Poll: Leader

[Irgy]

Hope I'm not overstepping my authority or anything by setting this up, but now that it's been officially decided that the leaders are indeed restricted it would appear to be worthwhile having a leaders poll.

I've added in most of the leaders that have pairs of the top polled traits, starting with the financial ones of course, plus a few others that people have mentioned. Here's a review of the ones I listed:

Willem - Fin/Cre
Fishing, Agriculture.
UU is the East Indiaman, has a lot of clever uses but still a non-military naval unit. UB is the much loved Dike.

Elizabeth - Fin/Phi
Fishing, Mining
UU Redcoat is excellent, and also comes in at just about the right time. UB is good for $ rush but otherwise comes quite late.

Huayana - Fin/Ind
Agriculture, Mysticism
UU is not likely to be useful, but helps against barbs early on at least. UB will save us needing to build monuments. If we want a more religeous and wonder based strategy then he's a good option.

Hannibal - Fin/Cha
Fishing, Mining
UU Numidian Cavalry is probably going to be somewhat useless in this game. UB Cothon is decent and will give a nice economy bonus.

Darius - Fin/Org
Agriculture, Hunting
Well known economic powerhouse. Hunting is not so good if huts are off, which is looking likely. UU is probably too early, I can't imagine we'll successfully immortal rush anyone, although again it should help against barbs. UB gives more health in the late game which is kind of nice.

Mansa Musa - Fin/Spi
Mining, The Wheel
UU Skirmisher is excellent for early defense. UB Mint gives a bit of a gold bonus, which is always handy.

Louis XIV - Cre/Ind
De Gaulle - Cha/Ind
Agriculture, The Wheel
UU Musketeer, a powerful unit if sometimes in era that's a little short lived. UB Salon gives a free artist, I can't imagine what we'd really do with that.

Pericles - Cre/Phi
Fishing, Hunting
Potentially useless techs if we're landlocked with no barbs. UU is great but quite early. UB mostly just gives more culture, probably not that useful.

Lincoln - Cha/Phi
Agriculture, Fishing
UU and UB both good but extremely late.

Augustus - Imp/Ind
Fishing, Mining
UU is everyone's favourite Praetorians. UB gives us a few extra GPP from all those wonders we could build if we weren't too busy kicking everyone in the pants with praets.

Ragnar - Fin/Agg
Fishing, Hunting
Again not so good techs. UU allows medieval coastal raids, and UB gives more coastal movement. Great if we want to launch a sea war, but narrow otherwise.

 

[Irgy]

Oh by the way, I made it multiple votes so that people who are indecisive can pick more than one - it's basically (imho) a strictly better voting system than having to pick just one, as you can pick the preference point where you have the strongest opinion. As Lord Parkin has suggested we may need a runoff between the top candidates anyway.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Thanks for the effort Irgy.

I put a vote in for all of the Financial leaders, although Willem is tending towards being my favourite. The only other one I would put in a vote for as well is Vicky, because I'm betting fast Settlers will be quite useful on this map. Pacal could also be quite good (fast Workers).

 

[azzaman333]

Hatty Hatty Hatty Hatty Hatty.

 

[HUSch]

I like Pacal.

 

[BLubmuz]

Darius. Never too soon for an immortal rush.
Having stone or marble and a big land surpasses the industrious trait.

Creative is one of the most useless traits, unless you go for a cultural VC.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Creative has no use for a cultural victory. It's very useful in the early game for popping city borders. Means you don't have to worry about waiting 20-30 turns for a Monument to build and then to get the 10 culture to get all the resources. So considerable production saved there. Also it means that tiles are unfogged quicker, so less spawnbusting is needed against barbarians.

Sure, it's possibly not one of the strongest traits out there, but it's not bad. And getting access to the Dike in the mid-game is absolutely great.

 

[BLubmuz]

Points of view.
I usually run CS, so i use artist to pop borders.
If we manage SH Creative is even useless.

The Dike is nice, but comes in the late game.

How can you define Steam Power in mid game?

 

[Lord Parkin]

Creative removes the need to bother with the risk of Stonehenge. Caste System doesn't come into play until the mid-game unless you get the Oracle (which is, again, a risk). Essentially the Creative trait removes the need for risks so you can concentrate on expansion - which is what you should be doing in the early game.

You have a point that Steam Power is fairly late in the game, but the last game easily got to that stage, and the benefits of Dikes would have been huge in determining the winner (if others had had them).

 

[Lord Parkin]

Also, I'd suggest if we want to risk Stonehenge/Oracle/Pyramids or really any early game wonders, we should go with Huayna Capac. He also happens to have a very useful UB that, again, removes much of the need for Monuments.

 

[azzaman333]

Points of view.
I usually run CS, so i use artist to pop borders.
If we manage SH Creative is even useless.

The Dike is nice, but comes in the late game.

How can you define Steam Power in mid game?

I'd rather be creative and whip than not creative and use CS.

 

[AlphaShard]

Even with whipping it still takes precious turns to get you city to Pop 2 to whip out the Monument which will only then give you +1 Cre. I agree with Lord Parkins assessment it's not the most powerful but it's not the most useless either. Besides even with culture victories it will help, as far as I am concerned every extra point ALWAYS helps. Whether it's just one more Commerce or Culture point.

 

[azzaman333]

Creative is in no way useful for a cultural victory. It's useful for occupying more land, faster, and forcing your neighbours to compensate for your rapidly expanding borders. And cheap libraries.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Creative is in no way useful for a cultural victory. It's useful for occupying more land, faster, and forcing your neighbours to compensate for your rapidly expanding borders. And cheap libraries.

This. I agree completely. Creative isn't useful for a cultural victory, and anyway a game like this will never be won by culture. Everyone else will rush your capital long before that. However, Creative is very useful for gaining a leg up on your neighbours and expanding faster in the early game.

 

[Methos]

I voted Williem, Liz, and Darius. I'm more into the economical side.

 

[hell_hound]

I do quite like Zara as a leader too.

 

[Trystero]

I voted for all of the Fin leaders, except HC. A wonders-based strategy seems kind of risky, but I could be persuaded otherwise. My preferences would be Willem or Elizabeth.

 

[fed1943]

William, Darius, Mansa, Gandhi.

 

[Trystero]

It looks like we are trending toward Willem. We have until April 1st to decide.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Looks like Willem might be quite a decent pick too, based on the map preferences of the teams. With 4/6 teams voting for some sort of continents or archipelago setting as their highest preference (or highest after "Mapmaker's Choice"), one would hope that's what this map will tend towards.

Map Vote

Mavericks
1. Archipelago/Snaky Continents
1. Global Highlands
3. Wheel

AMAZON
1. Mapmaker's Choice
2. Snaky Continents
3. Global Highlands

Sirius
- Standard or larger map, sea level adjusted accordingly for six teams
- Contact between all teams should be possible via land or coast, but NOT ocean
- Our preference is in the direction of a continents/islands setup rather than pangaea
- We think it would be a good idea to have at least some initially uninhabited islands (something the last map lacked)
- Overall though we vote for the mapmaker's choice as to the layout

CDZ
1. Donut
2. Wheel
3. Mapmaker's Choice

Merlot
1. All civs will have land contact with each other.
2. All civs will have roughly equal land quality
3. All civs will have roughly equal land quantity
4. All civs will have roughly equal distance from each other
5. All civs will have either coastal or non coastal starts (all or none)

Quatronia
1. Mapmaker's choice
2. Archipelago/Snaky Continents
3. Donut

Based on these results, I will be designing a custom mystery map for the Demogame. I already have several ideas about what to do, thanks to great suggestions from several of the teams.