Leader Discussion - Amina

[disjointaccount]

I was originally thinking these would be weekly, but that seems relatively long between posts. Seeing the Civ discussions are a bit more frequent and accounting for the fact that Leaders have less room for discussion than Civs since their kits are less multifaceted, maybe biweekly is the way to go?

Following on from Ada last week, next up is Amina.
Her leader ability is Warrior-Queen of Zazzau, which is a three-parter:

• +1 Resource Capacity in Cities
• +1 Gold per Age for each Resource assigned to Cities
• +5 Combat Strength on all Units in Plains and Desert

Her attributes are Economic and Militaristic, giving her access to the Open Markets and Military Aid endeavors, along with an event for an attribute point upon unlocking Discipline and discovering Distant Lands tiles (per this post).
She has a starting bias for Plains and Desert.
Playing as Amina unlocks Songhai in the Exploration Age (otherwise unlocked by having three Settlements with three or more Navigable River tiles each), and Buganda in the Modern Age (otherwise unlocked by having two Settlements with centres adjacent to a lake).
As an AI leader, her agenda is Desert of the Warrior Queen - If the player has more Settlements on Plains or Desert tiles than Amina, Decrease Relationship by a Medium Amount. If the player has no Settlements on Plains or Desert tiles, Increase Relationship by a Small Amount.

So what are everyone's thoughts? Likes/dislikes? Strengths and weaknesses? Fun strategies? Good civs to pair her with?

 

[Nikolai II]

The resource capacity is golden. I keep having more reources than spots.

 

[Leucarum]

Middle of the road?

Attacking Amina on her favoured terrain is almost as frustrating as attacking Harriet. She has a solid defensive gameplan which can easily flex into aggression if the victim happens to have picked the wrong terrain to stand on.

The resource cap/gold bonuses are nice, straightforward and never bad. Not game breaking but you'll be happy to see them.

She's a leader that does affect how you can interact with her which is nice when a lot of other leaders you can just ignore their abilities when the AI is playing them... But you absolutely can play around her. So yeah, mid-tier leader. Good candidate for who to compare other leaders to if you want to know if they're above or below average power level, as I wouldn't be surprised if she's sat exactly in the middle.

 

[Navelgazer]

Amina is the only leader (so far) that I've reached lvl 10 with. The extra resource slots and gold per resource don't read as big bonuses on paper, but that starts to add up nicely pretty fast. The combat bonus is situational, and mostly going to be useful on defense, but that's fine by me - it's a big help in dealing with early hostile IPs while you manage early expansion and get your trade empire online. Other than that, it'll come into play occasionally, but often enough to make a difference - Plains and Desert make up a large part of the land on any map I've played, especially the more hotly-contested middle-latitude parts, and +5 is a pretty big bonus.

Anyway, Amina's probably my "Main," and I think she's super-reliable. Not really game-breaking by any means, but just reliably solid, and fits how I like to play.

 

[disjointaccount]

I agree with the sentiment that Amina is pretty middle-of-the-road/consistent. Nothing absolutely gamebreaking about her kit but I tend to value leaders who forgo the potential of swinginess in favour of very consistent performances. I know what I'm getting with Amina. The resource capacity is useful pretty much the entire game, the gold will help snowball you that bit faster, and the combat bonus is very strong on defence or for attacking a neighbour who shares your biomes.

Economic and Militaristic aren't the best endeavours, but the money is probably in third place behind science and culture for early snowball potential, and having the option to get military aid online if things kick off is valuable.

I like the idea of her as the benchmark "neutral leader" against whom everyone is compared to see how over- or under-powered they are. Just a very reliable kit that you can count on for a solid performance every game.

 

[Navelgazer]

I like the idea of her as the benchmark "neutral leader" against whom everyone is compared to see how over- or under-powered they are. Just a very reliable kit that you can count on for a solid performance every game.

I think this is about right. And this also might be part of why I reached lvl 10 with her first - she fits well with just about any civ if you want to try it out, though she works particularly well with Aksum and Mississippians in Antiquity.

I'll say that her unlocks aren't particularly useful. Songhai is a very good Exploration Era civ, of course, provided that you have the Navigable Rivers. And if you do, you already have them unlocked through gameplay. Buganda is niche, but you probably want to have lakes if you're gonna go down that path, and if you do, you've got them unlocked through gameplay. I really wish that she unlocked Abbasid, because she fits so well with Aksum and Aksum into Abbasid is great when you can get it, but Aksum doesn't unlock it either. Oh well.

 

[Leucarum]

I like the idea of her as the benchmark "neutral leader" against whom everyone is compared to see how over- or under-powered they are. Just a very reliable kit that you can count on for a solid performance every game.

I think it's a good place to be, honestly!

 

[disjointaccount]

she works particularly well with Aksum

Which I think is apt, as I consider them to be quite a reliable, middle-of-the-road, generalist civ that pairs well with any leader, lol.

Don't get me wrong, I love the games where you roll three great natural wonders in the first 20 turns as Isabella, or get crazy numbers of goody huts for absurd yields with Rizal, but sometimes a game where I can just pick a leader/civ combo I know is going to give me a solid performance without any need for restart spam is really nice, and I think Amina (and Aksum) really embodies that role.

The Abbasid unlock would be great for her; completely agree with her current ones being redundant in that if you're in a good position to take them, you'd already have unlocked them anyway, but at least the desert bias gives you better-than-average odds of snagging the three camels. That's always an awkward one so I'll take any help with it I can get.

 

[tedhebert]

I hate Amina !!!

not as a leader to play... but I honestly get her as a direct neighbor in at least 75% of my games, and her +5 CS on plains and desert (which is usually over 50% of her tiles) is simply the most annoying one in the game, especially if you play Immortal as I do which gives her another +5... deathly

She's really ALWAAYS THERE in my games... grrrr

 

[MutilationWave]

I hate Amina !!!

not as a leader to play... but I honestly get her as a direct neighbor in at least 75% of my games, and her +5 CS on plains and desert (which is usually over 50% of her tiles) is simply the most annoying one in the game, especially if you play Immortal as I do which gives her another +5... deathly

She's really ALWAAYS THERE in my games... grrrr

Bit off topic here but revolutionary Napoleon is in every game I play, and always wars me. One time with a brilliant backstab as I was using open borders with him to send my army to fight Augustus. I rarely see Amina. It could be random chance, but at this point I don't think so. I wonder if there's a hidden system similar to leader experience that causes these rivalries.

 

[CliffCo]

Bit off topic here but revolutionary Napoleon is in every game I play, and always wars me. One time with a brilliant backstab as I was using open borders with him to send my army to fight Augustus. I rarely see Amina. It could be random chance, but at this point I don't think so. I wonder if there's a hidden system similar to leader experience that causes these rivalries.

Napoleon is one of my neighbors in my current game and he's been friendly so far, possibly because i have a strong army, or maybe because i'm only playing on sovereign.

 

[MutilationWave]

Napoleon is one of my neighbors in my current game and he's been friendly so far, possibly because i have a strong army, or maybe because i'm only playing on sovereign.

Watch your back!