This is a good a place as any for me to say that I'm playing as Darius I for the first time in what must be at least a year, and that Financial/Organized should probably be outlawed, or at least not paired with such nice Uniques.
Dear lord, I play random leader/random map script, so I had no idea that I was going to draw Darius. I also had no idea that I was going to be dropped right in the bottom middle of a Pangaea. I got me a nice capital on a flood plain rich river covered area. Second city secured horses. Third secured elephants. (The elephants seemed important, because Augie was directly to my WSW, and I wanted something to smack around Praets, should the need arise.) After city three, off I went to the east to kick Mayan butt off the map. I went for construction quickly, since a couple catapults would be all I need to deal with his UU until I could capture his copper city. Once he was dead, and HBR was completed (all of the research was powered by a floodplain rich capital and cottages with the FIN bonus), I started one city on Elephant duty and just send the troops north to wipe out the Incan civilization. By 500 AD, I control the entire center of the map, and ran science at 20% with a couple scientists allowing me to research moderately well towards CoL. Once CoL is done, I started whipping out the half price courthouses and by 650AD, the slider's up to 40% with only half of the cities owning a courthouse or even contributing anything at all.
FIN/ORG let me run wild in a way that I can only describe as the way you can spam like crazy on a water map if you build the GLH as soon as possible. The only difference is that with FIN/ORG, my city spam came at the expense of other civs.
The only question for me now is do I call off the dogs, replace all that jungle with cottages and build some markets/forges/apothecaries for a while, setting up a Cannons/Rifles/Cavalry vs. Longbows endgame, or do I just keep pushing and declare some tactical wars against severely out-matched Sally and Charlie while my workers go crazy.
It's often said that Darius I is one of the best leaders in the game. Conquest, Domination, Space Race, Diplomacy, Culture, doesn't matter what victory you go for with Darius. Because of this he tends to hold more options for you early on, and along with his good unique unit and building, he can be seen as a little OP.
Kind of on the opposite side of leaders like Tokugawa, who is much more limited and can't hold up a good early game nearly as frequently. Ironically, the first time I won Monarch difficulty was with Tokugawa.
You had a good starting location and viable resources. Regardless, FIN/ORG is without a doubt, one of the strongest trait combos in the game.
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People complain that IND/PHI and CRE/CHM are OP, but it can also be argued that FIN/ORG (Darius I) and AGG/CHM (Boudica) are similarly the same in that respect.
FIN/ORG lets you run away with teching and managing a strong empire, while AGG/CHM gives you a bit more leeway in becoming a successful warmonger. Definitely two things to think about.
IND/PHI would definitely abuse the game on early difficulty levels. Since the AI is so bad at getting wonders, you may just as well get all the wonders in the game while cranking out GP at alarming rates.
(A 12-turn GA with National Epic and Pacifism along with the PHI trait, a big blowout to generating GP. Should the AI not crank out too many GP, you're running away in both culture and GP)
On medium difficulties (Noble through Monarch), you can still manage to pull off a strong early going with IND/PHI, although the AI has a much better chance of being in competition against you.
On higher difficulties (Emperor to Deity), you might as well consider IND/PHI to be on the same level as CRE/ORG, IND/ORG, IMP/IND, ORG/IMP, and the like. More likely that the AI will get more wonders and just as many if not more GP than you do. Still, despite that, IND/PHI is a solid combination, and in my opinion, about as good as FIN/ORG.
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CRE/CHM is a good combination. I don't see it as being too game-breaking like FIN/ORG, but CRE/CHM can really hold up on it's own.
It's very tempting to try out Domination victories with the CRE/CHM trait combo. Capturing cities with the +2 culture bonus really makes a difference, you don't need to whip out Monuments. The +1 Happiness from Charismatic alone along with the +1 Happiness from Monument helps to keep your cities from turning unhappy. War unhappiness sucks, and a happiness boost from Charismatic is always welcome. Plus, with Creative, you can claim land faster than you would otherwise, making Domination a tempting path to go for.
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ORG/PRO is well, pretty average in my opinion. Certainly not a bottom-of-the-barrel trait combo, but definitely not a top notch trait combo either. Particularly because Protective is such a weak trait to have. Most of the time, you're going to want to go offensive with your troops to conquer enemy AIs/players, not so much trying to defend.
The bonuses gained with Protective aren't enough to consider them worthwhile. Walls and Castles obsolete with Rifling and Economics respectively, and as long as your opponent has siege weapons, City Garrison I and Drill I are barely going to make a difference in the outcome of the combat odds. The City defense bonuses that are gained through Walls, Castles and the Chichen Itza wonder only give the AI more time to breach through them. Really not that useful.
Only in a few games out of the several many I've played where I found Protective to help me. Otherwise it cannot be considered to be thrust with the likes of Financial, Organized, Creative and Industrious.
Despite the criticisms involving Protective, I'm surprised to see that Firaxis never got around to the PRO/ORG trait combination. Since BTS was released, I always felt that the game could of used a few more leaders and maybe two-three more civilizations. IND/PHI, CRE/CHM and PRO/ORG definitely would of filled in the gap. But that would only include three additional leaders.
PRO/ORG is overall a weak-average trait combo despite what some people would say, but that could of been countered by providing whoever leader (and civilization maybe) who gets the trait combo with a good UU and good UB. Not a bad way to keep things balanced.
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In my opinion, Spain and Japan could of used an additional leader. I never particularly liked Isabella, too much on the religious fanatical side and a real pain to deal with in most games. As for Tokugawa, he is the only leader in the game who doesn't Open Borders at cautious, and one of the few AIs who won't trade techs at cautious. Both leaders can be seen at those whom most players would prefer not having to face early on.
So far, I hear that El Sid (Spain) and Meiji (Japan) could of been likely candidates.
In conclusion, since Firaxis introduced more traits in the Warlords expansion, they should of just used up all the possible trait combinations where none would feel left out.
Instead, we find that the three missing trait combos leave much to be desired. The only way to utilize them is to either play a mod that features them or work the code and programming yourself to where you are in fact, taking advantage of these trait combos.
Very interesting to hear the opportunities that could of come out of this.
effect of military police under Protective. (Churchill would have some seriously large cities early on)
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