Leader Discussion - Lakshmibai First Impressions

[disjointaccount]

The update is out, and with it, Lakshmibai, so it's time for a thread to discuss our initial thoughts.
Her leader ability is Rani of Jhansi, which is a three-parter:

• +50% Influence towards initiating the City-State - Incorporate Action
• When you incorporate a City-State, you gain all of their Units
• When one of your Land Military Units defeats an enemy Unit, gain Influence equal to 100% of the defeated Unit's Combat Strength

Her attributes are Militaristic and Diplomatic, giving her access to the Military Aid and Local Festival endeavors. Don't yet know what her triggers for attribute points are (keep an eye on this post).
She has no starting bias.
Playing as Lakshmibai unlocks Dai Viet (otherwise unlocked by having 3 settlements on tropical terrain) and Chola (otherwise unlocked by having 3 settlements with city centres adjacent to a non-lake coastal tile) in the Exploration Age, and Nepal (otherwise unlocked by having 3 settlements with at least 5 mountains each) and Mughal (otherwise unlocked by improving 3 Salt or having trade routes with at least 4 unique civs) in the Modern Age.
As an AI leader, her agenda is Eternal Glory: Increase Relationship by a Medium Amount with the leader that has the lowest Influence per turn. Decrease Relationship by Medium Amount with the leader that has the highest Influence per turn.

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

 

[disjointaccount]

I'm just booting up my first game with her now so I'll write up my thoughts afterwards, but this memento (her level 9) seems like a pretty strong one, particularly with certain synergies:

 

[Hellenism Salesman]

Please post the rest of her Mementos!

 

[disjointaccount]

Her level 2 is very solid as well

 

[MutilationWave]

The city state nerfs had to happen before they could release this diplomatic heavyweight.

 

[Lord Lakely]

I haven't played her yet but I have noticed City States have way more units now. It's actually wild.

The integration bonus she gets has to be good because of the free units.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I'm enjoying Lakshmibai so far. Her Influence per kill rate feels good. I've gone hunting for Independent People units, but I leave the villages alone. This has allowed me to begin befriending several of them.

 

[Navelgazer]

Loving Lakshmibai. She would have been way overpowered before the general city-state nerfs, honestly. Absorbing City States feels good and reasonably priced, and holy wow but do you get some military for doing so. I played her with Silla in Antiquity, which seemed to pair well (but I don't have much frame of reference for that, obviously.)

 

[uppi]

1. Equip Tecumseh's War Club memento (+1 combat strength per city state)
2. Play Greece
3. Befriend a few independent powers
4. Declare war on an AI
5. Kill their units with buffed Hoplites
6. Gain a lot of influence to befriend even more independent powers
7. Conquer the AI's cities with overpowered Hoplites
8. Generate more influence than you know what to do with
9. Don't integrate any city states, because you are over your settlement limit anyway

 

[Kmart_Elvis]

Played a bit with her, but it seems like the play is to: scout fast and find the IPs, attack hostile IPs and farm influence from their units, and ignore any endeavors thrown your way. I had a pretty bad start for her. No close IPs. Found a cool IP with Great Barrier Reef but another civ suzerained that first. Had close civs who offered endeavors, and it's hard to pass up those yields and peaceful coexistence. I'm a pretty peaceful city-building player, so this was all kind of going against my normal play. She seems like she plays similar to Tecumseh: ignore other civs and put all influence into IPs, at any cost. Tecumseh seems a bit better because you get all your tangible bonuses once suzerained; with her you have to go through the incorporation route on top of that.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Played a bit with her, but it seems like the play is to: scout fast and find the IPs, attack hostile IPs and farm influence from their units, and ignore any endeavors thrown your way. I had a pretty bad start for her. No close IPs. Found a cool IP with Great Barrier Reef but another civ suzerained that first. Had close civs who offered endeavors, and it's hard to pass up those yields and peaceful coexistence. I'm a pretty peaceful city-building player, so this was all kind of going against my normal play. She seems like she plays similar to Tecumseh: ignore other civs and put all influence into IPs, at any cost. Tecumseh seems a bit better because you get all your tangible bonuses once suzerained; with her you have to go through the incorporation route on top of that.

She feels like Civ 6 Hungary to me. Once you get a few city-states annexed, you have a lot of units and you can rampage through the other civs.

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

The update is out, and with it, Lakshmibai, so it's time for a thread to discuss our initial thoughts.
Her leader ability is Rani of Jhansi, which is a three-parter:

• +50% Influence towards initiating the City-State - Incorporate Action
• When you incorporate a City-State, you gain all of their Units
• When one of your Land Military Units defeats an enemy Unit, gain Influence equal to 100% of the defeated Unit's Combat Strength

Her attributes are Militaristic and Diplomatic, giving her access to the Military Aid and Local Festival endeavors. Don't yet know what her triggers for attribute points are (keep an eye on this post).
She has no starting bias.
Playing as Lakshmibai unlocks Dai Viet (otherwise unlocked by having 3 settlements on tropical terrain) and Chola (otherwise unlocked by having 3 settlements with city centres adjacent to a non-lake coastal tile) in the Exploration Age, and Nepal (otherwise unlocked by having 3 settlements with at least 5 mountains each) and Mughal (otherwise unlocked by improving 3 Salt or having trade routes with at least 4 unique civs) in the Modern Age.
As an AI leader, her agenda is Eternal Glory: Increase Relationship by a Medium Amount with the leader that has the lowest Influence per turn. Decrease Relationship by Medium Amount with the leader that has the highest Influence per turn.

