Well, we all have favorite leaders. Just post your favorites and why.

Roosevelt - I always used to pick him because he was one cool dude. USA... that was enough for me anyways. Later I saw the Industrious really helped in the wonders. Organized, not too shabby, but it helped I guess.

Qin Shi Huang - Indsustrious and Financial I think. Works out to be a wonder. Had one of my better games with him. Add Colossus w/ that Financial and you'll be in the lead.

Catherine - Been owning with her for some reason. Forgot her style thing. I think it is Financial and something else? Forgot. I just know I own with her just as well.

Elizabeth - Just found out the true powers of her. Brilliant bonuses or whatever. Work out to be one of the best. Still, it was only 1 game I've played with her, but I owned all of them. I'm sure if I used the Red-Coats for war, I would have won much earlier. But I didn't hehe.

Other ok ones I use.

Louis XIV - I like the Creative and Industrious. Works out sometimes, but usually the Creative kills it.


Anyways, in the end, I prefer Industrious and Financial. Both help in the long run. Creative is very important in the beginning, but in the end it's useless. Philosophical also helps a whole lot. Faster Great People, you could always use them earlier. I don't like Aggressive. I think it's a waste in Prince Level.

I play mostly emperor level.

Gandhi - Spiritual is my favourite trait and the Philosophical/Spiritual combo is the most versatile in the game. Fast workers are nice.

Loius - Creative is better than most people say it is, and industrious for wonder pumpage. I use him when im feeling an urge to build alot of wonders.

Mehmed - Expansive + Organized is a very strong combo, even though it may not seem like it. Cheap Courthouses and Granaries = early productive wars, and cheap lighthouses + harbours means you can concentrate on Trade routes for most of your research. The health bonus is big help on emperor +. His Unique Building is superb as well.

I play Emporer, and i play
Isabella - Starts with myst so can get a religion for a culture/diplomatic win.

Wong Kong - Financial and Protective are always good traits.

Financial is bar far the greatest trait, I think. This puts Ragnar(Agressive) and Hannibal(Charismatic) High on my list. I have been playing consecutive games and switching between them. Ragnar is winning at the moment, but we'll have to see after my galleons only have navigation 1...

Qin - He's versatile. Protective + Chu-ko-nu = offensive capabilities, Industrious + Pavilion = builder cap. Although in new patch Mao might be better.

Ghandi - Spiritual and Philosophical, my two favorite traits.

I play mostly emperor level.

Gandhi - Spiritual is my favourite trait and the Philosophical/Spiritual combo is the most versatile in the game. Fast workers are nice.

Loius - Creative is better than most people say it is, and industrious for wonder pumpage. I use him when im feeling an urge to build alot of wonders.

Mehmed - Expansive + Organized is a very strong combo, even though it may not seem like it. Cheap Courthouses and Granaries = early productive wars, and cheap lighthouses + harbours means you can concentrate on Trade routes for most of your research. The health bonus is big help on emperor +. His Unique Building is superb as well.

I agree with Quack, Mehmed is definetly my favourite leader, his unique building is amazing, an aqueduct that gives two happiness, thats like having two temples in each city! Not to mention the fact that he gets workers in a third of the time and cheap granaries, courthouses, harbours, and a 50% civic cost and 2 health per city! Amazing! Very addaptible.

The UU helps to, although it tends to go obselete a bit to soon for my liking.

Although I also like Bismark, he's just a great builder.

I stick with random leaders and have not played with every leader yet.
My vanilla favourites were hatchepetsuh for cultural and bismarck for good whipping (cheap granaries and forges + health to counter unhealthiness from forges + an option for the wonder you want) leading to domination.

I played a warlords game with churchill, and it was just overkill! Will try again with the patch, to see if i just got lucky...

Brennus, Mehmed, & Shaka. No particular order.

I think Expansive and Spiritual are my two most efficiently used traits, but when put together they do not have the same synergy as when each is matched individually with another trait. Thus, I never really do too well with Isabella.

Agreement with other poster about Mehmed's UB. Also found that if I beeline to Gunpowder (or sling it off Liberalism) the UU's window is effectively extended by a substantial amount of turns.

Playing Mehmed now at Emperor and the UU is pretty good. Got gunpowder before metal casting, so it has a reasonable life. The Janisseries can attack longbows pretty well, and excel as stack protectors to escort my catapults - pretty much unstoppable at this stage. Having them for defense allows me to concentrate on getting cavalry next and grenadiers come a whole war later.

Don't really have a favorite leader - for me the fun is playing a different one each time. They all can be enjoyed.

