Civ 6 Best Pantheon to Start a Conquest With

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Alex Maksymiw

Alex is a freelance writer who has a passion for gaming. He knows the game inside and out. He can't help but travel to every point of interest on the map. Just for that extra bit of loot, only to stop halfway and ponder on the world's lore, whether fantasy or Sci-fi. Otherwise, he can be found plucking his guitar to his favorite video game soundtracks.

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• Civ 6 Best Pantheon to Start a Conquest With - November 14, 2021

Players will make numerous important decisions in the ancient era of a Civ 6 game. Choosing the correct pantheon can give the player an early game advantage, that benefits could extend into the late game. 

With a whopping 23 pantheons to choose from in Civilization, it can be difficult for beginners to pick a suitable pantheon. Some pantheons are better than others. There are important factors that go into choosing the right pantheon, such as:

• Type of civilization and its abilities.
• Your starting location and surrounding tiles.
• The location of opposing civilizations.
• Types of nearby resources.

Some civilizations will synergize better than others with pantheons. For example, God of Craftsmen is a good pantheon to choose as it holds its value throughout the game. Choosing this pantheon as the Nubians are even more powerful as the pantheon doubles the Nubians Ta-Seti ability. 

Here is a Tier list of every single pantheon in the game ranked from S to F. You should pick pantheons in tier S every time. However, you should consider pantheons in the A and B tiers depending on your situation and location. Tiers become less consistent and more situational as you descend down in tiers.

S Tier – Pantheons

• Religious Settlements
• Divine Spark
• God of the Forge

A Tier – Pantheons

• Goddess of Festivals
• God of Craftsmen
• River Goddess
• Earth Goddess

B Tier – Pantheons

• Monument of the Gods
• City Patron Goddess
• Sacred Path
• Fertility Rites
• God of the Open Sky

C Tier – Pantheons

• God of War
• Dance of the Aurora
• Lady of the Reeds and Marshes

D Tier – Pantheons

• Goddess of the Hunt
• God of the Sea
• Desert Folklore

E Tier – Pantheons

• Religious Idols
• Stone Circles

F Tier – Pantheons

• Initiation Rites
• Fire Goddess
• God of Healing

Civ 6 Best Consistent Pantheons

• Religious Settlements – When chosen, the player receives a settler in your capital. City border expansion rate is 15% faster.
• Divine Spark – Holy Sites, Campuses with Libraries, and, Theater Squares with Amphitheaters generate +1GPP (Great People Points) for the corresponding building category.
• God of the Forge – +25% production towards ancient and classical military units.

Nine times out of ten players should be aiming for these pantheons as they are extremely consistent and have great value across many civilizations. Decide before picking one of these pantheons whether you want to commit to war, expand your civilization, or rush for a religion.

Unsure of which civilization to play? Check out this tier list guide to the best civilizations.

Religious Settlements the Best Civ 6 Pantheon Catch it if you can!

Undoubtedly, Religious Settlements is one of the best and all-around pantheons in the game. The pantheon does not give any cheeky GPP or discounts on production for military units. But it will catapult you into a head start in the early game. At first glance, the pantheon may look like a greedy choice. However, being able to settle a second city within the first 20 turns can be game-changing. 

You’ll be able to generate resources such as science and culture faster as well as construct buildings and districts faster. In addition, the free settler will allow you to take territory likely before any other player in the game. Permitting you to incorporate wonders into your territory or even next to a nearby civilization to make for an easier attack.

Faith-based Civilization bonuses

If you are new to the game, you’ll probably be slow to get faith ticking over in early turns. As a result, you probably haven’t seen the Religious Settlements pantheon, and if you have, it’s usually a rare occasion. This is because A.I. or players will scoop up the pantheon the first chance they get, so you have to be quick!

Playing as the Indonesians almost guarantees the player the choice of the Religious Settlements pantheon every time. The starting bias of Indonesia means that it is likely to spawn next to coastal tiles. Alongside the civilization’s ability to grant bonus faith to coastal cities. The player can quickly pick up the Religious Settlement pantheon.

Pros

• Faster border expansion gives you access to resources that would usually be out of your reach.
• Receiving the free settler does not consume population from your capital, allowing you to continue to utilize population for work tiles.

Cons

• The cost of production for civilian units, e.g., workers and settlers, will increase by 30 each time they are produced. Therefore, even though the settler is free, it will still increase the cost for future settler production.
• Expanding your civilization in the early game will make you a target for opponents and barbarians. Players should be mindful of this and produce military units and construct ancient walls once masonry has been researched.
• Players must own the Gathering Storm DLC to receive the free settler. As a result, the Religious Settlements pantheon drops considerably in value for players who own the vanilla version of Civilization: VI.

God of War, I mean Forge…

The God of the Forge pantheon may not be an instant pick for every civilization. However, it’s a pantheon that will allow you to do some big damage to nearby civilizations and city-states in the early game—offering a bonus of 25% to production to all ancient and classical-era military units. The pantheon will aid you in early domination; capturing a city-state could easily catapult you into an early head start. Like the Religious Settlement pantheon, the God of the Forge pantheon will allow you to expand your territory and accumulate more cities.

Unlocking the craftsmanship civic players can synergize the early Agoge military policy card with the pantheon to maximize unit production. A 50+ production toward ancient and classical era melee and range units, the Agoge is the perfect policy card to train an army fast. 