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

How come this Maratha Queen leads Viets in 2nd Age? Vietnam has always been sinic. Not Indic.
She rules Chola in Age II is acceptable.
but Ruling Mughal. who's Maratha's enemy???????

And this because there's no Maratha as Age III Civ here.
Same as why there's Charlemagne (mis) matching with Normans (Who actually emerged quite after his reign. and frankly there's no Medieval France or Frankland.? Matching him with Roma in Age I is qutie acceptable because his title is also 'Emperor of Rome'.). And no William II who actually ruled Normandia and later, England.

 

[disjointaccount]

How come this Maratha Queen leads Viets in 2nd Age? Vietnam has always been sinic. Not Indic.
She rules Chola in Age II is acceptable.
but Ruling Mughal. who's Maratha's enemy???????

And this because there's no Maratha as Age III Civ here.
Same as why there's Charlemagne (mis) matching with Normans (Who actually emerged quite after his reign. and frankly there's no Medieval France or Frankland.? Matching him with Roma in Age I is qutie acceptable because his title is also 'Emperor of Rome'.). And no William II who actually ruled Normandia and later, England.

There are three categories of civ unlock in 7:
- Historic choice (this leader led this civ; eg. Augustus and Rome)
- Geographic choice (this leader lived in the same region as this civ, but a different area or time period; eg. Charlemagne and Normans)
- Strategic choice (regardless of any historical link - or lack thereof - between this leader and civ, their kits complement each other; eg. Genghis Khan and Assyria)

All of Lakshmibai's unlocks fall into the latter two categories. I don't think it's a perfect system, but they're not trying to say she personally led Mughal or anything.

 

[sonicmyst]

Another Indian leader but more fun than Gandhi.

 

[GeorgeF]

Wait until the IP has upgraded to L2 units and save a bunch of upgrade gold when you assimilate them.

 

[UWHabs]

Totally broken strategy:
Find a hostile IP, probably militaristic
Pay them to incite a raid on another civ
Wait a few turns. Pay them to incite a raid again
Befriend said state
Incorporate said state

I discovered too late, but in the end, for 4 raids, plus Suze and incorporate, so about 500 influence, I gained control of a new settlement alongside 4 commanders and about 20+ infantry units. I wonder how broken you can get with her.

 

[Leucarum]

She's fine. I like her inclusion. I don't think she's my playstyle. Her momentos are good though.

 

[pjotroos]

I discovered too late, but in the end, for 4 raids, plus Suze and incorporate, so about 500 influence, I gained control of a new settlement alongside 4 commanders and about 20+ infantry units. I wonder how broken you can get with her.

That's extremely cool; she already nudged me towards using incorporate more than I normally would, but I similarly rarely if ever use inciting. I enjoy leaders and civs that encourage and heavily reward niche play (rather than just being generically strong), and she fits that to a tee.

I didn't experiment enough with her, but still found her both strong and fun in my one playthrough. Went sorta-historical with Maurya, Chola, Nepal, so no obvious synergies, and both aspects of the ability still made a tangible difference - influence from kills gives you nice chunks if you just fight off hostile IPs, and it lets you overwhelm enemies with war support if you're in a full-blown war. And the cheaper incorporating came in a pinch a couple of times in antiquity, especially when it let me grab a few ships near an enemy city.

 

[UWHabs]

That's extremely cool; she already nudged me towards using incorporate more than I normally would, but I similarly rarely if ever use inciting. I enjoy leaders and civs that encourage and heavily reward niche play (rather than just being generically strong), and she fits that to a tee.

I didn't experiment enough with her, but still found her both strong and fun in my one playthrough. Went sorta-historical with Maurya, Chola, Nepal, so no obvious synergies, and both aspects of the ability still made a tangible difference - influence from kills gives you nice chunks if you just fight off hostile IPs, and it lets you overwhelm enemies with war support if you're in a full-blown war. And the cheaper incorporating came in a pinch a couple of times in antiquity, especially when it let me grab a few ships near an enemy city.

Yes, I think the influence gains from kills alone would be a solid bonus.

I think the incorporate itself is not fantastic, since often IP are in bad locations. But it's a pretty cheap price to get a potential bunch of units plus a town. Even if it just pulls in a couple resources and then you turn it into a cheap farming town or mining town, that's not bad at all, since it comes with the units.

 

[uppi]

Did anyone manage to trigger her quests? I made a full playthrough, but I don't think a single quest triggered.