Playing Mehmed now at Emperor and the UU is pretty good. Got gunpowder before metal casting, so it has a reasonable life. The Janisseries can attack longbows pretty well, and excel as stack protectors to escort my catapults - pretty much unstoppable at this stage. Having them for defense allows me to concentrate on getting cavalry next and grenadiers come a whole war later.

Don't really have a favorite leader - for me the fun is playing a different one each time. They all can be enjoyed.

Rome. Preytorians. THat alone obseletes all the traits.

Rome. Preytorians. THat alone obseletes all the traits.

Rome. Preytorians. THat alone obseletes all the traits.

Hardly. A properly promoted axeman with shock will teach them what for.

In MP a lot of people grab the Romans thinking they are invincible, but are very surprised when their precious praets get picked to pieces by plenty of properly promoted axes.

I've always played as Elizabeth. It's habbit I'm trying to break. I like the Financial trait, but I never take full advantage of the philosophical trait. I'm going to look for a new Financial leader.

I've always played as Elizabeth. It's habbit I'm trying to break. I like the Financial trait, but I never take full advantage of the philosophical trait. I'm going to look for a new Financial leader.


I always felt those traits almost had a negative synergy to them. Financial compels one to run a cottage economy, but Philosophical begs farming. I am sure there is a happy medium hybrid economy, but I have yet to find it with Vicky. But, I do respect those Redcoats. Nice.

i like the new HC and Lizzy because Ind, Phi and Fin are my three favoritetraits, and they both have great UUs and UBs

I always felt those traits almost had a negative synergy to them. Financial compels one to run a cottage economy, but Philosophical begs farming. I am sure there is a happy medium hybrid economy, but I have yet to find it with Vicky. But, I do respect those Redcoats. Nice.
I think it's exactly the opposite. The varied terrain of most maps mean that the a hybrid economy is often the best way to go, and Elizabeth is the queen of the HE. Her Fin/Phil trait combo means you get the most out of both your cottaged cities and the farmed ones as well. If you pick your sites and city specializations carefully, she's awesome--better over the entire game than Rome, IMHO. I was VERY pleased to see they didn't change good queen Bessie's traits in Warlords, though they did nerf the Redcoats. :sad:

(If you're trying this with Vicky, I understand your frustration, since she's not Philosophical; lots of people seem to get the two English queens confused, which is strange.)

I think it's exactly the opposite. The varied terrain of most maps mean that the a hybrid economy is often the best way to go, and Elizabeth is the queen of the HE. Her Fin/Phil trait combo means you get the most out of both your cottaged cities and the farmed ones as well.

Any city with enough food to be a specialist city is good enough for a cottage city.

Elizabeth (Phi/Fin) and Asoka (Spi/Org) both have negative synergy traits in my mind.

Hardly. A properly promoted axeman with shock will teach them what for.

In MP a lot of people grab the Romans thinking they are invincible, but are very surprised when their precious praets get picked to pieces by plenty of properly promoted axes.


So true. In my opinion most of the people who pick Romans are usually less skilled multiplayer players. While Romans do have a powerful combination of Exp/Org you can do some quick land grabs and not worry about about the upkeep as much, then with the exp you can have a higher city population from the +3 health. (This is based on not playing with warlords) But in the end, most people don't use pratoreans to their full advantage.

Being a person who plays strickly multiplayer without having Warlords these are my favorite leaders:

Loius XIV - Creative/Industrious is great for me. The creative allows me to save approx 10 turns after the city is built from building a obelisk. Instead I can build a granary or barracks right away. Industrious allows my capital to quickly make wonders while the reset of my cities can build military or buildings. Usually a first pick for me if it is a standard or larger map.

Napoleon - Agg is a very helpful trait in maps small or smaller, one extra promotion helps a lot. Industrious is the same as above and lets me quickly build stonehenge early in the game so I don't have to worry about obelisks.

Tokugawa - Totally undervalued leader. I've crushed every single player who i've used Tokugawa with. I make sure my main city has lots of science to quickly get Civil Service/Machinery and I start pumping out the Samurai. Plus with the Organized I can easily make 5 - 6 cities and still have around 80-90% science rate.

Kublai Khan - Again, if it's a small map he's a good choice if I need to get quick land grabs and have the agg trait. This is my first choice for 2v2 or 3v3 Team Battlefield small maps.

