Brennus is quite possibly my favourite leader as well, and he is a frighteningly good warmonger right throughout the game.
Charismatic/Spiritual are probably my two favourite traits, and they also work together so VERY well, with trips to and from police state/vassalage/slavery/theocracy to produce hordes of the highest-quality combined-arms force of pretty much anyone. Plus they both help with happiness, for extra-big or extra-whipped cities, and mysticism gives you easy monuments.
I also think the Gallic is a really excellent UU. Building them with copper means you can get them much earlier and more easily than normal swordsmen, and they can tag along on early axemen rushes and just steamroll everything in their path with ease, accumulating stratospheric experience levels on the way. And a few of these guys with guerrilla II (and the resulting fast movement and near-invincibility on hills) make a devastating commando force behind enemy lines. They're also 1XP away from Guerrilla III, which makes them excellent for dislodging enemies hiding on hills, or softening up with their withdrawal chance.
Oh yeah, did I mention that Charismatic (and potentially Spiritual) helps immensely with the happiness side of whipping-them-out-en-masse-super-early?
The dun is hardly the best UB out there (I shudder to imagine Brennus with the sacrificial altar, for example.......), but the hills bonus for archery units is very nice, and the easy guerrilla II access synergises well with the Gallic, to allow versatile, tough, fast-moving stacks for offense or field defense. And hilltop cities are almost completely safe until gunpowder, too.
I used to be a sceptic about his UU and UB too, until I tried them and witnessed the jawdropping power of the Celtic axeman+Gallic rush (it's really something to behold), and the disruptive potential (and just outright fun) of Celtic guerrilla commandoes. Combined with his traits, that's one hell of a package.
Yes, sorry I should have been more clear on this. IMHO, the best use of synergy for a spiritual civilization is to use the religious tactics and found as many religions as possible, and Mysticism is the immediate jumping board to Hinduism and Buddhism. I always get beaten to Buddhism, so I took Hinduism first, then a brisk walk towards founding Judaism, and could then relax and take a leisurely stroll towards founding Christianity and Islam. That's four religions under my control, four times as many cultural and happy points being pumped out by each city, four times as much religious income, and once I achieve Free Religion later on, I get even more happiness.
As far as Spiritual and religion, obviously you need a civ with Mysticism (which is Spiritual except Mansa, plus Huayna, as far as I know) to have a real chance at an early religion. But I'm not entirely convinced that it's necessary or even always best to get early religion with Spiritual, since I don't think they're as synergistic as their names suggest. The religion tech tree is more a peacemongering builder's tree, whereas I think Spiritual is really more of a warmonger's trait.
For me, the major synergy between Spiritual and religion is in getting full value out of the theocracy/organised religion/pacifism shuffle, and by the time you can do that you should have already been able to spread a foreign religion around your cities anyway.
The other is the ability to quickly and easily switch between other peoples' religions and make the most of the diplomacy game, which almost prefers that you DON'T found one of the early ones.
Exploiting cheap temples is nice, but I'm not convinced that the cost of spreading multiple religions in your empire is necessarily worth it, especially not early on before a couple of religions are likely to have spread naturally (or by conquest) to your territory.
Some Spiritual leaders will benefit well from early religion - e.g. Egyptian leaders (in Warlords) and Gandhi with their easy great prophets, and leaders who don't have bonuses to ancient-age warfare.
Brennus is, in my opinion, the spiritual leader least suited to it. Charismatic is kinda like having an extra religion from the start (with monuments like cheap temples), so there's less need for more happiness. X turns researching a religious tech is X turn later that you get iron working, is X turns that you're not building Gallics, is X turns of enemy defences being built up and not smashed. And early Gallics mean you can pretty much just waltz into a holy city and pick up a religion while you're there anyway.
thelibra said:
You know, I thought NuCavs were teh suck before I made some. Lemme tell ya, if you don't have The Great Wall, these guys are GREAT at wasting barbs before they can trash improvements. I normally shoot for the Great Wall, but had no stone, and figured I'd be better served going for a Super Capital and faster expansion in the early game. Barbs were a real pain in the arse until I popped a NuCav in every city. Between Barracks and Stable, and Charisma, they really are quite nie in the early game, and I'm guessing they're upgradable to Cavalry later on.
Agreed, they're a great little unit that do well against pretty much everything in the field, and can hold their own against spearmen too. I just wish they'd been given to somebody else. Hannibal really benefits from getting sailing, compass AND currency ASAP to make the most of his coastal trade focus (and they're expensive techlines in the early game), and Horseback Riding is a very pricy detour from that. I end up only getting them very late, which is a real shame.
and that has extra leaders. So please post your opinion. Thank you.
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