungle if you want to build a plantation (which you normally should).

Sun God provides the bonus regardless of terrain or improvement.

 

[Enonwnn]

At first glance I was tempted by the cultural boosts. They give an almost Shonshone-esque approach when building new cities due to the rapid border expansion, and I can get well into Patronage/Piety/etc. in very good time.

I have decided to go with Sun God on this occasion, but as expected, my happiness is a huge limiter on my expansion. Unfortunately there are no mercantile city states to help me out, and with production being low in satellite cities, faith is coming in slow too (Padoga's are still available so I still have hope for those!).

I've attached my current status below, including a better look at the map:


Amsterdam T95:

Spoiler :

East:

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Capital Region:

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West:

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North West:

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South:

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There are a few good spots for cities, it makes me wish I was playing India so the happiness would be less of a burden.

 

[joncnunn]

I'm seeing links in the spoiler section of the original post instead of images

 

[Enonwnn]

I'm seeing links in the spoiler section of the original post instead of images

Yeah, I messed that up to begin with. Should be okay now though?

 

[Resipsa]

Sun God looks very attractive, but there are not that many good tiles available for your excess population to work, just a lot of jungle and grassland. Amsterdam won't have anything to work but 2 tiles for quite a while if it grows bigger than size 6.

The attractiveness of this is that you can get to size 6 fast and then pound out 3 settlers in around 20 turns or so.

 

[Vitruvius]

The thing is, you probably won't be able to keep your pantheon because you won't have enough faith to found a religion fast enough. Going for a short term boost is best, so sun god/sacred path. Considering you already have massive food with all that citrus and banana, sun god might be overkill. Sacred path will let you finish tradition and go into patronage sooner. But either way its better than oral tradition.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[Calouste]

The attractiveness of this is that you can get to size 6 fast and then pound out 3 settlers in around 20 turns or so.

Amsterdam is already 3 turns from size 6, so that's not going to matter much. And there is a limit on the amount of food that contributes to building a Settler.

 

[Resipsa]

I didn't notice he was already at 5 pop

 

[joncnunn]

Yeah, I messed that up to begin with. Should be okay now though?

Yup, it's now fixed. In this case, I'd have taken Sun God between the benefit concentrated in the capital and Citrus being your primary luxury.

This is also a start that calls for doing something to increase faith output (Stonehenge unless I missed a faith natural wonder in the screen shots) as it would be a shame for the AIs to replace your great pantheon with whatever they picked later.

 

[Enonwnn]

Yup, it's now fixed. In this case, I'd have taken Sun God between the benefit concentrated in the capital and Citrus being your primary luxury.

This is also a start that calls for doing something to increase faith output (Stonehenge unless I missed a faith natural wonder in the screen shots) as it would be a shame for the AIs to replace your great pantheon with whatever they picked later.

The bad thing about this area is the lack of production, so going for faith wonders would take a long time with a possibility of not getting them. I have managed to found a religion before any of my close neighbours but spreading it is now going to be a problem (T136 generating 7). The only reason I managed to get the pantheon so early was due to a goody hut.

However, I am now heading towards Notre Dame, which should allow me to settle another city and generate a bit more much needed faith. I'm thinking I need a caravel to get out and find those Mercantile and Religious CS's too.

 

[Gliese 581]

Looking at the screen shots without knowing map setup and so on I would probably have gone sacred path since there seems to be lots of jungle to settle. Sun god is the strongest in the short term which is always powerful in civ and as such is never the wrong choice, however if you go wide on this map the culture will be much more beneficial to help you not cripple your social policy development. Not to mention sacred path is also an immediate boost and if you're going wide and liberty getting a ton of extra culture even just early on is a massive benefit. Also you have a coastal cap which means you can send cargo ships if you want to grow it so food should never be an issue in the long term.