I play a pretty decent amount of this game. I try and finish up a game each week and every time I try something new.

No matter what I try, though, I have NEVER had a leader. What's up with that?

In my last game, for example, I had a big barbarian problem. I was Germany and I had a few colonies down in the arctic regions of the map. They kept getting hit by barbarians. So, I took a spearman, that had been upgraded later up to an infantry, and patrolled the area. He had hit elite around 2000 BC. As of 2031, he's still just elite! I have fought a battle an average of every three turns with since the 1500's when I first planted the colonies.

Now, with a militaristic society such as this, shouldn't I be seeing a leader at least once???

Yes, you should. However, elite units can not earn Great Leaders v. barbarians. Units can only gain promotions against barbarians. Elite units have a 1/32 chance of earning a GL when attacked by a civ-unit. They have a 1/16 chance of earning a GL when attacking a civ-unit. The Heroic Epic only increases your civ's promotion rate, not GL percentage rates. It is always a 1/16 chance of earning a GL.

Generate a new game w/ a militaristic civ and save it after building the capital, then post it. It'll be small enough to use the attachment option when posting threads. You may need to start a new thread for it or you could upload it as a zip file with the upload option at the bottom of any page.

Some of us could play it to see if we get a Great Leader. If so, ?. If not, your program could be corrupt, needing to trash and reinstall. Are you patched to 1.21g?

I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the advice.

I am patched to 1.21g. I'll get a game up after work.

Actually, Dojoboy, you got something backwards. The militaristic attribute only increases your promotion rate, not your GL rate. The Heroic Epic does NOT increase your promotion rate, but DOES increase the GL rate. IIRC the rate with the Epic is 1/24 on defense and 1/12 on offense as opposed to the 1/32 and 1/16.

And there is no reason to believe Azaroth "should" have gotten a GL. If you are only fighting barbarians, you will never get a GL, as you note. Thus if you haven't been fighting campaigns against AIs much (and that appears to be the case here), you are highly unlikely to get a GL.

I thought I was having a similar problem, then one day, I was playing a scenario I had edited, made the other civs much more aggressive and sure enough, got attacked and ended up with a boatload of GLs getting created. If you're playing a custom made scenario, you might want to see if anything was done to the other civs' aggressiveness. It is kinda hard to get attacked when the other civs either aren't in contact with you yet, or are too busy with their own agendas to deal with going to war with you.

Originally posted by Beamup
Actually, Dojoboy, you got something backwards. The militaristic attribute only increases your promotion rate, not your GL rate. The Heroic Epic does NOT increase your promotion rate, but DOES increase the GL rate. IIRC the rate with the Epic is 1/24 on defense and 1/12 on offense as opposed to the 1/32 and 1/16.

Doh! You're right, thanks. :crazyeye:

Originally posted by Beamup
And there is no reason to believe Azaroth "should" have gotten a GL. If you are only fighting barbarians, you will never get a GL, as you note. Thus if you haven't been fighting campaigns against AIs much (and that appears to be the case here), you are highly unlikely to get a GL.

Actually, he says he tries to complete a game per week and never has received a GL. The barbs are mentioned only in reference to his last game.

:santa: ;)

You might try attacking/defending with wounded (4/5) elite units. I've never gotten a GL with a completely healthy unit.

I usually play with china and such, and in the last game that i had some military activity, i got about 3-4 leaders through the whole game. Just try to wage a military campaign vs a weaker civ that ur pretty sure you can win against. and i dunno, doesn't seem that there was any correlation between how much hp they have either. Jus try to save the elite units to mop up the weaker/injured units, and ur bound to get a great leader sooner or later. :shotgun:

Originally posted by dojoboy
Actually, he says he tries to complete a game per week and never has received a GL. The barbs are mentioned only in reference to his last game.

Good point, I missed that. OTOH, I didn't get a leader until about my tenth game or so - and then because I made a concerted effort to do so - because my play style is peaceful building.

So, Azaroth, how often DO you fight wars against other civs?

