Good civ + leader combinations

[Krikkit1]

Choose Democracy: I have never seen more than one AI Civ choose that ideology in any game so far: they are all in love with Fascism or Communism, so if you require opposing Ideologies to make a game plan work, Democracy is the way to go.

- And if the idea of a War-Mongering Democracy seems a bit contrary, just take a look at the actual historical records of the Democracies (UK, USA) relations with any of their smaller/weaker neighbors since 1840 (Opium Wars, Mexican War, Afghan Wars, Zulu War, Boer War, Spanish-American War, Philippine Insurrection, etc, etc) . . .

And generally the evidence is that if both countries are more democratic they are less likely to war. But only one having more democracy doesn't affect how likely it is to war with a more autocratic country
(which fits with the strategy... go democratic so you can crush all the less democratic countries

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Okay, I have started 6 games with various Continents type maps, played about 30 - 35 turns each, managed to survey about half of each Continent.
All were Standard size, Standard start.

Every single map had at least 3 Navigable Rivers which, with lakes, were over 6 tiles long. Longest was a 20 tile combination of 3 lakes and rivers that stretched clear across most of a continent.

One game started with Hatshepset and Egypt, both with Navigable Rivers bonuses, resulted in a start on a Navigable river 6 tiles long with 3 other Navigable Riers within 8 - 10 tiles each at least 4 tiles long: guaranteed at least 4 good settlement sites.

Conclusion: Navigable Rivers have been buffed, in that there are more of them, they are longer, and they appear to spawn for those Civs and Leaders that need them - but that last is still Tentative, pending more trials with combinations including Mississippians, Aksum, etc.

Now if they will just add Canals in a DLC . . .

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

Confucius + Khmer, growth go crazy.
Catherine + Maya, science + culture go crazy.
Lafayette + Rome, Legions go crazy.

and these are non historical canon.


What is a perfect match to me if you want to be hegemon king is Niccolo Machiavelli + Greeks (and he's best running Siam, Xenia policy will win much of these minor powers, as long as they are still around to use Itsaraphab ability. and from my playthrough, AIs tend to disperse those smaller countries before they could be fully developed.)