Leaderscreen Elimination Thread

[Enrico Swagolo]

Ashurbanipal - 22
Theodora - 10
Dido - 15
Harald Bluetooth - 19
William - 11
Pachacuti - 22
Gajah Mada - 20
Pacal - 21
Maria I - 13
Askia - 16
Enrico Dandolo - 22
Shaka - 16

-3 to Gajah Mada. What's he doin' half naked in that swamp of his, is he roleplaying Shrek or something?

(I know, I know)


+1 to Maria I to get her slightly closer to safety. Also, it means one more vote would be needed to kill her assuming nobody else would upvote her.

Also, I like her screen. Looks nice. She has amazing voice acting which really shows that her Voice Actress actually cared and was talented. I think if EZ-bella's voice actor was as good, she'd still be alive with 20-23 votes.

 

[truenarnian]

@Sagax: complete oposite of your vote, please dont take it as trolling.

As this list gets shorter and shorter, I'd guess this is going to happen more and more. Especially because we are all looking for different things in a "great" leaderscreen, and I think opposites will happen a lot (e.g. those who like indoor vs those who light outdoor, etc.).

 

[truenarnian]

I wish there was a way to add a poll into a message inside a thread. I'm curious at this point what people are looking for in a great leaderscreen: colors? animation? voice acting? setting? I know it's a combination, but the fact that Askia has lovers and haters, Shaka likewise, Dido likewise, makes me wonder how preferences break down.

 

[ehecatzin]

Well there are many things involved in a leaderscreen. I try to look at it as a working piece, its after all animated not just concept art. All the pieces must work to make the scene come to life, animation, lightning, composition, color, music. If one of them is particulary bad, it means, at least for me its not working as well as it could.

Tho one aspect that I dont see people bring out enough is contrast. "Boring" backgrounds or characters are not so as long as they create contrast in the scene, either by acting, or color scheme, etc. Gaja is a good example of contrast, the bg while being desaturated, does create ambience, and it really, really creates contrast to Gaja's cool design and color scheme. The BG actually makes him stand out, if he had boring animation it would be an overall dull scene, but he's actually one of the better animated leaders. Thats actually the reason I dont like Dido, she just blends completely with the BG, despite her teathrical animation, she still doesnt stand out.

 

[truenarnian]

Well there are many things involved in a leaderscreen. I try to look at...

Discussions like this are more interesting to me than the voting. It's funny how we all receive screens differently. To speed up the game on my computer, I often DO play with "stills" as leaderscreens, and only recently have I turned animations back on (in part to have better appreciation of what people in this discussion are articulating). I also usually have the volume low enough that the music has a smaller impact on my choices.

Your appreciation of Gajah makes good sense to me (I also rate him highly).

Out of curiosity, based on how you view screens, what's your take on Pocatello's? I rate him fairly high, but a lot found him boring. I'm curious how you saw that one.


Anyone in this thread who wasn't a fan of Kamehameha want to give some extended comments on what they didn't like?

Kamehemeha and Pocatello are both leaders I thought would last longer, and they went out near each other. But screens like Gajah's are still attracting votes, and I see those three screen similarly.

 

[Monado]

Ashurbanipal - 22
Theodora - 11
Dido - 15
Harald Bluetooth - 19
William - 11
Pachacuti - 22
Gajah Mada - 20
Pacal - 21
Maria I - 13
Askia - 16
Enrico Dandolo - 19
Shaka - 16

-3 Dandolo. I just find this screen to be drab. The dim lit buildings, night sky, and canal create a flat wash. Dandolo's brown robes just blend right into the back ground. Nothing about it is eye catching enough to draw my attention away from the trade window.

I would have preferred something based off of "Dandolo Preaching the Crusade" to make him look powerful instead of a lost old man wandering the canals.

+1 Theodora:

I like the combination of these famous artworks into one leader screen. I don't mind leaders that are sitting, as it kind of shows some ambivalence towards the guest.

 

[Lord Xavius]

Ashurbanipal - 22
Theodora - 11
Dido - 15
Harald Bluetooth - 19
William - 11
Pachacuti - 22
Gajah Mada - 21 (I'll keep defending Gajah until he's either winning or losing without chance of recovery. When I look at it I am impressed both by his personal badass attitude and the mystical beauty of his country.)
Pacal - 21
Maria I - 10 (It's not bad, I don't really hold a strong dislike towards any screen at this point, but I don't think she's special enough to stay much longer. A bit too uninteresting for the Top 10.)
Askia - 16
Enrico Dandolo - 19
Shaka - 16

I'll also give a non-vote gesture of support to Theodora. I hope she stays a while longer, I like her screen.

