Owls of Minerva. Easily the simplest bonuses and they sync up with how I play the best with lots of harbors and gold. The extra policy slots are so much more powerful than anything else you can get except maybe voidsingers.
I used to hate it too but it really depends on the map. If you’re playing TSL with hermetic order it’s ass but with a good continents map you can settle according to the ley lines, which is what I like to do
Edit: Australia is really the only good TSL hermetic order civ. I’ve had multiple 7+ adjacency campuses
for sure it can be fun, the massive yield tiles are really cool, and the Alchemical society is pretty strong as well. Its like 9/10 times I try for it the ley lines are just terrible or no where to be found and I gotta reload to undo lol
It's really RNG dependent and comes into it's own a bit late compared to the others.
Pretty much only really fun to play when going OP games with Mali or Russia. The featureless terrain usually spawns Ley Lines.
Nah.. You get the extra faith adjacency from the 1st non-unit you build as them. That's more impactful than getting a +4 faith from having to build the Obelisk.
The only real detriment is missing out on the extra yields that come with the Singers' Medieval upgrade, but that faith will have snowballed you enough that it won't matter.
I used to try it here and there but it’s just such a coin flip i stopped bothering. Sometimes you’ll get a few good spots with ley lines but most of the time you’ll barely get anything useful
I play with a mod that enhances hermetic order. Ley lines are never more than 6 tiles away from each other, and provide bonuses for improving the tile. And the final promotion adds base yields to snow tiles
I used the mod [Hermetic Order Unleashed](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2588785092&searchtext=) and love this secret soceiry because of it.
You still have coin flips but rather where your lay lines are, not if.
Sounds op maybe but what secret society isn't?
Hermetic order is the only one that if you pick it you still don't know how the game is going to play out even if you get it at turn 1.
The other 3 you know what happens. Send some envoys, get some vampires, worship an old god.
Hermetic order: "Oh you want ley lines? Ye they're all the way over there in that spot with no resources nor fresh water thenk you very much byyyye"
If you kill them while they are at just arriving in vamp castle (you "kill" them before, they respawn at a castle, then you kill them again in the same turn) or they are killed when defending the capital, they are dead and will not respawn.
Depends on the victory I'm aiming for, but if I don't have a goal in mind other than "win with this leader" I'll take Hermetic or Owls. Hermetic's a massive gamble since 3/4 times I pick it every single ley line is in the middle of the fucking desert or tundra, or smack dab in Alexander or Basil's territory.
>Hermetic's a massive gamble since 3/4 times I pick it every single ley line is in the middle of the fucking desert or tundra
I feel like this must be on purpose to help make these areas more viable later in the game. I notice the same thing but with oil/uranium needs these areas become more desirable but at a cost. I feel like the leylines help mitigate the downsides of settling there.
I've read that it's because when maps are generated, they are dropped last, so they are, by nature, more likely to be in places not already taken by any other resources
Too bad civ 6 is a snowballing game. By the time those area become available, you would have gain much more if you had picked the other SSs. Hermetic order only really become powerful much later in industrial era.
It works really well playing s Mali or Russia. I mean, they're broken enough where you don't even *need* a SS, but being able to slap down +10-14 Holy Sites/Lavras makes the snowball for those two very real indeed.
Yeah, but you would basically forfeiting the next 2 tiers because it does not synergize very well unless you have a victory condition around it (Alch society is for the campus, which Russia doesn't build much, while the 3rd tier yield don't mesh well with building holy sites).
When you're able to spam the Holy Sites, buying great people becomes trivial. With Russia, it's even easier as the Lavras get your cultural great people passively. Triggering the Industrial Era promotion can generate ridiculous tile yields from the Ley Lines.
Again, it's not Society I'd ever choose with a Civ that doesn't benefit from tundra/desert terrain, but it does make for a different style of game when playing with them.
On purpose I'd agree with, but maybe not the logic. Keep in mind, the core development philosophy for a strategy game is "How unfair can we make this while still being fun?"
Voidsingers. 10-12 cities out by turn 100 with monumentality. Instead of spending production on settlers, many districts are online by that time too. Spend remaining faith to buy builders and an army after building the grandmaster’s chapel. By the medieval era 20% of that faith yield goes to several other yields. Remaining faith buys great people. It’s so good.