I enjoy playing with Shaka recently. I think the impi's are undervalued and their UB helps a little with some early expansion and impi rushing your nearest neighbor. Brennus is a good time also.

my favorite leaders in no special order:

- alex, because i love philosophical, and agg is very handy and supports my style of play

- lizzy, you can research like mad with cottage heaven AND lightbulbing

- kyrus, early rush and lots of generals, quite different from other leaders, you need to think outside the box

i'll give mehmed a try, i often underestimate the influence of the half-prized buildings. and slinging gunpowder seems a very reasonable idea, a bit risky on MP but worth a try in SP

- kyrus, early rush and lots of generals, quite different from other leaders, you need to think outside the box

I'm still not sure what to think of Cyrus, I've not played him since Warlords came out...

My favourites so far, in no particular order: Mehmed, Kubilai and recently, Augustus. I just got my highest score with Augustus on Noble, so I think I'll be moving up to Prince. Though, I think I'll do it with Mehmed to start off.

I used Mansa Musa on my first attempts at Prince, and actually won one such attempt. The Spiritual trait let me change civics as needed, Financial kept me in the tech hunt until I got too far bogged into war, but I caught up later when I started getting more territory and upkeep under control.

I'm still not sure what to think of Cyrus, I've not played him since Warlords came out...



I had a game recently on Monarch with Cyrus and reallyloved the imperialistic/charismatic combination as it meant promotions galore for my army!! I had lots of cities that could provide infantry with amphibious promotion giving me a fantastic amphibious army that wreaked havoc on my enemies quite a while before marines came along...

the Immortals are also a nice versatile early UU :)

for Warlords v2.08

Catherine (Russia): her traits and techs give her a clear edge in the early land grab. She really suits my "benevolent dictator" style (builder at heart, conqueror by design). I can handle much more difficult settings with her than with any other leader.


Techs: Hunting gives her a Scout to start which reveals the surrounding territory faster. It is a worker tech which leads to Animal Husbandry (Horses) and Archery. Mining leads to Bronze, so Cathy has early access to Military for defense/expansion. Hunting, Mining and An.Husb. all allow improvements which can produce hammers (mines, ivory, pastured cows) which leverage her Imperialist settler bonus.

Traits: With a few improvements, Imperialist lets her really crank out settlers. You are already concentrating on hammers, so defenders are easy, too. Her Scouts and quick access to Military techs have revealed the best city sites, so her settlers know where to go. Creative gives quick border expansion, which means she has even more leeway when settling (she can settle one space away and grab the needed resource when the border expands). Creative's *new* cheap libraries allow her to settle aggressively in the mid-game when encroaching on rivals' borders. Imperialist also pops extra generals. Darn :)

UU: Cossack - a gimme. Cavalry is already powerful and Cossacks are even better. Usually the nail in the AI coffin

UB: Research Lab - another gimme. Great for the late game tech rush towards space. I have never built one - my games with her are over by then.

Traits: With a few improvements, Imperialist lets her really crank out settlers. You are already concentrating on hammers, so defenders are easy, too. Her Scouts and quick access to Military techs have revealed the best city sites, so her settlers know where to go. Creative gives quick border expansion, which means she has even more leeway when settling (she can settle one space away and grab the needed resource when the border expands). Creative's *new* cheap libraries allow her to settle aggressively in the mid-game when encroaching on rivals' borders. Imperialist also pops extra generals. Darn

Unfortunately you don't give her anywhere near enough credit when it comes to her trait combination. Catherine has one of - if not the - strongest trait synergies in the game. Fast settlers plus quick border expansions allow her to easily block off large areas of unsettled land from opponents using only a small number of cities. Back fill can be completed at her leisure.

I've become a fan of Augustus for domination victories. A great city-snatching UU, creative to take care of popping the borders on newly acquired cities, and organized to make sure the money holds out.

Plus, cheap courthouses AND theaters, the first two buildings I build in any newly captured city.

Augustus is the new Catherine, since Catherine became the new something else.

. . .Catherine has one of - if not the - strongest trait synergies in the game. . .Oh, I heartily agree with you. I was trying to give her traits as much credit as I could - there are just so many inherent synergies between her traits and starting techs, that I missed one :)

Many complained when she lost her Financial trait - I, for one, think that she is stronger than ever!

HC is my favorite.
On emperor you can always steal worker and the archers won't attack your quechua. I never build workers myself with HC.
If someone is unlucky enough to start close to me, I build 5 or 6 quechuas and take their capital early on (why does AI build archers on emepror only, when warrior would be better in this case?)
The downside is that all my close neightbors hate me after I steal all their workers :-)

Their UB (Terrace which replaces granary) gives 2 culture, which is like having creative trait.

Financial + Indust. lets you get colosus and great lighthouse, so all your coastal cities get tons of gold.

My favourite leader is

Cyrus
1. Combination of charismatic and imperialistic is synergistic in getting an experienced army. 1+ happiness and the apothecary building also supplements expansion.
2. Immortals is 1 of the best unit early in the game.

