Leader Uses

[The Almighty dF]

I thought this could be interesting, since I've never really seen a thread for the leaders themselves. Only threads going over the best way to use UUs, UBs, etc.
So.
Take any leaders and briefly sum up what you think they are best at, how to generally use them, etc.
From that, hopefully we can form some sort of consensus and take the agreed upon strategies and make a sort of "Beginner's Guide To Leaders". This is going by standard difficulty, since anything below that requires very little strategy and anything above that requires any entirely new style of strategy all together.

I'll start us off.

Elizabeth of England: The ultimate Space Race leader. For her, run a hybrid economy and focus on out-teching the other civs by any means necessary. Her financial trait already puts her in a tech lead, and with the GS's you'll be getting your hands on while running a hybrid economy, you'll be sure to out-tech almost anyone besides Wang.
I'd also strongly recommend getting to Longbowmen as fast as possible, since all the teching you'll be doing will make you a prime target.

Ragnar of the Vikings: To me, Ragnar is one of the easiest characters to get a domination win with. His financial trait means that you don't have to worry about the economy as much while you expand, but also means that he'll have a slight tech advantage as well. On top of this he has aggressive, which is great for early war.
As if this wasn't enough, the Viking UU is almost undefeatable once it comes out, so I'd strongly recommend beelining for them.

Gandhi of India: Probably the most obvious, and the earliest one we'll reach a consensus on. Gandhi is -the- cultural victory character. Early access to religious techs (starts with Mysticism), philosophical for a specialist economy boost, and spiritual means you can quickly switch to a defensive civic if you need to (because we all know that those top three cities will be constantly under attack.)

I wanna come up with one for Capac but... I just can't. He almost seems like he's the perfect "any which way" leader. His -granaries- producer culture, he has a boost towards world wonders and forges, he starts off with Mysticism, his UU is his first unit, -and- he has the financial trait?
Due to this, whenever I get a friend into Civ4, I get them to start off with him.

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

Here's a few I can think of:

Hannibal-Ultimate Trade Route Economy. Financial equals 3 commerce on all the water tiles you will have to work to get intercontinental trade going. The Cothon gives an extra trade route. The extra happiness from charismatic makes your cities bigger, for better trade route income. Build GLH, get currency, and settle a bunch of coastal cities with a cothon.

Shaka-REX through War Specialist? The Ikhanda is a mini-courthouse, so you can conceivable have more cities earlier. Aggressive gives your troops combat...so you can take more cities. Expansive is great so you can get out workers faster, to build roads to the next target. And, the extra health helps as you will probably be chopping out troops.

Ramsses-Great for Wonderspam/Wonder Economy. My preferred choice for OCC as well. Spiritual is great as you can flip in and out of organized religion and pacifism depending on your situation. You can also flip in and out of slavery/caste/and even serfdom if need be, which can all help with this style of play.

Well those are some of my favorites lets see what others come up with.

 

[Tacgnol]

Darius: Start out with an Immortal rush, keep on rushing until your enemies get pikes. And meanwhile, have no financial problems maintaining your ever-growing empire, and extra health from your UB to boot. Once you've taken the land you need, just sit back and try to spend all the gold you make.

 

[ppciv4]

Joao II(Exp&Imp): chop out 8 cities, 14 workers, 8 warriors, 4 archers in 1000BC.
then kill anything around with catapult&axe.

PS: financial is week except a finely positioned Bureaucracy capital. Imp can get commerce resource, Exp can get a mass of early cottage, which are much better.

 

[ppciv4]

Joao II(Exp&Imp): chop out 8 cities, 14 workers, 8 warriors, 4 archers in 1000BC.
then kill anything around with catapult&axe.

PS: financial is week except a finely positioned Bureaucracy capital. Imp can get commerce resource near another capital, Exp can get a mass of early cottage, which are much better.

 

[Iranon]

Peter: maintain a strong specialist economy throughout the game. PHI gets you started, and the health bonus will become quite relevant in the late game with your ridiculously inflated city sizes. Having 2 free scientists from your UB (which is quite 'beelinable') ensures Representation will remain an attractive civic anyway.

Isabelle: Plan for some mayhem in the Renaissance era were you dominate warfare because you have superior siege units and speedy all-purpose units that can attack, defend, flank and wtfpwn obsolete armies with equal alacrity.
Enjoy the unusual tech path and economy (emphasis on castles, no economics!).

Asoka: Opportunist and desperado. Many high-upkeep civics are useful for a limited time - especially for all-out warfare or preparation thereof. You can get in and out of them for free - synergy!
Your traits are also very good for recovering a strained economy, so don't be shy.

Montezuma: Another leader who doesn't seem to have that much in the way of raw power but can pull advantages out of thin air. Jaguars are excellent tactical units: AIs always underestimate your mobility, leading to easy pillaging, worker stealing and ocasionally a free city wher the AI neglected to whip defenders. You can also whip reasonable attacking units in cities yet unconnected to the trade network and you have an unlimited supply of backup healers for secondary stacks.
Regarding the economy... whip until your hands bleed. Cottages are for suckers, you want food for more whips! Biology and the Kremlin allow utter ridiculousness in the late game.

