What religious choices does everyone pick?

[Crimson13]

I'm curious as to what everyone who uses CBP chooses when it comes to Pantheon/Religion.

For myself I typically pick Cult of Nature for pantheon, Theocratic Rule for the Founder belief, Inspiration/Scholarship and usually a building for Follower, and often Clericalism as an Enhancer for the Happiness.

What does everyone else pick?

 

[ecgopher]

Pantheon is very situation dependent. But outside of the situational plays, Ancestor Worship is solid if you go tall or wide -- it scales well as you expand and grow (both wide and tall), and still gives you some early faith to get your religion up.

I like the synergy of Mastery and Ceremonial Burial, especially since I like to work specialists and almost always go Freedom. Usually Clericalism for enhancer because I usually go very, very wide and the happiness bump helps.

 

[Funak]

Pantheon really just depends on the the area around me. However I find that I usually go with Fertility-rites more often than not. I've also completely changed my opinion about Oral Traditions, when I realized that I could never see myself picking it up, even with most luxuries being plantationbased along with me starting in a jungle I just end up picking other things over it. If I play India I usually go for Ancestor Worship, to get a kickstart to my culture, mostly because I have no idea how my starting-area looks by the time I have to pick the pantheon.


As for religion, Ceremonial burial is kinda my go-to founder-belief, not really because I believe it is more powerful than the others, but it kinda fits my playstyle. However I find myself picking Holy law, Mandate of heaven, Theocratic rule and Way of transcendence plenty enough.

Follower-beliefs I usually go for Inspiration, not because I think it's overpowered but because I'm a sucker for policies . Second choice can really go anywhere, Asceticism, Diligence even cooperation or mastery (although that's really rare). Usually the only building I'm ever picking is Orders, although that one is usually gone . If I go for specific Sacred Sites games I can see myself picking up other buildings, but I haven't really done that since Piety got dumpstered.

Enhancers I really like all of them. It completely bothers me that Martyrdom doesn't scale with era like all other similar effects do, but I still end up picking it once in a while.

Reformation is a lot more interesting, a lot of strong choices here. Knowledge through devotion, Sacred sites, The one true faith and To the glory of God, are some personal favorites, but I wouldn't really complain about any of them. I guess the defensive combat-bonus belief is a little weird, Imho that one could really just be added into the offensive one as a feature, it's not like 15% is gamebreaking.

 

[Crimson13]

I like picking the Inspiration/Scholarship party because it helps with reducing the "City is boring" "We are illiterate." along with polices and tech. Theocratic Rule works great for me because I tend to go wide and get resources aplenty. Clericalism helps a bit with the unhappiness with having tons of cities.

One thing I did notice is that the Bonus Belief (I use a civ that adds that as a UA.) lets you pick anything from all the religious trees; pantheon, founder, follower, and enhancer. I didn't know that, that's pretty cool.

 

[Funak]

One thing I did notice is that the Bonus Belief (I use a civ that adds that as a UA.) lets you pick anything from all the religious trees; pantheon, founder, follower, and enhancer. I didn't know that, that's pretty cool.

Byzantium's bonus belief could always be of any type except reformation in the base game as well. No idea how multiple founderbeliefs works now with the national wonders and their benefits.

 

[Crimson13]

Byzantium's bonus belief could always be of any type except reformation in the base game as well. No idea how multiple founderbeliefs works now with the national wonders and their benefits.

I had a previous game with the modded civ I use and picked Theocratic Rule and Mandate of Heaven. Getting a 'We Love the King Day', a 15% increase for , , , from Theocratic Rule, a Golden Age, and the 15% increase in everything from Mandate of Heaven...yeah my capital was crazy.

If I have to be honest though if I could pick something based on how cool it sounds I would pick God-King. Sadly the benefits aren't added to your city but empire wide. I usually go for things that can help with city Happiness like Inspiration and Scholarship.

 

[TeeInKay]

I am a fan of cooperation

 

[Brokenbone]

I'm ambivalent about most pantheon beliefs, have to see what my start location looks like.

