The best leader

[mutax2003]

Twice with Caesar. I've won with other leaders as well, but not as consistently. I always play standard map with seven civs. Larger maps takes too long, smaller are unbalanced and I'm way too lazy to change the number of civs. I usually just play games with continents, standard size, immortal and random leader.

How did you win with Caesar? Was it domination or space race? Can you share with us your strategy for winning on immortal?

 

[Tinus]

Love Ghandi for chop rushing even a bit faster than the others (by having an extra movement point on their workers obviously). This extra movement point places the benefit right when you need it the most: in the early stages

 

[obsolete]

Strange, I did not think Bismark was such a poor leader. Getting wonders at half-price... with forge I thought was a big plus... and the expansionist trait I also thought would help as well.

 

[Gufnork]

I think I've won one Domination and one Space Race victory. I mostly win by Space Race, since it's the fastest victory.

Strategy for Caesar:

1. Get Iron Working quickly to make sure you have Iron nearby. Connect it, train Praetorians.

2. Conquer any nearby neighbours.

3. Consolidate your power, then pick a victory condition and head for it. You're the big man on campus so noone can do anything to you.

But really, I don't use any one strategy. The key to mastering cIV is flexibility. You have to be able to read the terrain, your opponents and any events that transpire. I have a few strategies that I utilize if the situation seems suitable (like religion monopoly or astronomy beeline), but generally I just make things up as I go.

 

[MRM]

1. Expansionist and industrial is never nice. It's probably the worst trait combo in the entire game. One is only good at low difficulty levels, and the other is only good at very high difficulty levels, so there's no situation where both can be good.

IMO it's not a bad combo on prince level - you can still build wonders like pyramids and on prince unhealthiness is allready an issue

 

[MikeH]

Elizabeth - good whether you want culture or science and starts with mining for the quick settler chop.

 

[Lord Sankra]

Elizabeth!!!

 

[petey]

I think the higher you get in difficulty level, the more valuable Expansionist becomes. Since the health limit is hit quicker at those levels, the trait comes into use sooner and allows you two extra population points than you would get with any other civ.

I like building Wonders, so I'm a fan of the Industrious trait, although it does become less and less useful as the levels rise, since the AIs are going to beat you to the Wonders since they can outresearch and outproduce you. Financial is always good and Organized allows you to conquer more territory with less micromanagment of how to do it.

Caesar is definitely the best, simply for the Praetorian rush. There's nothing out there that's as effective. Also, if you're playing him, you don't have to worry about Praets attacking your archers. His trait combo works well with conquering a lot of cities early - it costs less to maintain the expanded empire and your core cities have a couple more population in them to churn out units.

 

[Rameau's Nephew]

I'm on the Elizabeth bandwagon, but I voted for Qin, who is my runner-up.

 

[Aelion]

I think I've won one Domination and one Space Race victory. I mostly win by Space Race, since it's the fastest victory.

Strategy for Caesar:

1. Get Iron Working quickly to make sure you have Iron nearby. Connect it, train Praetorians.

2. Conquer any nearby neighbours.

3. Consolidate your power, then pick a victory condition and head for it. You're the big man on campus so noone can do anything to you.

This is basically my strategy every time I go up a level, after that first satisfying game where you beat a new level it just gets boring.

The problem with a Prat rush is that you end up steamrolling over your first enemy, and then you just have all those promoted units just sitting around...and you just can't bear to have allies nearby...

 

[Ozyman8]

I prefer combat in most games, so I like Montezuma.

Montezuma's consistent. He always gets combat bonuses as he's aggressive, and he always gets jaguars (swordsman) even when there's no iron around. That means I can pillage and war with him every time, and his spiritual trait allows rapidly switching between peace-time and war-time civics. Of course you will still need to find (or take!) iron eventually for later units.

From a warmongering perspective, Caesar's hit and miss. He has ultra-powerful praetorians (swordsman) that can decimate opponents... if you start near iron and near other civilizations. Then he has an easy win. Otherwise, he can still be a good leader, but you won't get any war bonuses.

 

[Zombie69]

IMO it's not a bad combo on prince level - you can still build wonders like pyramids and on prince unhealthiness is allready an issue

I would say this is not a situation where both traits are good. Prince level is a point at which neither trait is completely useless. However, there are much better traits at Prince level. Financial + anything is better than this combo even at Prince.

 

[obsolete]

Ok I see where some advantages come with Ceasar, but that is only so far as in his SPECIAL unit.

 

[Finite Monkey]

Elizabeth all the way baby! Fin/Phi makes the Culture/Science/Diplo path to victory great and I don't mind the Red Coat one bit.

 

[Roxtar]

I like Saladin best for peaceful games, Montezuma for warmongering.