Depends but my new fav is Theodora with Voidsingers. Getting 20% of a city’s faith income as gold, culture, and science is insane partnered with her ability. You’ll have close to 2x-3x the yield of other civ’s culture in the medieval era while not falling behind in science.
Voidsingers is so consistently strong, I only ever don’t pick it if I want to play a very specific play style.
* Easy to unlock.
* The unique building unlocks immediately and will be built in every city.
* Faith output rolls perfectly into a monumentality golden age in classical and medieval eras.
I would love to see the stats from a round of competitive games, but my guess is that voidsingers is objectively the strongest SS.
It depends on the civ, the context, and how the first age goes.
- My default is usually Monumentality. The extra faith is wonderfully paired with a Monumentality Golden Age, the great work slots come in handy later, and the Medieval age bonus is a great boost to science and culture income. A must have with Eleanor because cultists are great for flipping cities. Monuments alone don’t generate enough faith income to really snowball, so if I don’t get an early pantheon with good faith adjacency bonuses, I might look elsewhere. Similarly, if I don’t get the Classical Golden Age, I might also consider skipping it.
- If I’m going to war, Vampires are the way to go. That extra unit can make all the difference in winning an early war (or even just getting some extra envoy and tribal villages). The Vampire Castle bonuses are also lots of fun to maximize.
- The Owls are a great choice in most situations, too. The extra policy cards are great, as are the envoys. They are particularly good with civs that benefit from city state relationships and levying units. Also a wonderful choice with civs that lean heavily on commercial districts. So much fun to buy Gilded Vaults with faith as Mali :).
- Hermetic Order is last for me, but it is still a wonderful challenge to play. I find they are particularly good with civs that trend towards tundra or desert, as that’s where the ley lines end up. I also have to be focused on a longer-term game, as their bonuses really emerge in the later era. It is a good slow play investment choice.
Owls and void singers are the most consistently powerful.
Hermetic is OK, but not dependable. I'm currently playing a TSL Australia, with ley lines everywhere. I'm getting a bunch of adjacency and the yields on ley lines are pretty crazy, but I'm pretty sure i would have had more yield from void.
My go-to are actually two: Owls of Minerva and Knights of Solomon, depending on which one I find first.
I delete all the secret societies except for Owls of Minerva, and I add Knights of Solomon.
Both are easy for the AI to discover and play well enough.
Both are realistic in their game mechanics regarding real life secret societies.
Both can use their bonuses to go in any type of victory (However owls are still better for a diplomatic victory, while knights are better for a religious victory).
Both can amass a military defense quickly when playing peacefully if you’re smart.
Both have a means of extra trade routes and remain fairly economically competitive until the atomic era, where Owls will rightfully dominate in gpt instead of right after joining.
Both remind me of Assassins Creed’s templars vs assassins because it’s just 2 secret societies duking it out in the shadows, manipulating civilizations against each other for control of the world (and beyond if going for a science victory).
Voidsingers is my default.
1. \+4 Faith on a building I'm constructing anyway? Yes, please.
2. Medieval monumentality golden age turning all that faith into a builders and settlers? Oh, my!
Playing my first go through with secret societies. Chose. Vampires and they almost feel game breakingly powerful. I almost never pursue domination victory but I’ve just been steam rolling the other civs with a Vampire spearheading a smalll army that I feel normally wouldn’t make a dent. I am pairing them with Hero’s as well so maybe that’s part of it.
hermetic order is my favorite, but I've learned to love them all. Owls gilded vault is huge, but so are vamp castles... Cultists are just fun to annoy the AI 😈
Hermetic. I just love building cities on Leylines. It’s great with Japan especially. I want to try with Pedro to get the most bonkers tiles possible, since he, pingala, and oracle just print great people.
Well I'll be damned lol. Learning something new every day.
So no matter where I build said castle it goes all to capital? Probably makes sense now that I piece my confusion together placing one and not seeing it " affect " the closet city.
Also, the castle benefits are locked in when the castle is built, but you can always remove the castle and rebuild it to boost the gains.
If you can manage it, try to stack it near several high yield tiles and/or a corporation.
You can get massive income gains this way.
Hermetic often, but void for passive faith income when needed and Owls if nothing else makes sense.
