Easy Starters

[kossin]

Creative! Hatty for the win!
Expansive is also strong... cheap granaries and workers
Financial is good to fund the expansion phase
Imperialistic isn't half-bad either for cheaper settlers.

Spiritual helps Caste<->Slavery early-midgame
Aggressive can be good for Axes to capture barb cities/rush
Charismatic +2 happy is welcome but not always necessary early on.

The other traits tend to shine a bit later on (early midgame or later) imo, such as Philosophical.

 

[Jerrymander]

Anyone who didn't vote Creative, Imperialistic, or Expansive is doing it wrong.

 

[Gwynnja]

Anyone who didn't vote Creative, Imperialistic, or Expansive is doing it wrong.

Meh. Not necessarily. The game is so situational... Get a ton of floodplains in your cap bfc and financial is real strong. Get stone or marble in the cap bfc and industrious is real strong. Get a buttload of food and philosophical is real strong.

 

[bestbrian]

Charismatic for me. Happy cap is the first hard cap limiting growth that needs to be broken through.

 

[lasombra1984]

Charismatic for me. Happy cap is the first hard cap limiting growth that needs to be broken through.

1. Build settler/worker on happiness cap
2. Whip
3. Hereditary Rule early?

 

[bestbrian]

1. Build settler/worker on happiness cap
2. Whip
3. Hereditary Rule early?

Does not Charismatic also increase the limits of whip unhappiness?

 

[Jerrymander]

Meh. Not necessarily. The game is so situational... Get a ton of floodplains in your cap bfc and financial is real strong. Get stone or marble in the cap bfc and industrious is real strong. Get a buttload of food and philosophical is real strong.

True, those make good secondary traits, but Cre/Imp/Exp are going to work for you in every situation, no matter what.

 

[CHEESE!]

Sometimes I cry that there is no Cre/Cha leader.

 

[bestbrian]

Sometimes I cry that there is no Cre/Cha leader.

Present in a lot of mods.

 

[mirthadir]

CRE let's you block more land more cheaply; good but I think I normally can get more out of EXP or IMP if I can find a way to afford it. When I include early warmongering, CHA becomes a VERY strong contender. Getting those extra promos and those heals early is huge (particularly with mounted); better I think than getting the early GG for +2 xp in the cap or an early MIII from an IMP rushed GG.

I'm going to have to go with a three shot toss up:
1. EXP - more hammers early, more productive cities, normally the fastest to secure land in my view.
2. CHA - slight delay before you get the effects, but they are pretty huge when you get them. If you aren't building lots of settlers or workers in the cap (or have something like double wet corn) this becomes quite strong. Best rush civic, IMO.
3. FIN - the ultimate civic in pushing the early economy to the limit. If I'm working crappy tiles to keep pushing for more cheap land, just about nothing can keep the REX going as well (ikhanda comes to mind); not to mention how much more insanely time efficient cottages become.

 

[plasmacannon]

For an early game, it does depend on you motives.
Are you going for the cultural victory, teching for space race, or playing to conquer?

I put Aggressive, because, that is when that trait shines, is early.
Playing Boudica (AGG/CHA) of the Celts (or other empire if unrestricted leaders is used) just rocks.
From your first city you build your barracks fast and promote your melee unit to shock or cover and go capture cities.
I have done this with Genghis too (AGG/IMP) and he pops out cities with barracks quickly.
So, you swarm the opponent with melee units quickly, while you research HBR. After you conquer 1 foe, build Gers in all of those cities and repeat the process with +7xp Keshiks or more, since the early fighting will usually get you a GG.

I don't like Creative. I see it as a sign of weakness and attack those opponents early. Dutch, France and Ethiopia go down easily, because, they don't have a Leader Traits or a UU for me to worry about. And Khmer has to luck out and have ivory, if so, attack him early.

Aggressive works best early. It's not an end game trait.

Cheap librarys, lol. I conquer my neighbor before I build one.