Oh, and ignore the myriad "GLs appear only if you win against the odds," "GLs appear only when Jupiter is aligned with Mars," theories. Firaxis has said there are no such effects, and some people have done extensive tests proving this to be the case.

Azaroth, something that usually works for me is when you are at war w/ another civ, place a strong, preferably elite, defensive unit(so you won't wait as long for the promotion) inside the enemy civs territory on a mountain, near a city, but not too deep in their territory. They will try to kill it with whatever units are nearby, so find a place where there are roads near the mountain or whatever piece of land you're on. The more units attacking, the better your chances are.;) But remember that you don't want to put your unit too deep in their territory, or else if you do get a leader, it will take more than one or two turns for it to get out of hostile territory. Trust me, one of the most frustrating things to happen to you in civ is when you get a leader and it is killed :mad: before you can use it. As a precaution, you might want to have another unit nearby to escort the leader since your first unit will probably have some damage. :(

The quickest and safest way to gain promotions is by beating up barbarians. If possible, find and preserve a barb camp, and use the steadily exiting barbs to advance your units to elite.

After that, an offbeat option is to war against a weak civ (or a civ you make weak). Stop short of wiping them out, then pick off their approaching units (and they will approach) with elites. You can theoretically do this until the end of time, as long as you're not in republic or democracy.

I usually run a peaceful game...cultural or diplomatic victories are my goals.

I played a game last night...I was just going to start it and post it but ended up playing until almost 5:00am...as Germany. I waged a war against America and ended up with 2 GLs. I sent spearmen out early to search. They earned elite status soon by battling barbarians. I found the Americans and I hit them!

It took awhile, but 2 of my original spearmen ended up as GLs. One was fairly early on, the other wasn't until I upgraded it to a rifleman.

Thanks for the help.

[party] Woo-hoo! [dance] :)

Now, remember, an elite unit can create only one GL. After my elite units earn GLs, I either fortify them in a city (retirement for a heralded career), place them in armies, or send them on into the fray of battle which will surely send them into the afterlife.:jesus:

I used mine to complete Wonders. Man, that is a cool feature!

Originally posted by Azaroth
I used mine to complete Wonders. Man, that is a cool feature!

Yea, I due as well re: GL. I was speaking about the elite unit that earns a GL.;) Elite units can only generate one GL, ever. Until we get PC 1.29f features (where you can name the elite unit that creates a GL - which makes it easier to remember that it can no longer make a GL) I do those said things so I will not get confused and try to get a GL over and over again w/ an elite unit that will never earn one again.

I almost always use my first GL to make an army so that I can get the Heroic Epic (and later the Military Academy). In the long run I end up with more leaders thanks to the HE. Of course, if I have an URGENT need for some wonder, I'll build that, but in general I make an army.

One-turn wonders. And they said caravan-rushing was too easy... :rolleyes:
I follow the same strategy as Beamup. Trouble is, I tend to avoid wars until later in the game, though someone usually does get the nerve to attack me. On the whole, though, I've only gotten an ancient leader once. All others have been medeival or later. And yes, I've had several leaderless games.

Only make the first GL an army, so you can build the small wonders. All the ones after that, use them to build expensive wonders like the <600 ones. Armies are great, but they can be built; so why waste leaders by buiding more than one army. If you're looking at making leaders, cheat. Get into a position with elites in combat and save it. Keep loading and fighting until you get one. Then the small wonders can be built, with anymore leaders going to wonders. Try to do this in the early stages of the game.

When I get leaders, I always make armies with them, since I'm always in the middle of a war. I've never used one to rush a wonder before.

I might soon, if the situation calls for it. It is awfully rare though..:(

Originally posted by Azaroth
I usually run a peaceful game...cultural or diplomatic victories are my goals.

You know Azaroth- I didn't catch the humor of that statement until I actually went to your website. Anyone else catch that?



I played a game last night...I was just going to start it and post it but ended up playing until almost 5:00am.


That never happens at my house. Ever.

"Honey, are we out of Pepsi and cigarettes again?.... What do you mean you were sleeping? It's only..... oh, nevermind."

"Smoking is very bad for you, OK?"
-Pepe the Prawn