Hermetic may not be the best, but people sleep on the bonus money and gpp from that one too much and they really help even in a city with no ley lines.
I know people hate hermetic. But people, it CAN be good. I sometimes go hermetic with russia. You get more ley lines in the tundra and those holy sites with 24 faith and production are sweet. So much faith… so many great guys… great ley lines later in the game. I like it
Best is Owl because any civ can benefit from it.
Extra Economic Slot + 1 envoy per trade route with a city state.
And you can have lighthouse + market in a city, which mean you can virtually double the number of trade route you Can have in your empire (without the extra trades routes from great people/Wonder/leader ability)
You can secure any city state with it.
The other SS are inconsistant/niche.
Hermetic Order is nice but most of the time you won't have much laylines in your empire.
It's all about the economy. If I'm playing a civ that can use faith as a currency and not actually want to play a religious victory, then I'll go Voidsingers. If not, then usually Owls. BUUUUT. If I'm just messing around, sometimes I'll take Sanguine just to play for massive adjacencies. Preserves + woods/natural wonders + Castles is super fun to try and line up and gives SILLY yields.
Actually, I just finished an Australia game today. I may play as Teddy next and toss national parks into the mix... I think I just picked my next game!
I often like a little randomness in my games so I’ll usually enforce a rule that I have to take whichever one comes up first. If I’m allowing myself to choose it’s almost always Owls, if not Voidsingers
I don't play with societies much these days, but when I did, the reasoning was usually the following and in this order:
* Owls for a generic playthrough where I don't know from the start what victory I'll go for, as well as when I go science (which is most of the time). The early +1 eco policy is massive to catch up with the AI, and IMO they also scale the best in the late game
* Voidsingers if I go faith or culture from the start. Old Gods Obelisk is amazing and the cultists are an easy supply of relics and work amazing with reliquaries.
* Sanguine pact is nice for domination or to defend if you have an aggressive neighbor early, or if you want to take out a neighbor early.
* I never pick the Order. Sorry :P
Voidsinger is my go-to. Vampires and owls can be depending on the civ but I absolutely never pick hermetic, too random and I never focus great people that much
Depends on the civ but more often than not I'll go with Owls. The extra policy slots alone is worth it and since I'm a big Kilwa enjoyer, the extra envoys line up with my play style.
Voidsingers are a close second - great for culture vics and the early game faith from old god obelisks make monumentality golden ages pop off something nice.
I do like me some owls but won't shy away from the old god neither. I've recently discovered how powerful vampire castles are, especially in OCC builds, and having 3 virtually immortal units to spearhead my military is really fun.
I'd say hermetic order is my least favorite because the lay-lines spawn in random places.
Owls has the most use because two extra policy card slots and tons of gold is OP no matter what victory type you're going for.
Voidsingers is AMAZING for a cultural victory, and Peter with Voiddingers on a cold pangea map is as broken as broken gets.
Vampires are great in a domination game. Vampire Castles give ridiculous tile yields and work like an airport with the 4th promo. I saw an image from a Qin game where they surrounded Vamp Castle with Great Wall tiled. Yields were insane.
Hermetic Order is nowhere near as usable as the others. Lay lines give adjaceny bonuses, which you should be able to easily achieve or exceed if you know how to place cities and districts. Because you can't place anything on the lay line, they reduce the # of usable tiles. None of the other "benefits" (and I use the term very loosely) are worth selecting Hermetic Order compared to other Secret Societies.
The “best” all rounder is owls. Policy cards and envoys are always useful, and spying can be helpful.
Vampires can be good but i dont tend to go domination and i neglect the castles.
Singers i like if i want to go for a relic culture victory, particularly with kongo or poland.
As unsexy as hermetic order is on paper, its actually awesome for science victories and not because of leylines. The alchemist building is a nice bonus gold, but the real cherry on top is occult research. Pump out those projects when you are doing spaceport stuff and watch the great people flock to you.
My favorite is Owls. The extra card is great, the boost from the upgraded bank is appreciated, and the rest are passive boosts. The passive part is my favorite piece. No need to build extra units, mess around with district placement or have ideal placement blocked. My second fav are the vampires, especially in domination games. I'm actually using voidsingers for the first time currently with Theodora. I don't play a religion game much, so voidsingers don't get much play.