How do you get the two English Queens confused? One had no kids, the other had too many.

As for my favourite leader, I'd have to pick Tokugawa though. Courthouses and war civics are costly, and the aggressive trait means rather than trying to keep up the military tech race, you could depend on your highly upgraded units to fight enemies an era above you. Seeing rifles as your elite maceman close in on their last city, which WW is dragging you down, is more than irritating. Too bad their starting techs and UU are less than impressive.

Alexander: my undisputed favorite. Simply unequaled in terms of versatility - While all civs can win the game by each victory condition, most are geared towards one or another. Alexander is, IMO, unequalled with repect to his ability to win ALL victory conditions:
-Conquest: he's aggressive and has a very early UU that gets the aggressive combat bonus. PHILO=bulbing=tech edge= troops not only have free upgrade, but are more advanced than opposition's.
-Domination aforementioned military bonus, and PHILO settling helps the economic infrastructure to support the vast empire necessary to meet dom quota. Extra 3 culture from UB helps meet land %, late game +2 happy from UB helps meet pop quota.
-Diplomatic beats others into vassalage for votes. +2 Happy from UB leads to more primary votes. Philo helps tech, making easier to research and build UN.
-Space Philo is second only to Financial for this. Military prowess allows demanding techs for peace along the way. Previously mentioned UB happiness bonus means working more tiles/specialists to get the techs quicker. UU can keep knights/elephants at bay, allowing him to hold off on some non-essential techs (most notably engineering)
-Culture Noone can compare with him for this. +3 culture is most flatrate out of any UB. Further, the UB allows him to run TWICE as many artists (w/o caste), meaning he can continue to whip out monastaries/libraries/theaters/etc. Philosophical is the best trait to have for culture wins; combine this with the ability to run extra artists? Unequalled. Plus, military is especially strong early, so taking a foeign capital can easily be one of the big three. Aggressive further helps keep others at bay - culture wins usually involve a degree of turtling.

Honorable mentions:
- Mehmed II, Gandhi, and Cyrus for reasons others have mentioned. Regarding Janissaries, though, their main strength is that they don't need to be upgraded for quite a while.
- Both Roman civs: Only UB that increases GPP. Praets are good. Both are organized.

How do you get the two English Queens confused? .

Yes. George Michaels and Elton John have totally different musical stylings.


<Insert Rim Shot Here>

-Culture Noone can compare with him for this. +3 culture is most flatrate out of any UB. Further, the UB allows him to run TWICE as many artists (w/o caste), meaning he can continue to whip out monastaries/libraries/theaters/etc.


Good point Bassist2119! :goodjob: If you don't mind, I have added that point to and credited you in my UB guide.:king:

Good point Bassist2119! :goodjob: If you don't mind, I have added that point to and credited you in my UB guide.:king:Glad to help. Now about those endorsements:cooool: :joke:

AFAIK, Gandhi is spiritual/industrial or was that changed in the Warlord, because some people here have mentioned him as spi/phi. I love Gandhi for his wonder rushing and the flexibility that spiritual provides, though I am still a Noble player. The wonder rushing may not work at higher levels.

Aztecs - My favourite, hello jaguar. early conquering

As if my avatar doesn't make it obvious, it's Huayna Capac.

His ability to make a close neighbor weep early on and save hammers on workers in the process has already been covered. On longer settings like epic and marathon, you can even do a ballsy strategy of "settler explores the map for a cultural border, plonks down a city, mass quechuas get you your empire."

Financial + starting tech mysticism = he and Wang Kon (protective trait, LOL) are the best you can get for snagging an early religion, or just plain monoplozing religions.

Faster wonder productions? Ability to grab the oracle, get free metal casting early, and make those cheap forges? Yep, that speaks for itself. Only now there's the financial trait to insure that you also have the edge on STARTING the wonders.

He's a midgame warmonger, with fast forges being his only real saving grace in that respect, but that's his only real flaw. And not one I give a damn about, either. When I crush things in war I like to either do it really early, or do it when tools like trebuchets, cavalry and riflemen are available. Maybe take it all the way into the modern era by being the first to get tanks and gunships.