***

Another comment about Elizabeth: Peacefully teching to Rifling, then going medieval on the AIs with Renaissance units is even stronger for her. They can't equalise with their own Rifles or Grenadiers, and they don't seem to know they need cannons to stop you. Good times all around.

 

[Ian Kognitow]

Louis: Culture wins primarily via wonders.
Creative complements Industrious well by allowing easier access to potential building resources and trees to chop from natural border expansion. I've routinely found that if one has access to either marble or stone in first two cities, between that and liberal chopping it is often possible to get virtually every ancient wonder with Louis up to Monarch-level (maybe losing ToA or GLH since AI seems to prioritize them more than others). Also, in addition to the culture bonus for creative, each UB-Salon adds a free artist. Split the ancient (and subsequent) wonders among the first two cities, then give Hermitage, Great Artists, and first Cathedrals to the third and it's quite easy to coast to culture victory. Throw in any of the culture producing corps (the wonders will of course help spit out appropriate GP for them) and it can be too easy.

 

[vicawoo]

Julius Caesar: kill everyone
Boudica: kill everyone

 

[TM Moot]

My favs:

Huyana Capac - Hemispheres.
Take control of your continent with your Quechas. Wonder build to a Cultural/Space Victory. Beeline Optics, Astronomy and Privateers to control the oceans and hamper the land locked AI.

Darius - Pangea / Big and Small.
REX, Invade, Assimilate your way to a Domination Victory.

Willem - Archipeligo.
Peacefully expand. Beeline Optics & Astronmy. Expand some more. Build Dikes everywhere. Out produce the AI to Space.

Ramessess - Fractual.
Wonder build and Priest Economy.

 

[Skallagrimson]

Cyrus, with Great Wall. Horses horses horses, and whoever's closest to Engineering gets vasselized next.

Less optimal on Continents than Pangea obviously.

 

[ppciv4]

khmer (Exp&Cre)

Exp: 1.whip granny early.
2.chop everything and no worry about health.
3. chop three workers at starting.

Cre: 1. skip mysticism at starting.
2. can attack an capital just 1 turn after declearing war.
3. at least nine turns earlier to be able to work on the second ring.
4. bigger radius mean more forest to chop, even others.
5. whip libeary.

he's strong...

 

[Gwynnja]

Julius Caesar: kill everyone
Boudica: kill everyone

That's usually how I play any leader

 

[bippukt]

Charlemagne - Build the GW, REX like mad, build Rathaus everywhere (-75% maintenance!!!) and when somebody attacks you (it will happen, trust me), your landsneckht will murder them within your cultural borders and you will get loads of GGs. Settle them in your production city and get 15-17 XP cities for free.

Not the most interesting or powerful play-style, but once in a while it can be fun.

 

[macmert]

Mehmed II : I dont know about you but I like his +2 health bonus and x2 speed of granary, which helps my city pop goes up faster... also 50% civic upkeep reduction is also a nice bonus so you may save a few bucks... a little expansion and a little whipping can make your day...

 

[vicawoo]

Mehmed II : I dont know about you but I like his +2 health bonus and x2 speed of granary, which helps my city pop goes up faster... also 50% civic upkeep reduction is also a nice bonus so you may save a few bucks... a little expansion and a little whipping can make your day...

After reading the battle of the sexes, er, financial vs organized article, I thought about which leader could best take advantage of the organized trait. So you want a high number of cities, high population, and then go on a organized religion building spree. I figured mehmed was the best at this.

His unique building, a +2 happiness aqueduct, is wonderful for this horizontal to vertical growth upkeep nightmare. It was actually viable to go mathematics for happiness as opposed to hereditary rule, and of course it's right along the way to catapults. You can even go hanging gardens, which is a big boost to an aggressive REX.

That +2 happiness is better for your economy than a library, sans specialists.

 

[Agramon]

Ghandi: SE+warmongering, a waste to play him peaceful ;-)
Mansa: the same with CE

 

[Khan Quest]

Pacal: Build amphibious ballista elephants and rule the seas.

 

[jollycynic]

ive been trying to leverage alex lately. agg for obvious reasons, phi to amp up production of GPs and burn the GPs for techs, allowing me to drop beakers% pretty low so that conquest and army support/upgrades dont bankrupt me or leave me in the stone age.

 

[Jrrd Tzu]

I like these threads. Keep them coming!

 

[ahmedhadzi]

Ghandi: SE+warmongering, a waste to play him peaceful ;-)

Could not agree more, specalist economy is so easy to maintain. You don't have to wait for cottages, just build farm and then, whip and specalize. Atack, build some more farms with those fast workers.

Repeat until the end.

That doesn't sounds fun? Well it is!