Civ/Leader pairs with good synergy

Lexicus

Deity
Joined
Aug 28, 2007
Messages
31,856
Location
Sovereign State of the Have-Nots
I always play with Unrestricted Leaders checked because the game seems stale otherwise.

I am interested to hear from the community what combinations of leaders and civs (including default ones, but obviously I'm more interested in non-default) have good synergy.

I'm a fan of Cyrus of the Mongols, as the Imp/Chm trait combo can make your Keshiks into highly-promoted monsters very early.
 
I've been thinking that switching the leaders of Babylon and Sumeria could work. Sumeria would gain aggressive vultures and very cheap zigurrats while Babylon gets protective bowmen and faster gardens, but the results would probably be better with financial/aggressive or financial/organized leader.
 
Darius of the Dutch on a water-heavy map is an unstoppable beast. Financial is at its strongest on water, Organized is at its strongest on water, and the dutch are obviously strongest on water maps.
 
Churchill of native america.CHA/PRO with the totem pole can make for some cool promotions if you oracle feudalism for example,and as the wars go on they get better and better.Promoted right they can stand up to anything-horse archers,swords,X-bows and maces even.
 
I second Darius of the Dutch. FDR of Sumeria's a beast, but Sumeria's tough with any organized leader.
 
I don't like playing on ridiculously water-heavy maps, so I might not try out Darius of the Netherlands, but who knows? I might.

A combination I think might be good is Pericles of the Koreans.
 
Pacal or Bismarck of Inca. That's probably only marginally better than HC of Inca though, if at all. It's really astonishing how good he is.
 
For a optimized economy Darius of holy rome. Fin+org+cheap rathaus -75%maintenance

Yeah, that's a pretty good combo too. Rathaus is a beast with corporations, and financial organized just helps mitigate the corp cost even more. You can also go Frederick to get the extra GP out of the sid's sushi too, though you'll probably be mostly out of GP by then (but it should help you get the GE for Mining Inc).
 
Pacal of India would be strong because the Fast Worker is awesome and Pacal has nice traits. EXP may help you get that Fast Worker.. faster.

A lot of these pairings sound cool, but then when you look at them closely they aren't that good. Darius of Holy Rome is worse than Darius of Persia because you are giving up a top notch rush unit in the Immortal for Landsknechts. FIN + ORG + Ratheus is great, but you've given up your best opportunity to take all of that land you need to really make the combo pay off. Also the starting techs stink. Hunting + Myst is probably the worst starting tech combo in the game. You would be really slow getting to Pottery and FIN cottages with those starting techs compared to something like Ag + TW or AG + Mining, etc.

Darius of the Dutch? IMO the Dutch are only good because Willem has great traits. Darius is very similar just with more late game emphasis than early game (ORG vs CRE).
 
Pacal of India would be strong because the Fast Worker is awesome and Pacal has nice traits. EXP may help you get that Fast Worker.. faster.

A lot of these pairings sound cool, but then when you look at them closely they aren't that good. Darius of Holy Rome is worse than Darius of Persia because you are giving up a top notch rush unit in the Immortal for Landsknechts. FIN + ORG + Ratheus is great, but you've given up your best opportunity to take all of that land you need to really make the combo pay off. Also the starting techs stink. Hunting + Myst is probably the worst starting tech combo in the game. You would be really slow getting to Pottery and FIN cottages with those starting techs compared to something like Ag + TW or AG + Mining, etc.

Darius of the Dutch? IMO the Dutch are only good because Willem has great traits. Darius is very similar just with more late game emphasis than early game (ORG vs CRE).

On a watery map, organized lighthouses come pretty early, and are made frequently. But I definitely see how creative to get the ocean seafood is good too, and libraries are early too.
 
There are some interesting combos for classical or medieval rushes, even without strong unique units. Obviously map-dependent:

Willem of India - with instant 3 commerce tiles and starting with mining could go straight for BW and chop out axes extremely fast. Think settling on a riverside wine or dye or something with maybe an oasis to work. Creative just makes it easier to get bronze in a useful spot, it could be any financial leader I guess.

Pericles of Korea - with mining/myst instead of Greece's horrible starting techs and how quickly you can get your first scientist out and bulb Maths...it should be possible in many games (up to immortal, maybe consistently on Deity on handpicked starts) to oracle Construction and go crazy with Hwachas.

Boudica of Rome - as if Praetorians weren't already way overpowered, CI/CRII after a single successful attack. CI/CRIII Praetorians are basically unstoppable until macemen and you'd get there quickly with the high attack odds you're already getting.

Hannibal of Rome - as above but you lose the free combat promo and insta-barracks in exchange for faster IW if you have early commerce tiles.

Suleiman of China - Engineering rush with Cho-ku-nus.

Churchill of Spain - cheap Citadels for CRIII charismatic trebuchets from every city.

Sitting Bull of Spain - cheap Citadels, can bulb Machinery but not Engineering.

Suleiman of Spain - no cheap Citadels, but can bulb Engineering. Would be pretty good if you had stone.

Churchill of Mali - protective skirmishers that get to Drill III/IV quickly, could be a viable rush even at high difficulties.

Sitting Bull of Mali - Drill III skirmishers immediately.

Could do the same with Babylonian bowmen, might even work better at Deity where you might face more metal units than archers but the target would have to be very, very close.

Ragnar of Sumeria - aggressive Vultures that you could get to very fast, again with the right tiles in your capital.

Darius of Sumeria - fast vultures, even cheaper Ziggurats.

FDR of the Aztecs - Oracle CoL with no need for marble, get cheap Sacrificial Altars.

FDR of Carthage - on any sort of archipelago or islands map. Fast GLH/Colossus, cheap lighthouses, Cothons....

Churchill of the Celts - I'm trying to convince myself that fast Guerilla III units would be interesting. It's a stretch, those starting techs are so so bad. I guess it would be fun to have upgraded Redcoats with 50% withdrawal chance?
 
Churchill of spain would have charismatic conquistadors too... though that doesn't mesh with siege so well.

Churchill of the celts wouldn't have any redcoats though.... but his withdrawing charismatic protective rifles would still be good.
 
Lincoln of Korea
Lincoln of Rome
Hammurabi of Zulu

if going cultural
Hatty of China
Gandhi of China
Willem of China
Mansa of China?

EDIT: Schizophrenic challenge to these leaders to test which trait combinations perform the best in cultural victories?
 
There are a couple leaders like Pericles and Lizzy that could be muuuuuch better than normal with unrestricted leaders because they have fantastic traits, but are handcuffed a little by the starting techs and uniques of their country. It doesn't really even matter if get good synergy, just pairing those traits with good starting techs and/or good uniques would be really powerful.

I think both would be good candidates for a Machinery rush if paired with China or an Engineering rush if you put them with another civ that has good starting techs (and no fishing).
 
From my (admittedly rather limited) knowledge of games with UR leaders I suggest:

Toku of England makes for some nifty Redcoats.

Boudica of Rome for some fearsome early Praetorians.
 
Elizabeth of England. The 2 best (easily) traits, Redcoats and starts with Fishing/Mining for seafood start. Workboat -> Worker while teching Bronze Working to chop moar workboats. Just reroll your start for multiple seafood resources in the capital BFC which is sort of cheating but whatever, the AI cheats too.
 
Put someone expansive in charge of the Incas. 2 pop whipping combined monument-granaries, yes please!
 
Cathy or Zara of Sumeria.

Rex monsters.

Sury of Summeria can also be done, but there's no point because barrays are strong enough.
 
Top Bottom