Reading with interest some of the more advanced choices above, but I also have to admit I like the Zealotry thing (unmodded it's Heathen Conversion?), I just find it really fun to go explore and pick up junk troops, donate them to CSs, etc. Good way to kill barbarian camps that CSs send you to squash too. I know this is not as powerful as many other beliefs, but I just find it really fun. Also it causes my military score to end up scary to the AI, I am pretty sure. My cities are just turtled, doing up wonders etc., and an ineffective barb-based army is sort of dispersed everywhere, decent troops slowly embarking their way to the homeland and whatnot.

 

[Funak]

I'm ambivalent about most pantheon beliefs, have to see what my start location looks like.

Reading with interest some of the more advanced choices above, but I also have to admit I like the Zealotry thing (unmodded it's Heathen Conversion?), I just find it really fun to go explore and pick up junk troops, donate them to CSs, etc. Good way to kill barbarian camps that CSs send you to squash too. I know this is not as powerful as many other beliefs, but I just find it really fun. Also it causes my military score to end up scary to the AI, I am pretty sure. My cities are just turtled, doing up wonders etc., and an ineffective barb-based army is sort of dispersed everywhere, decent troops slowly embarking their way to the homeland and whatnot.

My main problem with Zealotry is that its usefulness is extremely dependent on the map, I like playing smaller overcrowded maps like Oval and by the time you get to Zealotry on those maps there are no barbs around.

 

[Strigvir]

The size doesn't even matter, I also don't have barbs by the time Zealotry is available.

 

[Finbez]

The 2 happiness beliefs are very strong. Get the 1 happiness/owned city one if going wide. Get the 1/6 followers in foreign cities one if tall.

 

[Delekhan]

If I'm spreading my religion aggressively, then Scripture for enhancer, and The One True Faith for reformation.

 

[Gazebo]

I guess I never asked, but everyone seems to like the religious overhaul, yes? I didn't ask for much input before just...doing it, and not much has changed since it was designed.

G

 

[Funak]

I guess I never asked, but everyone seems to like the religious overhaul, yes? I didn't ask for much input before just...doing it, and not much has changed since it was designed.

G

I like the system, but most of the buildings, cooperation and that belief giving gold/follower feels pretty underwhelming.

Also I'm somewhat weirded out by Martyrdom not scaling with era like similar effects do.

Again these are just individual balance details, the religious overhaul as a whole is great. One complaint however is that because the second Prophet is so much more expensive than in the old system, the costs of the next Prophets tend to skyrocket pretty quickly, ending up giving you a lot less holy sites than before. I'm not sure if this was intended or not, but considering the holy sites are still extremely weak compared to other GPTiles I'll assume it was an oversight. Easy solution(I think) would be just decreasing the cost-increase after the second Prophet, if that is at all possible.

 

[Strigvir]

There is a general problem with reformation belief requirement scaling:
http://s27.postimg.org/bejs6ocgx/8930_2015_07_13_00002.png
In this game only me and Ethiopia have gotten them. While I got it through the wonder pretty early, Ethiopia get it around modern era with 40+ cities.

 

[sleepyx732]

I love me some faith healers. I tend to play defensively and build up, but expand very aggressively, which pisses off the AI.

 

[Brokenbone]

The size doesn't even matter, I also don't have barbs by the time Zealotry is available.

I have still had fun with this, though often with big maps that have a less colonized new world type continent set up. Raging barbarians no doubt cranks it up as well, if selected. I have even had late game fun with this though when AI makes a bad choice of ideology, notwithstanding me choosing something else and pumping out tourism. That is, they often end up in "Revolutionary Wave" nasty happiness deficits, and if I have open borders I might have a Missionary standing around their heartland / capital region, picking up free and fairly advanced barbarians. I guess the tech parity "rebel" type units then public opinion for ideology is in the crapper.

I am not sure if it only comes up on "Raging", but I've many times seen a city state quest of like "protect us from a horde", a little frowny face orange guy appears on the CS's label, that is a signal to send a missionary over there to maybe pick up dozens of free troops. Any junk ones are already in a perfect position to just hit the Gift command, up and up goes the influence. Good ones, as I said, go to the homeland if it's worth it.

Again, I am sure other choices than the Zealot thing are more powerful, I just know I have a lot of fun with this selection. Gives me something to do, go explore with impunity as a Missionary who even if a barb Caravel sneaks up on him out exploring, WHAM, instantly converted. Better than a scout in some regards.