I can never settle on a favorite because I like so many of them. So many of the leaders are strong when you play to their abilities. I mean really...how many genuinely bad leaders are there? I dont think that many, if any. And I often find that when I play with a leader I dont use often, or whose playstyle is different then mine usually is, I tend to REALLY like them. Mehmed is awesome after the latest patch. Its amazing all the advantages and bonuses he gets from his traits and ub. Surprisingly, my last game I played with Frederick and thought he was awesome. We all know how awesome Philo is, and Organized. But I didnt realize the synergy with Frederick and faster factories. Germany's ub is the Assembly plant. So I can build my ub twice as fast. And if you have coal which is another 50% faster...I found that in my newer cities I could build the assembly plant FASTER then the forge!!! And faster Assembly plants means I can run those engineer specialists faster, which means faster ge's, which means I can polish off a cultural, diplo, or space race at a very fast past. And his uu is good against modern armor! I know, I can hear the chorus of "my games are decided before the modern era". But if you find you play into that era fast, or that you are advanced quickly (I find the more advanced I am, the more advanced the world is, via tech trading) Frederick is a modern era powerhouse.

I cant decide on a favorite leader, so instead I think of leaders I dont like as much...Roosevelt, Bismark, Mao, and Saladin (mostly because of protective, not spiritual...though I think my opinion will change when I try Saladin rushing a bunch of specialists early with the Madrassa).

mansa: the wheel + mining is the ultimate combo for rushing a neighbour with axemen as early as possible, after which you can simply enjoy two of the most powerful traits in the game. he also has a pretty nice UU/UB.

ragnar: agressive for (early) warfare, then financial for a tech lead, then chemistry/steel on water maps. still being able to build his UU when you have chemistry/grenadiers is almost too much. grenadiers with amphibious and city raider I/II = ouch. cheap drydocks means you can build a of frigates to support them too.

alexander: philo/SE + agressive makes for a really fast start. his UB is nice - makes a pretty weak building useful and construction is a nice tech to beeline for - , and i think his UU is often underrated. the free combat I it gets means its only needs 5 xp instead of 10 for the formation promotion; which seems to make them last forever.

other than that, i particularly like augustus, shaka, wang kon, frederick, mehmed... (emperor/immortal, epic)

My favorite leader is Gandhi. Mysticism, fast worker, and spiritual/industrious. What's not to love?

I think it says a lot that there are so many favourites out there; it really speaks to a well balanced game, I would say.

I haven't played a single civ enough times to really have a strong idea on it, but I do love me my spiritual leaders; I bounce around a lot (probably too much sometimes), and I find it especially helpful when you want to switch religion/civic for diplomatic reasons. Brennus with Spiritual Charismatic is really nice, but I didn't have any luck at all leveraging his UU and UB...

I played my first MP game with Shaka, and I was very impressed; His UB gives you sort of half-organized (well, 40% anyway ;)), and his aggressive trait lets you build it in a heartbeat. This goes well with quick and easy expansion, and though I didn't get to use the Impi (no copper/iron until after knocking off my first civ), they are obviously great scouts if nothing else! :)

How does Isabella always put up a good fight against me?

In the past few games, she has been the best Civ out there. Expansive and spiritual -.-

I don't get it.

I might try her out...

How does Isabella always put up a good fight against me?

In the past few games, she has been the best Civ out there. Expansive and spiritual -.-

I don't get it.

I might try her out...

Expansive and Spiritual are two of the six best in my opinion (the others being financial, philo, org, and char). With her you'll be able to grab at least one religion, you can build stonehenge right off the bat which I think helps tons with her...that extra culture plays right into your quick workers and graneries. You'll also be able to run specialists a little faster then other civs because you can build those quick graneries very quick. Spiritual means you wont hit that one turn speed bump when switching civics or religions...a lot of people overlook all the hammers and beakers you lose in a turn or two of anarchy. I know when Im not spiritual I switch much less, but if I am, its great...I'll actually use serfdom, vassalage, or Universal Sufferage to buy something real quick. And I havent even mentioned how you'll rule medieval wars with conquistadors and trebuchets built with cr III!

The ai doesnt play her well because she is pigeonholed into her religion-centric research and of course attacking weak civs with different religions. When you play to her strengths, she can be nasty.

Isabella is definitely a nice leader. expansive, early religion and cheap temples means you'll have bigger and happier cities early. and when those big cities start pumping out conquistadores and CR III trebuchets in the middle ages, AIs better run for their life.

Washington(vanilla), Catherine, Cyrus. Napolean, Tokugawa, Montezuma, and Isabella to some degree.
Washington-good traits. Too bad the SEAL comes in so late.
Catherine-even better traits, cossacks are beastly.
Cyrus-is there anything I need to explain?
Napolean-agressive is always helpful, Musketeers are better than they seem.
Tokugawa-basically same as Napolean.
Montezuma-stinky traits but Jaguars are pretty unbelievable if the situation is right.
Isabella-same as Montezuma... good UU, bad traits.

Shaka - UB is awesome for the warmongering strat
Elizabeth - Good traits, good UU