 

[cain3456]

Well, I'm voting down Gajah Mada. He looks like a rejected character from the Hobbit.
Gotta vote up Harald Bluetooth. Love those Vikings and am spending way too much time playing Skyrim.

 

[Talcove]

Well, I'm voting down Gajah Mada. He looks like a rejected character from the Hobbit.
Gotta vote up Harald Bluetooth. Love those Vikings and am spending way too much time playing Skyrim.

Ashurbanipal - 22
Theodora - 11
Dido - 15
Harald Bluetooth - 20 (Up by an extra one from Cain's vote)
William - 11
Pachacuti - 22
Gajah Mada - 15 (Down by an extra three from Cain's vote)
Pacal - 21
Maria I - 11
Askia - 16
Enrico Dandolo - 19
Shaka - 16

MARIA I
I'll keep on defending Maria up until the bitter end.

When I see Maria's, I see a multitude of great elements coming together to create a visually pleasing screen. The voice acting is charming, the composition is spot-on, the contrasts are eye-pleasing, the music fits the screen perfectly, the animations and monologue are nifty, and, best of all, all of this applies to all of her normal screen, war screen (That laugh at the end of her DoW, love it!), her victory, and her defeat. All of it just comes together so perfectly, and encapsulates the gameplay of the Civ so perfectly, that I cannot, in good conscience, vote for any other screen. It may not be the starry night sky that most CivFanatics drool over, but it is the best leaderscreen in the game.

GAJAH MADA
Some people may say that it's different form other random field leader, and it is, but only slightly. The only real separation it has from the other ones is that it has a building in the corner of the background, obscured by trees and fog. Other than that, it's just him standing shirtless in a foggy, gloomy field with some trees in the background. He's Napoleon without the horse.

Whether or not the field is supposed to grow rice really doesn't make a difference, it still looks like nothing more than an empty field.

 

[jlim201]

Ashurbanipal - 19- It is very boring to see a guy standing in a library in a very deep voice. Im not exactly one for historical accuracy, but wasnt he a guy who liked to fight wars?
Theodora - 11
Dido - 15
Harald Bluetooth - 20
William - 11
Pachacuti - 22
Gajah Mada - 15
Pacal - 21
Maria I - 11
Askia - 16
Enrico Dandolo - 20- One of the best screens here, night time, water and a beautiful city.
Shaka - 16

 

[SemperFi2382]

Ashurbanipal - 19
Theodora - 11
Dido - 15
Harald Bluetooth - 20
William - 11
Pachacuti - 22
Gajah Mada - 16
Pacal - 21
Maria I - 11
Askia - 16
Enrico Dandolo - 20
Shaka - 13

Up vote for Gajah Mada. I rather like the foggy jungle screen.
Down vote for Shaka. His screen is rather generic.

 

[truenarnian]

Down vote for Shaka.
Up vote for Gajah Mada

I respect your vote, but you need to provide rationale or your vote is not valid. Care to elaborate?

 

[ehecatzin]

Out of curiosity, based on how you view screens, what's your take on Pocatello's? I rate him fairly high, but a lot found him boring. I'm curious how you saw that one.

I also tought that Pocatello would last longer TBH, I up voted him right at the start, but was away for a wekeend and both he and Kame were dead.

I rather like Pocatello's leaderscreen, composition wise, its very well done, even more taking in account how much warm colors there are in the scene, Pocatello could have blended into the browns if it wasnt done right (like Dido on the blue bg) but there are a few interesting composition tricks that make him stand out, like making the stones he is sitting on, pinkish and desaturated to contrast with his more saturated color scheme (the blue details help too to contrast him). Also composition wise, every line and stone (even the shadows) leads the eye to Pocatello and keeps his silluete clean.

Animation wise, its good subtle animation, that I dont think many people appreciate, together with the music it creates a very nice ambience, one of my favorites, I would have liked him to last longer.

 

[poom3619]

It is such an entertaining discussion when we trying to find a reason to downvote a fairly good leaderscreen.