Choosing this pantheon, you should be aware that it loses all use once advancing from the classical era. Therefore, it should only be selected if the player is committed to early-era warfare. Alternatively, players should consider choosing this pantheon if they are being attacked by an opponent, as it boosts your civilization’s defensive capabilities. 

The Macedon civilization is a great example of how warmongering civilizations can get value out of the God of the Forge pantheon. Their unique Hypaspit unit can be produced incredibly fast with the pantheon. Requiring 100 production and only five iron a quarter that of the swordsman unit.

Pros

• Produce units faster than opposing civilizations
• Synergizing the pantheon with warmongering civilizations with the Agoge military policy will maximize value.

Cons

• Loses all value once advancing to the Medieval Era (500 AD – 1350 AD)

Fast Track Religion with Divine Spark

Divine Spark is a versatile pantheon that provides flexibility for the player. It’s great for pursuing tourism, science, or faith victory by providing +1 GPP towards three different great people types. However, the player will get the most value out of the pantheon by focusing on generating Great Prophet points. You can do this by constructing a Holy Site, shrines, and temples totaling to +3 Great Prophet points. Consequently, you can expect to found a religion before your opponents. Or at the very least have the advantage of selecting from a larger pool of beliefs for your religion.

Divine Spark or Religious Settlements?

Religious-based civilizations will often get access to Religious Settlements before other civilizations. Meaning that if you are competing with another religious civilization, you may not always get the pantheon. Don’t worry if you lose the race, as Divine Spark is a great alternative. It will give you the upper hand in founding a religion before the competing civilization. 

Divine Spark is one of the most powerful pantheons in the game. It’s a safe choice even when you are uncertain of your strategy. This is because the pantheon makes it easier for the player to generate great people in areas they are lacking. With no real drop off Divine Spark only gets more powerful as you grow your civilization throughout the game. For example, the player can take advantage of attracting great scientists to their city by constructing many libraries. 

• A universal pantheon that will give the player flexibility in generating great people.
• Divine Spark gets stronger than your civilization grows.
• Founding a religion early is assured.

Cons

• After founding a religion, Divine Spark takes time to become of use again. This is due to having to construct new districts to make use of generating GPP.

Civ 6: Strong Pantheons to Consider

• God of Craftsmen – +1 production and faith for improved strategic resources.
• Goddess of Festivals – +1 culture from plantations.
• God of the Open Sky – +1 culture from pastures
• River Goddess – +2 amenities and +2 housing to cities if they have a holy site adjacent to a river.
• Earth Goddess – +2 faith from tiles with Breathtaking Appeal.
• City Patron Goddess – +25% production towards the first district in a city.

Consider picking one of the pantheons above if the others are taken. Whilst not as powerful, they have the potential to support your civilizations with great bonuses. However, these pantheons are situational, and therefore you must choose them appropriately depending on your surrounding tiles and civilization. 

Civilization is all about making the best of what you have. For example, playing as the Egyptians, you will likely spawn next to a river due to its spawn bias. You will also gain +15% production towards districts and wonders built next to rivers. Therefore, River Goddess would be a fantastic pick. However, if your civilization is surrounded by plains, you might want to consider God of the Open Sky. 

City Patron Goddess is a consistent pantheon that is a great choice when not pursuing a religious victory. The boost in production to a city’s first district is valuable as it gives vulnerable cities a chance to develop.

Civ 6 Pantheons to Avoid

• Fire Goddess – +2 faith from geothermal fissures and volcanic soil
• God of Healing – +30 healing in your Holy Site and adjacent tiles.
• Initiation Rites – +50 faith and units are healed for each barbarian outpost cleared.

These pantheons should be avoided as they offer little value for your civilization. Fire Goddess is extremely situational, and it’s just not worth picking, even if you have active volcanos and geothermal fissures. As active volcanoes will hinder your civilization, not to mention volcanoes will not always be active. Yes, you may have geothermal fissure tiles near your civilization; however, you could get much more value out of previously mentioned pantheons.

God of healing may be useful if you are being attacked by a civilization that has managed to snag God of the Forge. However, this is extremely situational and provides little value. In addition, the pantheon’s value soon drops off as defensive structures like the encampment district and ancient walls offer great protection from opposing forces. Fortifying units within your defenses will heal your units allowing you to benefit from more valuable pantheons.

The worst pantheon in the game Initiation Rites has little value as its only use is to give the player a quick faith boost. Once the surrounding barbarian camps are cleared, the pantheon is worthless whilst you wait for new camps to spawn. In addition, there’s a chance that close-by city-states and opponents will clear the barbarian camps before you do. It is best to Avoid this pantheon like the plague!

FAQs

Final Thoughts

It’s easy to see why Religious Settlements is such a popular pick within the Civ 6 community due to its value. I personally will pick this pantheon if I am playing a religious-based civilization, as generating faith is much quicker. I love establishing cities early, so I can get constructing districts to gather resources faster.

That being said, I also enjoy picking River Goddess when playing Egypt as it synergizes very well. Discovering how to maximize value for your civilization makes the game fun, and it is also how you will develop as a player. Pantheons can change your gameplay drastically, keeping the game fresh, so why not try out some of the strategies stated in this article.