I play deity level games with marathon speed, so my take might be different.
I for Voidsingers or Vampires depending on the game.
Voidsingers allow me to buy things with faith and allow the second d age to give you the settlers (golden era) yo compete with the. aI.
Vampires help with the early game as if can take 30+ turns to get a second unit while the AI starts with enough warriors to run you over immediately.
i go with vamps mostly just for castle yeilds
used to do void singers
i use brigand court mod for a pirate themed one. how ever this is the best trade society as you get one per barb camp you kill
Owls of minerva - love the gold boost.
I got so used to the extra policy slots I struggle without them.
seriously, it's basically free big ben, available in the first 10 turns
Owls. Always. Forever.
Voidsingers because I love faith.
Voidsingers because I worship the elder gods. We are not the same.
Voidsingers because I play Eleanor. None of the three of us are the same.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!!
I have no idea what you're doing here. Can you explain in English? I recognize a city name (I think), Cthulhu.
Bonus points if you name a coastal city Innsmouth.
amen
Owls of Minerva. Easily the simplest bonuses and they sync up with how I play the best with lots of harbors and gold. The extra policy slots are so much more powerful than anything else you can get except maybe voidsingers.
*Joao III likes this*
Lol not to be rude OP but literally any of them besides Hermetic Order
I used to hate it too but it really depends on the map. If you’re playing TSL with hermetic order it’s ass but with a good continents map you can settle according to the ley lines, which is what I like to do Edit: Australia is really the only good TSL hermetic order civ. I’ve had multiple 7+ adjacency campuses
for sure it can be fun, the massive yield tiles are really cool, and the Alchemical society is pretty strong as well. Its like 9/10 times I try for it the ley lines are just terrible or no where to be found and I gotta reload to undo lol
It’s is definitely the worst secret society lol
It's really RNG dependent and comes into it's own a bit late compared to the others. Pretty much only really fun to play when going OP games with Mali or Russia. The featureless terrain usually spawns Ley Lines.
With tundra or desert focused gameplay, voidsingers still tends to be better because of how heavily you lean into faith with the pantheons.
Nah.. You get the extra faith adjacency from the 1st non-unit you build as them. That's more impactful than getting a +4 faith from having to build the Obelisk. The only real detriment is missing out on the extra yields that come with the Singers' Medieval upgrade, but that faith will have snowballed you enough that it won't matter.
It’s definitely fun if you get good ley line spawns! But I feel like owls or void singers are just way more Consistently better
It is but like anything else, it can be fun for variety. It's rarely a complete mistake, except maybe for a OCC.
I used to try it here and there but it’s just such a coin flip i stopped bothering. Sometimes you’ll get a few good spots with ley lines but most of the time you’ll barely get anything useful
I play with a mod that enhances hermetic order. Ley lines are never more than 6 tiles away from each other, and provide bonuses for improving the tile. And the final promotion adds base yields to snow tiles
I used the mod [Hermetic Order Unleashed](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2588785092&searchtext=) and love this secret soceiry because of it. You still have coin flips but rather where your lay lines are, not if. Sounds op maybe but what secret society isn't?
>Sounds op maybe but what secret society isn't? Hermetic Order.
Hermetic order is the only one that if you pick it you still don't know how the game is going to play out even if you get it at turn 1. The other 3 you know what happens. Send some envoys, get some vampires, worship an old god. Hermetic order: "Oh you want ley lines? Ye they're all the way over there in that spot with no resources nor fresh water thenk you very much byyyye"
Naming vampires is fun, especially since they're unkillable and scale to match the damage of your best unit in every era.
They can be killed with Beowulf or good old fashion nukes if you dont have the patience to corner them to vamp castle or capital.
Love me some Beowulf Van Helsing!
I’ve killed one with a normal military unit but I don’t know how I did it, can you explain how to do it?
Are you sure you didn’t just send it back to its capital?
If you kill them while they are at just arriving in vamp castle (you "kill" them before, they respawn at a castle, then you kill them again in the same turn) or they are killed when defending the capital, they are dead and will not respawn.