 

[Biologist]

Ashurbanipal - 19
Theodora - 11
Dido - 15
Harald Bluetooth - 20
William - 11
Pachacuti - 22
Gajah Mada - 16
Pacal - 21
Maria I - 8 Individual elements of Maria I's screen are very nice. Taken together, they are an anachronistic mess. A scepter more modern than the leader, ships from before her reign, a palace that seems to be located either in the wrong place or the wrong time period... Ramesses, Monty, and Atilla got downvoted for fewer and arguably less egregious accuracy errors.
Askia - 16
Enrico Dandolo - 20
Shaka - 14 I don't really feel like Shaka deserves to be falling this fast. His screen strikes a good balance between action and restrained menace.

 

[Teproc]

What was the accuracy problem with Ramesses, the language ? I find it really unpleasant (not that I have anything against Arabic, I actually like the sound of it, but it's so obviously wrong for Ramesses that it's annoying), but they did have a pretty tough problem with his language having no known pronunciation (AFAIK).

Ashurbanipal - 19
Theodora - 11 + 1 = 12
Dido - 15
Harald Bluetooth - 20
William - 11
Pachacuti - 22
Gajah Mada - 16
Pacal - 21
Maria I - 8 -3 = 5
Askia - 16
Enrico Dandolo - 20
Shaka - 14

Maria has a nice overall screen, and I like the voice actress a lot, but the competition is really tough, I don't like the ships at all, and there are anachronisms.

Theodora is one of the best screens in the game IMO. The Hagia Sofia in the background, the attitude. It's funny because I hate that she's in the game tbh : I'm fine with prioritizing female leaders when it's close (Boudicca versus Brennus, Dido versus Hannibal), but Theodora over Justinian is just absurd. But I love her voice and she does reflect that eastern quality to the Byzantine Empire. Some complain that she's too alluring for a leader, but she was initially a prositute, so it makes sense to me.

 

[Derpy Hooves]

Ashurbanipal - 19
Theodora - 12
Dido - 15
Harald Bluetooth - 20
William - 12
Pachacuti - 22
Gajah Mada - 16
Pacal - 21
Maria I - 5
Askia - 16
Enrico Dandolo - 20
Shaka - 11

Shaka down, the guy looks like a barbarian idiot, unimpressive civilization, unimpressive leaderscreen, the only thing the guys got going for him is being very strong ingame and colonial british propaganda.
Monty was a good example of a effective warmonger leaderscreen, but ofcourse you idiots voted him out already.

Moderator Action: Calling others "idiots" is trolling. Please do not troll in the forums.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

William, the pant's, the lighting, the room, what's not to like?

 

[NameUndisclosed]

truenarnian missed Teproc's last vote. Corrected the scores to what they should be at this point.

Actually, he seems to have put in the upvote, but not the downvote, so now Shaka has an extra point.

Ashurbanipal - 19
Theodora - 13 - I really like this screen. Sure, it makes Theodora seem lazy and unprofessional, but I enjoy everything else about the screen - the view of Constantinople, the music, and the Hagia Sophia in the background all come together to make an altogether pleasant screen.
Dido - 12
Harald Bluetooth - 20
William - 9 - I can appreciate this screen's nods to the Dutch masters, and I admittedly love the music - and who can forget those pants? But despite these, this screen just doesn't do much for me. It doesn't possess the same majesty for me as the other screens on the list, and so I must give it my downvote.
Pachacuti - 22
Gajah Mada - 16
Pacal - 21
Maria I - 5
Askia - 16
Enrico Dandolo - 20
Shaka - 10 - Corrected.

 

[Josh123914]

Ashurbanipal - 19
Theodora - 13
Dido - 12
Harald Bluetooth - 20
William - 9
Pachacuti - 22
Gajah Mada - 16
Pacal - 21
Maria I - 6 Going to try and salvage Maria, but I think it may be too late. Others have stated their reasons for liking / hating it and I'll just state that while it may not be the best leaderscreen, there are some on this list that still should go before it.
[COLOR=''Red'']Askia - 13[/COLOR] - Nothing against you Askia, but I find it hard to believe that the Mosque of Djenne had been burning like that the ENTIRE time.
Enrico Dandolo - 20
Shaka - 10

 

[reddishrecue]

Ashurbanipal - 19
Theodora - 12
Dido - 15
Harald Bluetooth - 20
William - 11
Pachacuti - 22 - 2 = 20 it seems like he got caught trying to copy pacal. Similar background as pacal.
Gajah Mada - 16
Pacal - 21
Maria I - 5 +2 =7 I did this because she is well dressed, has nice hair and the background is nice.
Askia - 16
Enrico Dandolo - 20
Shaka - 14