Top 3 Leaders to play

[RedRalph]

I'll get the ball rolling.

Stalin - you can get most of the essential wonders, the Agg trait helps for early axe rushes etc, and the Cossacks are brilliant to have most of your essential conquest done by Industrial Era.

Mehmed 2 - you can just keep getting bigger and bigger. UU isnt up to much, but its easy to keep a good tech lead with the Org trait.


Alexander - Probably the best for Axe Rushes. Build the parthenon and you have many, many GP.

 

[jackdog]

Darius loadsa dosh, if you use the immortal quickly enough even on a meduim map normal speed you can take 3-4 cities and away you go...no problems on prince at least.

 

[Agent Cooper]

Elizabeth 1 is still at the top of my list. Those traits with a superb UU and UB and a CE/SE combo.

Otherwize Huayna Capac can be a tech moster and the Incas have a pretty good UU and UB as well, although the UU doesn't last long.

I'll probably go for one of the Russian leaders as my third choice for reasons already mentiond.

Of the BTS leaders, I've only tried a couple sofar, so it's to early for me to judge them overall. Boudica is a monster warmachine, but she's lacking when you build/maintain your conquested empire.

 

[Bast]

Look at my signature...

 

[Polycrates]

Shaka - The best UU and UB in the game, and traits that synergise perfectly with them and with each other. An absolute monster.

Brennus - The best two traits in the game, which work extremely well with each other. Arguably the best warmonger over the length of the game, with the chops to back it up economically too. Also a very underrated UU and UB.

Gandhi - The SE master, with an absolutely killer trait pairing and a damn useful UU. The UB is really nice in BtS as well, and works very nicely with a SE too.

Of the new leaders, Gilgamesh is my pick so far, but Pacal, Pericles, Zara Yaqob and Willem van Oranje are all very nice too.

 

[budweiser]

Frederick the Great - Fast research gives you the latest troops. Organised lets you have more cities. Beline Civil Service, then liberalism. Always an easy game.

 

[SickCycle]

I don't know if I'd say he's a top leader but Shaka is my favorite to play, I like to rush early and Shaka is king at that as far as I'm concerned.

You start with your UB which also cuts down on the cost of capturing cities early by 20%.

He starts with hunting which allows you to find an early target quickly and pop some huts for cash to run your campaign, it also opens up his UU which is superb for an early rush, not actually for the killing part but it lets you enter his territory quickly and cut off any copper or if they found on the copper the roads to the city.

He's aggressive so it cuts the building time of his UB by half and since it's a barracks you can start pumping those axes out faster with CR.

He's expansive so his workers pop 25% faster to hook up copper and it cuts the granary time in half to get whipping good.. or chopping.

Shaka may not be the best leader but his synergy is spectacular for an early rush, it's almost over-powering.

He also looks cool

 

[MrCynical]

Elizabeth - Both Philosophical and Financial are strong traits, and allow a lot of economic flexibility. The UB has been hugely strengthened with the advent of corporations.

Hannibal - Financial always makes a first class leader, and Charismatic is handy at high levels. Not quite as clearly the best as he used to be, now happiness is less of a problem at high levels, but still in the top three.

William of Oranje - Financial... you've got the idea by now. Creative isn't exceptional, but with the addition of cheap libraries it's well worth having. The UB on many map types is ludicrously strong - Moai statues everywhere with a river.

 

[Grimus]

Shaka
Toku
Boudica

 

[axident]

Elizabeth - Both Philosophical and Financial are strong traits, and allow a lot of economic flexibility. The UB has been hugely strengthened with the advent of corporations.

Hannibal - Financial always makes a first class leader, and Charismatic is handy at high levels. Not quite as clearly the best as he used to be, now happiness is less of a problem at high levels, but still in the top three.

William of Oranje - Financial... you've got the idea by now. Creative isn't exceptional, but with the addition of cheap libraries it's well worth having. The UB on many map types is ludicrously strong - Moai statues everywhere with a river.

Actually dikes are even better than that, in that you can build them in any city next to ANY kind of water. River OR coastal. Crazy.

