Instead of telling what I would like as new leaders for the Leader Pass #2, I want to “predict” what it could be. I think this is a nice game to play. So here are a lot of assumptions!
When we look out the 19 new Leaders of the Pass, most of them (14) are from the Base Game, and then 1 of them are from each DLC: Civilizations & Scenarios (C&S, as Nader Shah / Persia), Rise & Fall (R&F, as Sejong / Korea), Gathering Storm (GS, as Sundiata Keita / Mali) and New Frontier (NF, as Theodora / Byzantium). The only exception being Suleiman the Magnificent, as we all know their bias toward gigantic hats.
The Leader Pass introduced no new Civilizations, had a 2 male for 1 female ratio, was teamed by 3 around a theme. It was free if the Anthology or all DLC had been bought before. Being free was a way to sell the Anthology to players. Being free this time has no leverage. So they have two choices:
- Paid DLC: Therefore they should have 2 leaders out of 3 available for the base game, as it would be quite frustrating to pay for something that you couldn’t play as because you didn’t have all the DLC. Plus, it needs extra effort and care, as the players would be less tolerant of something they paid.
- Free to all DLC: Therefore they are more free on who to add to the game, since players cannot complain about not enjoying everything about free content.
They are also not afraid to reuse tired old memes, and tried overly popular characters such as Trade-Elizabeth (wybiiatawe), Onion-Suleiman, or Ramses, neither of adding new characters never seen before like Nzinga Mbande, Sundiata Keita or Ludwig II for example. I will take the route of the paid DLC one, which is the most limitative option to pick.
So here a guess:
A lot of the picks are underwhelming. I added new rules I wanted to follow: Target overrepresentation. 6 Civilizations are going to have those rules. The big 3 (America, China and India) would have 3 leaders + persona while the other 3 (England, France and Russia) would have 2 leaders + persona. Dual leaders like Kublai and Eleanor don’t count. That is why Washington, Nur Jahan, “Ambulance Corps” Gandhi, Napoléon, Catherine the Great, and “Maritime” Peter have been added. Sure, some of them are overrated. I wish I was knowledgeable about American history to add a female leader. Napoléon is also a very dividing leader: some absolutely love him, and some wish to not see him again.
It was a challenge to pick which one of the DLC civilizations to include. I settled with the Khmer (C&S), the Netherlands (R&F), the Incan (GS), and Ethiopia (NFP). The Mayan were my Joker, just like Suleiman was an added bonus in the Leader Pass #1, so I could complete the “Empires of the New World” pass.
Some of the picks might be quite… weird. Due to the limitation, there was no other choice possible. Tomyris is the last female leader of the base game without a Persona, while Kongo is the only African vanilla civilization. That is why they both have a Persona. Nonetheless, Tomyris being both a Great General and a Queen, she is suitable for more: there is a reason Cyrus wanted her as his wife. Mvemba A Nzinga could also benefit from having a real ability: currently, there is no real reason to not play as Mbande.
William the Silent is William of Orange. The franchise has been very inconsistent about his name (William or Willem van Oranje), so I wanted to be consistent with that by spelling it differently again. Pedro II is quite disliked as some of us call him Dom Satan. This older and broken persona would be a nice and friendly one. The Shadows of Asia pass is quite… obscure. Neang Neak (or Queen Soma) is credited as the first monarch of Cambodia. Nothing is really known about her or his husband, so you could rightfully say this is a Dido scenario again. Nur Jahan is one of the only Mughal Empress to have and use power, to the point of having coins with her image. Her addition is less than a stretch, and allows to both represent the Mughal period of India, and have a female leader. “Ambulance Corps” Gandhi seems offtopic, until we realize we have “Rough Rider” Teddy. I guess this is better than “Nuclear Warlord” Gandhi. Peter the Great has a famous painting of him in Armor with a cape, perfect for a Persona. As the founder of St. Petersburg and funding the Russia Navy, this is a way to give him a new focus to compensate for his underwhelming ability. King Ezana is famous for his conversion, but as a King of Aksum and builder of Stele / Obelisk, there is quite a lot to work with. Acamapichtli is an Aztec leader at the time they were not dominant. I think he is the best leader to introduce the Chinampa tile improvement. Pacal II used to have a magnificent hat in Civilization V that was trimmed down for performance issues. I guess Firaxis could be tempted to take revenge and give us the most incredible hat they could imagine. For the Pass 12, Napoléon claimed to be the successor of the Roman Empire, Maria Theresa was Holy Roman Empress which also claimed it, while Julius Caesar manipulated the Senate that ended up killing the idea of the Roman Republic and replacing it with an Empire. Thus explaining the theme.
Of course, this is not what I would want for the 18 new leaders. But if they took the same spirit of what they gave us for Leader Pass #1, I think we would have something close to this.
