My Thoughts on the Various Leader Traits

[fornost]

I think that the financial trait is quite overrated, and no better than any of the other traits. Yes, by the end game, it is obviously the most lucrative trait of the 8, but in the early game, it can cripple your productivity by forcing you to spam cottages to make this trait successful... meanwhile an aggressive civ that is concentrating on unit production rather than science is knocking on your door and pillaging all of your towns which is giving them gold and helping their science. I know it does fit very well with some peoples playing styles, but i wouldnt say that it is the be all and end all best trait.

Agressive is also great because its #1 strength bonus doesnt count as experience points, so each next next promotion is cheaper than it would normally be. You can also go with the cover promotion first instead of city raider, which gives you a slight advantage - especially on single player where the ai seems to spam archery units, and even use them to attack and pillage.

 

[philnelson]

There's a lot of good discussion here. You guys should post some of these ideas to the strategy section of the Civ4 Wiki

 

[Darkgreen]

Ya know, many of you folks that have responded to my original post need to read a little more carefuly. You respond in a way that you seem to think that I am rating the traits individualy which I thought I clearly laid out that I am not doing that. I am rating how well certain combinations of traits work together.

 

[fornost]

Sorry, i realize that now. For some reason, i've actually found that trait combinations that don't look like they would mesh well actually work best for me. Alexanders philisophical and agressive, as well as mao's philisophical and organized have worked very well for me. Perhaps this is because, though they do not work with eachother, work in different areas to create a more flexible civ. Also, i've found that great people can act as decent crutches to your economy, gaining techs this way instead of high science funding. This, coupled with the aggressive trait, actually mesh's decently, because supporting a large military and empire can hugely hamper your science funding in the early game.