Leader Discussion - Trung Trac

[disjointaccount]

Continuing through the home stretch (which is slightly longer than anticipated thanks to our incoming nautical additions), we have Trung Trac.
Her leader ability is Hai Bà Trưng, which is a three-parter:

• Gain a unique Commander, Trung Nhi, after the first Land Military Unit of the Age is produced (details of her unique attributes are below, inside the spoiler tag because it's kinda lengthy)
• Your Commanders gain +20% experience
• +10% Science in Cities on Tropical tiles; this bonus is doubled during any Formal War you declare

Her attributes are Militaristic and Scientific, giving her access to the Military Aid and Research Collaboration endeavors, along with events for attribute points upon meeting an Independent Power and researching Astronomy (per this post).
She has starting biases for tropical and vegetated terrain.
Playing as Trung Trac unlocks Chola (otherwise unlocked by having 3 settlements whose city centres are adjacent to non-lake coastal tiles), Majapahit (otherwise unlocked by improving 3 Pearls or having 3 naval trade routes), and Vietnam (otherwise unlocked by having 3 settlements in tropical terrain) in the Exploration Age, and Siam (otherwise unlocked by having 4 Teamples or improving 3 Ivory) and Meiji Japan (otherwise unlocked by improving 3 Tea) in the Modern Age.
As an AI leader, her agenda is Van Minh - Decrease Relationship by Medium Amount with the player who has the greatest amount of promotions across all Commanders. If tied, Decrease Relationship a Small Amount with tie holders. Increase Relationship by Medium Amount with the player who has the least amount of promotions across all Commanders. If tied, Increase Relationship a Small Amount with tie holders.

Trung Nhi has the following attributes which differentiate her from regular Commanders:

Spoiler Trung Nhi :

• Faster respawn
• Starts with the heroic assault command
• Unique promotion tree, which replaces the Leadership tree:
  • Jungle Warfare:
    • Tier I
    • +5 Combat Strength for Land Units within the Command Radius in Tropical terrain
    • +3 damage for Heroic Assault
  • Mettle and Courage:
    • Tier II
    • +5 Combat Strength for Land Units within the Command Radius when in friendly Terrain
      +3 damage for Heroic Assault
  • Lạc Rebellion:
    • Tier II
    • +3 Combat Strength for Land Units within the Command Radius when there are at least 2 enemy Units
    • +3 damage for Heroic Assault
  • Hai Bà Trung:
    • Tier III
    • +5 Combat Strength for this Commander when defending
    • +3 damage for Heroic Assault
  • 65 Strongholds:
    • Tier III
    • +5 Combat Strength against Fortified Districts for Land Units in the Command Radius
    • +3 damage for Heroic Assault
  • One Single City:
    • Tier IV
    • +5 Combat Strength with Coordinated Attack and Focus Fire
    • +10 damage for Heroic Assault
  • Sisters Unite:
    • Commendation
    • +30 damage for Heroic Assault

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

 

[disjointaccount]

Trung Trac is probably my favourite leader in the game. That was the case even before Trung Nhi, but that change only made me like her more. Tropical starts tee you up wonderfully for Mundo Perdido, which synergises excellently with her science boons, and the rest of her kit going into aggression fits my playstyle very nicely. The science at war is reminiscent of Civ 6's Bannockburn, one of my favourite abilities in that game (though I was always a bit biased towards Scotland).

It all just makes for a very nice feedback look of becoming stronger, unlocking better units to do more conquest, and then getting even more science from that conquest. She's not the best leader in the game or anything, but her kit meshes very nicely for how I like to play, and she can be a force to be reckoned with when paired with the right civs.

As for Trung Nhi, she's fantastic. It's the sort of unique-feeling thing I hope more civs/leaders get going forward. There aren't any hugely unique upgrades - it's mostly just CS - but having a commander who's got serious damage potential in their own right is fun, and at full strength she can just absolutely demolish whatever you throw her at. And I'm glad she brings back some notion of the very thematically appropriate "don't invade Vietnam in the jungle or you'll regret it" from 6.

 

[Siptah]

She‘s the leader that I played the most and the first one I maxed out. She‘s the best choice for winning the game in antiquity (which took me a few trials), but also to complete all the commander-related challenges (which also took a few games).

I‘m not often going all out war through the entire game, but with her (and her level 20+ commanders), it can be quite fun.

 

[Leucarum]

I do like her... I think I prefer Ibn Battuta and Xerxes to her... But she might be my 3rd favourite.

That said I think I preferred her ability before Trung Nhi. I like the combination of science and ability to get a warfare boost more than her army commander subtheme, and the flexibility was more interesting to me than her sister... I should just mod that back in thinking about it...

 

[vorlon_mi]

A tiny correction: the name of her agenda is "Van Minh", not Suzerain of the World. That was (likely) a copy-paste error from Tecumseh. You've described it accurately. I've played one game with her, enjoying it. Since I always work to promote my commanders, when she is one of my opponents, she ends up perma-hating me.

 

[disjointaccount]

A tiny correction: the name of her agenda is "Van Minh", not Suzerain of the World. That was (likely) a copy-paste error from Tecumseh.

Whoops, my bad. Edited, cheers!

 

[pjotroos]

I thought she's okay - very strong when all the dominoes fall the right way - but she's also extremely specialised. You need to be at war, you need to start it after AI gets to hated, but before they declare on you, and you want to keep both your fighting and your settling in the tropics. Strong when it works, but lacks the versality of some of the other strong leaders. Fun for a game or two, but not someone I'd keep going back to.

 

[disjointaccount]

Inspired by this thread, I had a crack at a game I'd been meaning to try for a while:

Hai Bà Trưng + Terracotta Army + Art of War + Lion Capital + the relevant military city-state buff in each age. Opted to go Assyria instead of Greece to just get a better leg up on conquest off the bat, but in hindsight I think Strategoi would have been more worthwhile. Took a lot of fighting, but was good fun. Past a certain point, units in Trung Nhi's radius were just invincible. Cemented the fact for me that Commanders and the general improvements to war are one of the best things about VII.