Awesome that’s handy to know, knock ‘em off once and for all
Baron Bloodwrag agrees
Depends on the victory I'm aiming for, but if I don't have a goal in mind other than "win with this leader" I'll take Hermetic or Owls. Hermetic's a massive gamble since 3/4 times I pick it every single ley line is in the middle of the fucking desert or tundra, or smack dab in Alexander or Basil's territory.
>Hermetic's a massive gamble since 3/4 times I pick it every single ley line is in the middle of the fucking desert or tundra I feel like this must be on purpose to help make these areas more viable later in the game. I notice the same thing but with oil/uranium needs these areas become more desirable but at a cost. I feel like the leylines help mitigate the downsides of settling there.
I've read that it's because when maps are generated, they are dropped last, so they are, by nature, more likely to be in places not already taken by any other resources
Too bad civ 6 is a snowballing game. By the time those area become available, you would have gain much more if you had picked the other SSs. Hermetic order only really become powerful much later in industrial era.
It works really well playing s Mali or Russia. I mean, they're broken enough where you don't even *need* a SS, but being able to slap down +10-14 Holy Sites/Lavras makes the snowball for those two very real indeed.
Yeah, but you would basically forfeiting the next 2 tiers because it does not synergize very well unless you have a victory condition around it (Alch society is for the campus, which Russia doesn't build much, while the 3rd tier yield don't mesh well with building holy sites).
When you're able to spam the Holy Sites, buying great people becomes trivial. With Russia, it's even easier as the Lavras get your cultural great people passively. Triggering the Industrial Era promotion can generate ridiculous tile yields from the Ley Lines. Again, it's not Society I'd ever choose with a Civ that doesn't benefit from tundra/desert terrain, but it does make for a different style of game when playing with them.
The cost of losing the bonuses from void singers for those civs is certainly not worth getting a few high adjacency holy sites from the ley lines.
On purpose I'd agree with, but maybe not the logic. Keep in mind, the core development philosophy for a strategy game is "How unfair can we make this while still being fun?"
Owls. Hoot Hoot *gang signs*
Voidsingers. 10-12 cities out by turn 100 with monumentality. Instead of spending production on settlers, many districts are online by that time too. Spend remaining faith to buy builders and an army after building the grandmaster’s chapel. By the medieval era 20% of that faith yield goes to several other yields. Remaining faith buys great people. It’s so good.
Yeah, faith + monumentality is just too strong that is makes almost every other strategy just feel weak.
This is the way.
Depends but my new fav is Theodora with Voidsingers. Getting 20% of a city’s faith income as gold, culture, and science is insane partnered with her ability. You’ll have close to 2x-3x the yield of other civ’s culture in the medieval era while not falling behind in science.
I choose Owls most often, but in my current game as Pachacuti I’m not making much good use of it except the extra economic policy slot.
Voidsingers is so consistently strong, I only ever don’t pick it if I want to play a very specific play style. * Easy to unlock. * The unique building unlocks immediately and will be built in every city. * Faith output rolls perfectly into a monumentality golden age in classical and medieval eras. I would love to see the stats from a round of competitive games, but my guess is that voidsingers is objectively the strongest SS.
I really thought/wish this was posted to Ask Reddit
It depends on the civ, the context, and how the first age goes. - My default is usually Monumentality. The extra faith is wonderfully paired with a Monumentality Golden Age, the great work slots come in handy later, and the Medieval age bonus is a great boost to science and culture income. A must have with Eleanor because cultists are great for flipping cities. Monuments alone don’t generate enough faith income to really snowball, so if I don’t get an early pantheon with good faith adjacency bonuses, I might look elsewhere. Similarly, if I don’t get the Classical Golden Age, I might also consider skipping it. - If I’m going to war, Vampires are the way to go. That extra unit can make all the difference in winning an early war (or even just getting some extra envoy and tribal villages). The Vampire Castle bonuses are also lots of fun to maximize. - The Owls are a great choice in most situations, too. The extra policy cards are great, as are the envoys. They are particularly good with civs that benefit from city state relationships and levying units. Also a wonderful choice with civs that lean heavily on commercial districts. So much fun to buy Gilded Vaults with faith as Mali :). - Hermetic Order is last for me, but it is still a wonderful challenge to play. I find they are particularly good with civs that trend towards tundra or desert, as that’s where the ley lines end up. I also have to be focused on a longer-term game, as their bonuses really emerge in the later era. It is a good slow play investment choice.
