Leader Discussion - Friedrich, Oblique

[disjointaccount]

Last thread's stronger counterpart - Friedrich, Oblique (or science Fritz, if you struggle with the persona names like me).
His leader ability is Berlin Academy, which is a two-parter:

• Commanders start with the Merit Commendation, giving them +1 Command Radius
• Gain an Infantry unit when you complete a Technology Mastery or construct a Science Building

His attributes are Scientific and Militaristic, giving him access to the Research Collaboration and Military Aid endeavors, along with events for attribute points upon reaching 10 population in a Settlement and discovering a Distant Lands continent (per this post).
He has no starting bias.
Playing as Friedrich unlocks Norman (otherwise unlocked by improving 3 Iron or having 5 tiles with Ancient Walls) and Spain (otherwise unlocked by recapturing a lost Settlement) in the Exploration Age, and Prussia (otherwise unlocked by improving 3 Nitre or having 3 Army Commanders) and France (otherwise unlocked by improving 3 Wine) in the Modern Age.
As an AI leader, his agenda is To Arms! - Decrease Relationship by a Medium Amount with the empire that has the least amount of units on the map. Increase Relationship by a Small Amount with the empire that has the most amount of Military Units on the map.

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

 

[disjointaccount]

He's definitely the stronger of the two Friedrichs, even if for no other reason than the science/conquest synergy is much more natural, but - and I think this might be a bit of a hot take - I don't think he's great either. Infantry spam is still just as bad here as it was on Baroque, and while the extra command radius is nice, I don't find it to be a game-defining buff. Mayve I'm just underutilising it when I do get it, but I don't have much difficulty waging war successfully while keeping my units within the normal radius, so Merit doesn't feel super necessary for me. Once you have some CS and other buffs, the capacity to spread out and control a wider front is nice, but I find it easy enough to conquer settlements without. If he had free promotions or bonus Commander XP or something to let you get the CS buffs quicker so that getting value out of Merit was a more defining part of his playstyle from earlier in the game, then I think I'd be a bigger fan.

 

[Navelgazer]

Yeah, science and conquest go together more naturally than culture and conquest, but here's the thing: Culture is more valuable overall. Also, Freddy B. is just fun in a way that Freddy O. just isn't, in my experience.

 

[Lord Lakely]

Oblique is the stronger Frederick. I finished ONE game on immortal and it was with him. It was so easy it made me believe I could play immortal in any set-up. I was wrong.

I had a Maya start, then took it to the Normans (which weirdly have tons of Synergy with the Mayan traditions) and then the French. I ended up with a SWARM of gardes impériales and pulled off a neat, clean domination victory about twenty turns after I had declared the war.

A LOT of the progress came from Freddy himself. Merit is an insane commendation to immediately have on your Commanders, and the free units are very good at intimidating the AI into leaving you alone.

I definitely value him highly. Lower A tier is where I would put him atm.

 

[disjointaccount]

Culture is more valuable overall

I don't necessarily disagree, but what I will say is that early science is particularly important to culture in 7 because the culture buildings are in the science tree, so even if culture is more important overall, it can be argued that science begets culture anyway. (Personally, I'd quite like to see culture buildings and maybe a few others moved to the civics tree, but that's probably a discussion for another thread)

 

[Calcifer]

If you select Friedrich while creating a game, he will whistle along the main theme that is playing in the background (works on both personas). That alone makes both personas S-tier in my opinion.