Leader Abilities Organized by Policy Category

[Ivan Hunger]

When I first started noticing the patterns in how policies are categorized in Civ 6, it made me consider that Leader Abilities could be categorized in the same way. Knowing what category each leader falls into is useful when considering how to best play them, and looking at how many leaders are in each category can help us speculate on what type of leaders we'd like to see in the future.

Militaristic Leaders
These are leaders with abilities related to military units and warfare. They're a good choice for players with aggressive personalities. This category makes up 45% of the leaders in the vanilla game.

Leaders in this category include Teddy Roosevelt, Montezuma, Victoria, Fredrick Barbarossa, Gorgo, Hojo Tokimune, Harald Hardrada, Tomyris, and Philip.

Economic Leaders
These are leaders with abilities related to infrastructure. They tend to encourage a peaceful but isolationist style of gameplay. This category makes up 20% of the leaders in the vanilla game.

Leaders in this category include Qin Shi Huang, Gandhi, Trajan, and Peter.

Diplomatic Leaders
These are leaders with abilities related to city sate diplomacy, espionage, or benefitting other civilizations. Players who prefer a more subtle and manipulative approach may enjoy these leaders. This category makes up 30% of the leaders in the vanilla game.

Leaders in this category include Saladin, Cleopatra, Catherine de Medici, Pericles, Mvemba a Nzinga, and Gilgamesh.

Wildcard Leaders
These leaders generate more Great People. This ability normally comes at a high opportunity cost, so it's quite valuable. This category makes up 5% of the leaders in the vanilla game.

Leaders in the category include Pedro.

 

[redwings1340]

Hmm...

If we took out the wildcard slot in this analysis, we could put Pedro in to the economic category. I think Saladin and Trajan definitely have an argument going in to the militaristic category, considering their entire civ playstyle and good UUs.

It's interesting that there are so many militaristic leaders here, though this analysis does show how civ VI is trying to give civilizations a mix of bonuses in every area. For example, Japan and Germany have lots of economic bonuses as well, Gilgamesh is certainly going to be a militaristic and diplomatic leader, Victoria's harbor district is going to be essential for a good economy, and so forth. I know you're probably just focusing on leader abilities, but its hard to take one ability out of the bunch, because it all works together. For example, Russia's abilities are better in the context of each other, each one is pretty weak independently.

 

[King Jason]

I think the OP is only specifically discussing leader UA's here.

 

[Ivan Hunger]

I decided to focus specifically on Leader Abilities for two reasons.

First, redundancy. Pretty much all Unique Units are Militaristic by definition, and all Unique Abilities and Unique Infrastructures are Economic with a tiny amount of exceptions. The Leader abilities offer by far the widest diversity of types.

Second, I thought by categorizing the leaders, it could help us speculate on potential alternate leaders. Just like how Greece got one leader who's Diplomatic and another who's Militaristic, perhaps other civilizations might also get leaders in different categories than their original one.

As for the abundance of Militaristic leaders, I have a theory about that. The game tends to lack dynamism if you end up with nothing but builders who all do their own thing alone and never declare war on anyone. So maybe the devs front-loaded the vanilla game with Militaristic leaders to make sure you always get at least a few on every map.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

benefitting other civilizations

Saladin could be a diplomatic leader as well because his ability applies to all followers of his religion.

Montezuma get extra amenities which is an economical bonus. Only the combat bonus is military one although you can say that you need military to grab new luxuries.

Hojo Tokimune: Many people would say his true strength is not the combat bonus but that he can build 3 districts at half the price which is an economical bonus.

Given that these leaders have abilities that applies to two or more categories I would suggest moving them into wildcard because wildcard is not only about great people cards but you can place whatever card you want in a wildcard.

 

[Ivan Hunger]

Saladin could be a diplomatic leader as well because his ability applies to all followers of his religion.

Montezuma get extra amenities which is an economical bonus. Only the combat bonus is military one although you can say that you need military to grab new luxuries.

Hojo Tokimune: Many people would say his true strength is not the combat bonus but that he can build 3 districts at half the price which is an economical bonus.

Given that these leaders have abilities that applies to two or more categories I would suggest moving them into wildcard because wildcard is not only about great people cards but you can place whatever card you want in a wildcard.

In addition to Montezuma and Hojo Tokimune, Teddy Roosevelt and Philip also have multipart abilities, with one part being Militaristic and the other part being Economic. I decided that if any leader has a part of their ability that is useful only during war, then they belong in the Militaristic category. If you play a game as one of these leaders and you never go to war at all, that means at least part of your ability is being wasted. This also seems to be consistent with the way the policy cards are categorized. Even if a card has an Economic benefit like extra gold or amenities, it still counts as a Militaristic card if it involves military units in any capacity.

The one exception to this rule was Gilgamesh. I decided he belongs in the Diplomatic category because his ability very specifically only benefits him if he goes to war along with someone else. If he goes to war by himself, then he gets no benefit from his ability. But this was a judgement call, and I'd be interested in hearing what others think on the matter.

As for Saladin, I think you are correct. Part of the appeal of his ability is that it encourages others to spread your religion on their own because they want to benefit from the inexpensive and highly productive worship buildings, which is a very Diplomatic way to trick others into helping you win the game. I'll edit the original post and move him into the Diplomatic category.