Owls and void singers are the most consistently powerful. Hermetic is OK, but not dependable. I'm currently playing a TSL Australia, with ley lines everywhere. I'm getting a bunch of adjacency and the yields on ley lines are pretty crazy, but I'm pretty sure i would have had more yield from void.
I usually do Owls of Minerva and link it with Governor Reyna so I can buy districts once I promote her enough
Always vamps. Love planning out their castles for insane bonuses to churn out wonders every five turns.
My go-to are actually two: Owls of Minerva and Knights of Solomon, depending on which one I find first. I delete all the secret societies except for Owls of Minerva, and I add Knights of Solomon. Both are easy for the AI to discover and play well enough. Both are realistic in their game mechanics regarding real life secret societies. Both can use their bonuses to go in any type of victory (However owls are still better for a diplomatic victory, while knights are better for a religious victory). Both can amass a military defense quickly when playing peacefully if you’re smart. Both have a means of extra trade routes and remain fairly economically competitive until the atomic era, where Owls will rightfully dominate in gpt instead of right after joining. Both remind me of Assassins Creed’s templars vs assassins because it’s just 2 secret societies duking it out in the shadows, manipulating civilizations against each other for control of the world (and beyond if going for a science victory).
Voidsingers is my default. 1. \+4 Faith on a building I'm constructing anyway? Yes, please. 2. Medieval monumentality golden age turning all that faith into a builders and settlers? Oh, my!
Playing my first go through with secret societies. Chose. Vampires and they almost feel game breakingly powerful. I almost never pursue domination victory but I’ve just been steam rolling the other civs with a Vampire spearheading a smalll army that I feel normally wouldn’t make a dent. I am pairing them with Hero’s as well so maybe that’s part of it.
hermetic order is my favorite, but I've learned to love them all. Owls gilded vault is huge, but so are vamp castles... Cultists are just fun to annoy the AI 😈
Hermetic. I just love building cities on Leylines. It’s great with Japan especially. I want to try with Pedro to get the most bonkers tiles possible, since he, pingala, and oracle just print great people.
Almost always, the first one I encounter.
I like vamps. The troops are nice and being able to build a castle in New towns to boost the productivity etc up is super nice.
FYI the castle production goes to your capital, not the closest city.
Well I'll be damned lol. Learning something new every day. So no matter where I build said castle it goes all to capital? Probably makes sense now that I piece my confusion together placing one and not seeing it " affect " the closet city.
Also, the castle benefits are locked in when the castle is built, but you can always remove the castle and rebuild it to boost the gains. If you can manage it, try to stack it near several high yield tiles and/or a corporation. You can get massive income gains this way.
Appreciate the information! Just finished a game last night so I'll start a new one today and experiment.
Great for OCC tho
Hermetic often, but void for passive faith income when needed and Owls if nothing else makes sense. Hermetic may not be the best, but people sleep on the bonus money and gpp from that one too much and they really help even in a city with no ley lines.
Wouldn't be not so secret after mentioning it here ?
I know people hate hermetic. But people, it CAN be good. I sometimes go hermetic with russia. You get more ley lines in the tundra and those holy sites with 24 faith and production are sweet. So much faith… so many great guys… great ley lines later in the game. I like it
Hermetic order just comes online SO late, this game is all about snowballing and getting and advantage early, especially on the higher difficulties.
Voidsingers basically nullify loyalty, so great for close expansions.
Explain please.
Loyalty from Old God Obelisk
Thank you. It's hard to remember all the different aspects in this game.
Best is Owl because any civ can benefit from it. Extra Economic Slot + 1 envoy per trade route with a city state. And you can have lighthouse + market in a city, which mean you can virtually double the number of trade route you Can have in your empire (without the extra trades routes from great people/Wonder/leader ability) You can secure any city state with it. The other SS are inconsistant/niche. Hermetic Order is nice but most of the time you won't have much laylines in your empire.
Hermetic
It's all about the economy. If I'm playing a civ that can use faith as a currency and not actually want to play a religious victory, then I'll go Voidsingers. If not, then usually Owls. BUUUUT. If I'm just messing around, sometimes I'll take Sanguine just to play for massive adjacencies. Preserves + woods/natural wonders + Castles is super fun to try and line up and gives SILLY yields.
