I would have said Inca+Earth Goddess (and Preserves, if you have them), but the EG nerf kinda gutted that strat... it's really fun though.
I have no idea if it works, but I'm looking into the idea of a mass-settling Indonesia game. Since they get +2 Faith per coastal city, that means they can crank out insane amounts of Faith based on number of cities alone, just thanks to your map type. So, if you choose Archipelago and get consistent Golden Ages (picking Monumentality, always), you can continually transfer your Faith into Settlers then transfer those Settlers into Faith, snowballing out of control.
Now, we have a lot of cities. This is good for any victory type, but it does leave the question: what
is our victory type? Well, fortunately for us, the answer is "Yes."
Before I tackle each victory type, here are some general tips:
- Moksha should be promoted to Divine Architect (so you can Faith-purchase districts). Yes, it's frustrating micro-management to continually swap him everywhere but it will save you a lot of time and Production.
- Valletta is amazing. Period. Being able to Faith-buy a lot of common infrastructure is just really nice. And since the ability extends to walls, you're more than safe.
- God of the Sea (which gives extra Production on fishing boats) is going to be one of your top choices for Pantheons. Of course, you should always take the free settler one if that pantheon is available, but in the case that Mali is in the game to snatch it up first, God of the Sea should be your first choice. Though, City Patron Goddess (which gives extra Production to district-less cities) should also be considered, as you're going to want to build Harbors in just about every city, and this will speed that process up quite a bit.
- If you choose to incorporate Religion into your strat (which you should), Religious Colonization is always a good choice, as it will instantly convert newly settled cities to your founded Religion. Jesuit Education (which lets you Faith purchase Campus and Theater Square buildings) also rounds off our Faith-purchasing abilities.
Anyway, onto the victory types.
Do you want to go Domination? You can already Faith-buy naval units with Gitarja's leader ability, and the Grand Master's Chapel extends that ability to land units as well. And, if you have Lahore in your game, you can use your Faith on powerful Nihangs. So as long as you're settling enough cities, you'll never run out of units.
Do you want to go Science? Simply tailor-make a religion to suit your needs. My suggestion would be Jesuit Education (to spend our Faith on Campus buildings) and Cross-Cultural Dialogue (it's the "+X Science per followers" one). Wats (the only worship building to grant extra Science) are optional, but helpful if you want to spend the extra Faith on a sacrificial Apostle. Moksha can be used here to Faith buy our Spaceports.
Do you want to go Culture? Another case where you go for Jesuit Education (since it applies to Theater Square buildings, too). No other beliefs are really all that important, though, since you already have the one thing you'll ever need: Faith. Faith to recruit Great People, Faith to buy Naturalists, Faith to buy Rock Bands, and more. But, this isn't even considering the most powerful Tourism tool in Indonesia's toolkit: the Kampung. Not only do they provide you with plentiful food and housing, but these easily spammable improvements also yield lots of Tourism after Flight. And, since they get stronger based on the number of nearby fishing boats and nearly all of our cities are coastal, we can place multiple of them in every city, yielding lots of Tourism. As long as you focus on Great Artists, Writers, and Musicians, you can win a Culture Victory by spamming Kampungs and you'll never have to purchase a single Rock Band or Naturalist. It's surprisingly effective.
Do you want to go Religion? Well, this one is the most obvious path with lots of Faith. My recommendation here would just be lots and lots of Enhancer beliefs. Always remember that Holy Order is overpowered. There isn't much to say here because this Victory Type is so mind-numbingly dull and repetitive that the only "tip" I can give is "get more Faith." But, that's a bit redundant when our whole goal is to generate that to begin with.
Do you want to go Diplomacy? Then this is the one area we don't have as large of an advantage. Our greatest strength here is really just a Religion tailored for Envoy generation, because otherwise our strengths are lacking. We're no better at building the core wonders, we're no better at getting Diplo Favor, and we're no better at completing competitions. This is the one case where our strength falters, but it's also the weakpoint of most civs. There are really only 4 civs that you could argue are tailor-made for Diplo vic, and they're Sweden, Canada, Greece, and Georgia.
So, yeah. Just about everything is in your reach with this strat.
