Ignoring marketing and catering solely to my tastes, vanilla lineup which would satisfy me if repeated every time.
India - anybody except Gandhi
China - anybody except Mao (shudders), Huangdi or token female Wu Zetian.
Persia - please God no Achaemenids anymore, bonus points for Islamic era leader, name list and traits
Arabia - any good medieval caliph is fine
Egypt - anybody except Cleopatra, hell we have great alternate choices even for females
Greece - honestly I love Firaxis unexpected idea to put Alexander in separate 'Macedon' civ, because his personality was always warping Greece into hardcore military civ, so as weird as it sounds: anybody except Alexander. Also, preferred Athenian leaders because I utterly despise Sparta.
Rome - anybody other than Julius Caesar.
Germany - anybody provided he/she's supreme ruler of either HRE, Prussia or German Empire.
France - anybody other than Catherine di Medici, also I prefer somebody else from Napoleon for sake of diversity.
England - anybody other than Churchill, Victoria and Elizabeth. And on top of that I prefer parliamentary leader such as William Pitt, because any other civ can have a monarch but few can have cool prime minister.
Russia - anybody other than Stalin (shudders), Peter the Great or Catherine the Great. I love the latter lady but again, something fresh please.
Mongolia - should be in vanilla lineup. I will not say 'anybody but Genghis' because he's basically demigod, but I'd be fine with other khan once (and Genghis as inevitable DLC
)
America - anybody other than Washington (and preferably also Lincoln)
Inca or anything Andean - yeah I think they should be in vanilla lineup every time, either them or any other Andean civ (but others have huge problem of lack of leaders).
Anything from Mexico - may change from game to game, just anything from here: it doesn't have to be Aztec, it may also be Maya, Olmec (again: leader problem) or... Mexico.
Anything from South East Asia
Anything from Subsaharan Africa
[wilcard slot]
And yes, for me vanilla lineup doesn't have to include Aztecs, Mesopotamia, Ottomans, Spain or most controversially Japan.
India - anybody except Gandhi
China - anybody except Mao (shudders), Huangdi or token female Wu Zetian.
Persia - please God no Achaemenids anymore, bonus points for Islamic era leader, name list and traits
Arabia - any good medieval caliph is fine
Egypt - anybody except Cleopatra, hell we have great alternate choices even for females
Greece - honestly I love Firaxis unexpected idea to put Alexander in separate 'Macedon' civ, because his personality was always warping Greece into hardcore military civ, so as weird as it sounds: anybody except Alexander. Also, preferred Athenian leaders because I utterly despise Sparta.
Rome - anybody other than Julius Caesar.
Germany - anybody provided he/she's supreme ruler of either HRE, Prussia or German Empire.
France - anybody other than Catherine di Medici, also I prefer somebody else from Napoleon for sake of diversity.
England - anybody other than Churchill, Victoria and Elizabeth. And on top of that I prefer parliamentary leader such as William Pitt, because any other civ can have a monarch but few can have cool prime minister.
Russia - anybody other than Stalin (shudders), Peter the Great or Catherine the Great. I love the latter lady but again, something fresh please.
Mongolia - should be in vanilla lineup. I will not say 'anybody but Genghis' because he's basically demigod, but I'd be fine with other khan once (and Genghis as inevitable DLC

America - anybody other than Washington (and preferably also Lincoln)
Inca or anything Andean - yeah I think they should be in vanilla lineup every time, either them or any other Andean civ (but others have huge problem of lack of leaders).
Anything from Mexico - may change from game to game, just anything from here: it doesn't have to be Aztec, it may also be Maya, Olmec (again: leader problem) or... Mexico.
Anything from South East Asia
Anything from Subsaharan Africa
[wilcard slot]
And yes, for me vanilla lineup doesn't have to include Aztecs, Mesopotamia, Ottomans, Spain or most controversially Japan.
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