On Towards the Stars: Getting and Selecting a Pantheon
[This post is part of a larger strategy guide for Civilization 6]
Even if you aren’t playing a faith and religion oriented game, Pantheons can be incredibly useful. Deciding which pantheon to select is one of the earliest decisions you’ll make in Civ 6, and your selection has long lasting implications that will change how you play for the entire rest of the game. So even though there aren’t a ton of tactical considerations here, I want to take a moment to quickly lay out on how to get and select a Pantheon.
The most consistent way to get a pantheon is to slot in God King (+1 Faith, +1 Coin) as soon as you can get it.
This generally means not putting in Urban Planning (+1 production in all cities). If going with God King, try to leave one of your other civics on one-turn-till-completion. This will allow you to switch off God-King and onto Urban Planning as soon as possible.
There's some debate about how early you should try to get a Pantheon. Since Pantheon are a race, and since there are random ways to get faith in the early game (eg from Goodie Huts that give extra faith, having tiles nearby that happen to have faith generation, or meeting a religious city state), there's no guarantee you'll get the Pantheon you want. On the flip side, many Pantheon are fairly strong, and some are strategy defining. I personally tend to try and get a pantheon ASAP1, because I want to know if I should build my strategy around the pantheon's bonus.
Selecting a Pantheon is a bit of an art form — roughly speaking, pantheons break down into three categories:
Situationally very strong
Generally helpful
Synergy specific
The first category is dominated by Pantheons that improve specific tiles. If you have access to a lot of those tiles, get the relevant Pantheon. God of the Sea (+1 production to fishing boat improvements) matters if you have a lot of coastal tiles. Desert Folklore (+1 Holy Site Faith adjacency for flat desert tiles) is only useful if you have a bunch of desert. Why would you get Lady of the Reeds and Marshes (+1 production to Marsh and floodplain tiles) without floodplains?
The second category is dominated by pantheons that give percentage boosts to things that you're guaranteed to get over the course of the game. God of the Forge (+30% production to ancient and classical era units) is great for early war, both offensive and defensive. Divine Spark (+1 Great People points for holy sites, theater square, and campuses) will get you more great people faster. Religious Settlements (+20% production to settlers, new settles get +2 starting tiles) will help you build more settlers and get them online quicker.
The third category is civ specific — certain civs should just auto-lock particular pantheons every game. Mali, with it's strong desert start bias and penchant for Holy Sites, should get Desert Folklore. Khmer, with it's very high population cities and food bonuses for river-adjacent Holy Sites, should get River Goddess (+1 housing and amenities for Holy Sites on rivers).
In the base game, certain pantheons were outright broken (looking at you Religious Settlements). In BBG, virtually every pantheon has something going for it, and they all feel useful.
Unless I know I need units to defend a very early war.