 

[seasnake]

Ragnar: UB and UU are incredible, fast ships with amphibious macemen with agressive promotions. Couple the financial trait, you'll make a lot of money.
Hammurabbi: Organized let's you make a lot of cities and double's production of three buildings, bowmen are really useful, Gardens keep your city healthy and happy. Coupled with double production of barracks and free melee promotions, a great leader.
Huayna Capac: Financial = techs, Industrious = wonders. Free culture with a necessary building (granary/terrace) and a UU great for crushing barbs and a few cities.

 

[Horizons]

Charlemagne - who has the best UU and UB in the game. Unstoppable medieval war machine with next-to-zero maintenance costs for all cities.

 

[Dan Quale]

Everyone overlooks roosevelt, Industrious organized, but hes the only leader I ever managed a Diety domination with. Great for early wonders and running expensive civics(organized religion). The UU and UB come late, but the navy seal is actually quite effective at keeping a drive going. With organized you can slave courthouses as soon as you capture a city, and still have room to slave more infastructure, especially a factory/forge with the industrious trait. I haven't tried him in bts yet, but definately an early wonder machine, who turns into a quick marching assault champion really easily.

 

[Martinoheat]

In no particular order

Mao- love the traits and the UB and UU

Peter The Great- same as above

And Julius Caeser just rules!

 

[SlipperyJim]

Everyone overlooks roosevelt, Industrious organized, but hes the only leader I ever managed a Diety domination with. Great for early wonders and running expensive civics(organized religion).

I've always liked Rosie, and I just used him to pull off my very first CS Slingshot. That said, doesn't Industrious lose some of its luster at the higher difficulty levels? How in the world do you manage to score any wonders on Diety?

Darius I seems to have loads of potential. An Immortal rush can get you a big empire quickly, his UB is almost as good as having the Expansive trait, and his actual traits (Fin + Org) are perfect for late-game tech dominance.

Remember how cool Washington was in "vanilla" Civ4? Well, Darius I has the same traits and a killer UU and a useful UB. Cha-ching!

 

[Armorydave]

Darius, Julius and Huayna. Early UU's, nice UB's, great traits (Darius has the two best IMO). They are only limited by isolated starting positions.

 

[Spiceweasel]

Rosevelt. Between the various cheap buildings of Industrious and Organized, you can get your new cities up to speed quickly; and you can create lots of them. Being able to build early wonders faster lets you grab pick and choose how to run your nation on the fly. And lots of wonders means lots of great people.

Orange Willy is another favorite, for reasons already stated by others.

 

[SickCycle]

So many choices.. I guess it comes down to how you like to play your games

I never really liked Immortal rushing, I've done it successfully but I find the Immortals dont really do that well against upgraded archers in a capital with decent culture, I lose alot compared to axes and I can do it in about the same amount of time, unless horses magically pop in your fat cross, which is rare.

Darius's Financial/Organized is crazy though, but I don't like his UB or UU that much. Immortals are here one day gone the next and like I said I never got overly impressive results, I'd need a large stack to take out 2 archers in a holy city

Huayna Capac is prob overpowered, hes a monster in early and late game. Really in the start of the game he's creative, aggressive, industrious, and financial. His terrace is +2 culture, his Warriors get Combat I and he has the other two, then late in the game he really starts to shine again with Industrious and Financial backing him up and can found a religion.. easily with financial in the mix.

Hannibal should never be forgotten, Charismatic/Financial? Those are two monster traits, Charismatic is great late in the game once your units have accumulated all that experience and Financial gives you the cash to upgrade them, his extra happiness helps on higher levels and with WW. Trade routes got boosted in BTS and NumC lost the -10%, along with Astronomy outing monuments.

Dutch are also suppose to be pretty strong now in the late game. +1 prod on all water/river tiles.. yowza

 

[GoliathFF8]

Williem Van Oranje is extremely fun to play as, thanks to the Dikes and Financial

Roosevelt gets tons of awesome cheap buildings. Cheap Courthouses and Factories are exceptional.

Frederick is also nice if I want to do a SE rather than the usual CE

 

[Common Sensei]

Lincoln, Napoleon, Frederick.

I like Philosophical, Organized, and Charismatic.