Besides, play always war, and you can walk into the enemies territory and steal their workers. That's faster than building them yourself. Any woods2 unit can do that (Monty or Boudica work well) with Boudica I go for wods2/hills/ for a terrain defense, and movement advantage that the AI can't see as 2 movement.

 

[Agramon]

exp
cre
org
imp

[Inca],Sury, Mehmet, Hattie, Mao, Gilgamesh...

 

[Fezzik]

If early game includes any sort of expansion, I'd say financial. Later on, I'd rather have organized. Darius is almost overpowered in his ability to expand without killing your economy without much effort with both traits. But financial can be used immediately. Cottages? Who needs them? Bonus: Archer *and* Axemen-killing Immortals.

Creative is nice but if you build stonehenge or pick up a religion you don't really need more than a monument for your second and possibly third city.

 

[lasombra1984]

2 plasmacannon
Wilhem, Louis & Zara go down easily because they don't build strong military.
Catherine & Suryavarman are good examples of "strong" Creative

 

[Spectrite]

I don't like Creative. I see it as a sign of weakness and attack those opponents early. Dutch, France and Ethiopia go down easily, because, they don't have a Leader Traits or a UU for me to worry about. And Khmer has to luck out and have ivory, if so, attack him early.

Cheap librarys, lol. I conquer my neighbor before I build one.

Why are you comparing Aggressive, played by a human player, to Creative, played by an AI? You should be considering how you use Creative, not how you deal with Creative AIs.

 

[Red Lion]

I voted Creative, for all the reasons stated by others, but I really like Charismatic in the early game as well.

I play on Emperor, where the extra happiness from Charismatic is very helpful. If you build Stonehenge, that's another +1 happiness in every city. This Stonehenge strategy makes a lot of sense for Brennus and Boudica (who start with Mysticism) as well as De Gaulle (who is Industrious). Very helpful for getting decent-sized cities before Monarchy. The XP bonus from Charismatic is also helpful in early wars. Promotions come at 4 and 8 XP (instead of 5 and 10), so you can get your axes up to CR3 that much faster.

 

[bhavv]

Creative is nice but if you build stonehenge or pick up a religion you don't really need more than a monument for your second and possibly third city.

The half price libraries are what make CRE powerful, not the free culture, that just helps a little with getting faster border pops, and even blocking some AI from expanding. CRE civs can maintain a healthy tech rate while rexing with a low slider using scientists instead, playing Sury or Gilgamesh to their best strengths can be very overpowering in the Ancient era. It is easily possible to out tech even FIN leaders by using CRE if you know how to do it right.

I don't like Creative. I see it as a sign of weakness and attack those opponents early. Dutch, France and Ethiopia go down easily, because, they don't have a Leader Traits or a UU for me to worry about. And Khmer has to luck out and have ivory, if so, attack him early.

Aggressive works best early. It's not an end game trait.

Cheap librarys, lol. I conquer my neighbor before I build one.

And what good is Agg if you dont have any military resources nearby? CRE can actually help you here a lot better by allowing you to obtain resources faster, as well as being able to block opponents from getting them by planning your rapid border pops. Agg is NEVER more powerful to have than CRE is, thats just crazy talk. If you cant conquer your enemies without free combat 1, then theres something wrong, also Agg wont help you much against a Vulture rush from a human playing Gilgamesh, particularly if they have teched for Bronze working first, claimed any bronze before you can using CRE, and then pillaged any bronze that you may have already managed to obtain.

By bronze I mean copper

 

[Spectrite]

That's kind of the idea of free culture. You don't need Stonehenge, religion, or monuments. It saves hammers/beakers.

 

[bhavv]

Yea the only time I ever build Stonehenge is when playing a CHA leader, usually Hannibal for me.

If I'm not playing a CHA leader, I never build it. Except for Rameses.

 

[Thor7]

Creative lets me skip monuments and build granaries or workers immediately.
Expansive makes granaries and workers cheaper.

So one of those two, I voted cre, but they're equal to me. Imp is good too, but I find that a lot of my settler production comes from food, not hammers, so it's only good in the right situation.