I have had numerous successful battles with all kinds of elite units without getting a leader.

How many attacks did it take you to get your first leader(or does defensive battles count too?)

I wonder if it is like entering your golden age, you have to win a battle against a rival civ, not against barbarians. That makes a huge difference on when you will see a GL if it is true. All in all I have seen one GL (who got slaughtered in a classic pincer maneuver!) :( I don't play militaristic civs though...I wonder if I should start?

It takes 1,643 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop. I am absolutely serious. (You're probably better off not asking) :crazyeyes

I did get my first leader relatively early with the Japanese, because I was milateristic and was pounding the Indians mercilessly. However, after his untimely demise at the hands of the neverrending Chineese calvary, I haven't gotten another one.

Finally got my first leader in my fourth game... I had heard about elites not producing a leader against barbs... so when possible I would build up units against the barbs and then hold the elites to take on forces that were pre-weakened by vets.

I voted for more than 21 since I can't give a good estimate other than it was way more than 20 successfull elite battles against other civs...

I had some musketeers on a mountain in English territory where I was trying to secure a big advance of desert in the vain hopes that someday oil would be discovered there. I was driven out by a fierce resistance of spearmen and swordsmen and retreated to the mountaintop which I wanted to hold to reinforce my ill-planned invasion. As wave after wave of suicide spearmen attacked my lone musketeer I created three leaders. Unfortunately they were all killed when the musketeer fell before I could evacuate them by caravel.

This was a game on the lowest difficulty setting.

ive gotten 2 leaders, 1 in middle eges and the other in modern times, both while attacking. ive also built one with my wonder

I've gotten Vetern and Elite Units through defending against Barbarians, but I've yet to see a Great Leader, according to some source (I forget which) every time you win a battle there is a 1 in 16 chance to spawn a great leader and a 1 in 12 if the have the heroic epic wonder (better chances with a militeristic Civ. Still, I played a game in which I had at least 20 battles won with elite swordsmen and not one of them spawned a great leader. Further, I played a game whilst one elite spearman (fortified, on a hill) defended against 8 Barbarian horsemen in one turn and still did not get promoted at the end of it :) Throughout the course of the game I would estimate that guy won around 16 battles. Perhaps the percentage is per turn the unit participates in combat? That is, he had a 1 in 16 chance after defending the 8 horsemen, not 1 in 2.