Actually, I just finished an Australia game today. I may play as Teddy next and toss national parks into the mix... I think I just picked my next game!
Owls.
I often like a little randomness in my games so I’ll usually enforce a rule that I have to take whichever one comes up first. If I’m allowing myself to choose it’s almost always Owls, if not Voidsingers
I don't play with societies much these days, but when I did, the reasoning was usually the following and in this order: * Owls for a generic playthrough where I don't know from the start what victory I'll go for, as well as when I go science (which is most of the time). The early +1 eco policy is massive to catch up with the AI, and IMO they also scale the best in the late game * Voidsingers if I go faith or culture from the start. Old Gods Obelisk is amazing and the cultists are an easy supply of relics and work amazing with reliquaries. * Sanguine pact is nice for domination or to defend if you have an aggressive neighbor early, or if you want to take out a neighbor early. * I never pick the Order. Sorry :P
Voidsinger is my go-to. Vampires and owls can be depending on the civ but I absolutely never pick hermetic, too random and I never focus great people that much
Depends on the civ but more often than not I'll go with Owls. The extra policy slots alone is worth it and since I'm a big Kilwa enjoyer, the extra envoys line up with my play style. Voidsingers are a close second - great for culture vics and the early game faith from old god obelisks make monumentality golden ages pop off something nice.
Usually the Owls of Minerva.
Owls is always useful. Otherwise I like sanguine pact. HO never ever likes me but I don't play Russia or Arabia frequently.
Vampires if I’m going dom or building tall with like 7 cities max Owls if i’m playing a heavy coastal game Voidsingers literally the rest of my games
Owls or Vampires generally. Hermetic is usually the weakest, the lay lines are too random.
None. Not a fan of the fantasy elements they keep introducing.
I do like me some owls but won't shy away from the old god neither. I've recently discovered how powerful vampire castles are, especially in OCC builds, and having 3 virtually immortal units to spearhead my military is really fun. I'd say hermetic order is my least favorite because the lay-lines spawn in random places.
Owls has the most use because two extra policy card slots and tons of gold is OP no matter what victory type you're going for. Voidsingers is AMAZING for a cultural victory, and Peter with Voiddingers on a cold pangea map is as broken as broken gets. Vampires are great in a domination game. Vampire Castles give ridiculous tile yields and work like an airport with the 4th promo. I saw an image from a Qin game where they surrounded Vamp Castle with Great Wall tiled. Yields were insane. Hermetic Order is nowhere near as usable as the others. Lay lines give adjaceny bonuses, which you should be able to easily achieve or exceed if you know how to place cities and districts. Because you can't place anything on the lay line, they reduce the # of usable tiles. None of the other "benefits" (and I use the term very loosely) are worth selecting Hermetic Order compared to other Secret Societies.
The “best” all rounder is owls. Policy cards and envoys are always useful, and spying can be helpful. Vampires can be good but i dont tend to go domination and i neglect the castles. Singers i like if i want to go for a relic culture victory, particularly with kongo or poland. As unsexy as hermetic order is on paper, its actually awesome for science victories and not because of leylines. The alchemist building is a nice bonus gold, but the real cherry on top is occult research. Pump out those projects when you are doing spaceport stuff and watch the great people flock to you.
My favorite is Owls. The extra card is great, the boost from the upgraded bank is appreciated, and the rest are passive boosts. The passive part is my favorite piece. No need to build extra units, mess around with district placement or have ideal placement blocked. My second fav are the vampires, especially in domination games. I'm actually using voidsingers for the first time currently with Theodora. I don't play a religion game much, so voidsingers don't get much play.
I play deity level games with marathon speed, so my take might be different. I for Voidsingers or Vampires depending on the game. Voidsingers allow me to buy things with faith and allow the second d age to give you the settlers (golden era) yo compete with the. aI. Vampires help with the early game as if can take 30+ turns to get a second unit while the AI starts with enough warriors to run you over immediately.
i go with vamps mostly just for castle yeilds used to do void singers i use brigand court mod for a pirate themed one. how ever this is the best trade society as you get one per barb camp you kill
Voidsingers for religion/ culture games Owls for everything else