Unrestricted Leaders

[Ecofarm]

Unrestricted leaders is my favorite BTS feature. I always play with it, even if I'm using a 'natural' leader.

Here are some of the combos and strats I use:

1) Fin/Arc + Elves are my favorite. Though I rarely get to build priests (incense evades me), the quickly generated mages, forest cottages, and civ/religion defense combine nicely.

2) Arc/Sum + Anything + AV (ritualists). Some people like a side of monk with their Arc/Sum AV. Are there other "backup" civ/units in case you do not start with reagants or lose the AV race?

3) Fin/Agg/Ing + Golems. Not bad, but hurrying production on golems is problematic. Is there something to build and grow on in between golem 'whips'?

4) ? + Grigori has some very amazing early heros. I cannot overstate this. I'm not sure what leader the person was using, but his defense was solid.

Since a friend likes to spam ritualists if spice is within 40 tiles of his cap, is there a good counter? I figured Bannor (rumored to be crusaders) would have some protection against Summoner II units (imps, spectres, lighting...). What about fireballs, how do you survive them? I'm thinking a magic resistant leader (if that still exists) combined with an anti-magic civ.


Suggestions for good leader + civ combo strats?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Unrestricted leaders kinda annoys me because so many random leader choices don't seem to fir at all with their civs. I wish there was an intermediate form between restriced and unrestricted, where it would let you manually assign leaders from different civs but wouldn't randomly put leaders and civs together. Typically, I just want a few thematically appropriate changes (Tebryn rejoining his old civ, the Amurites, Thessa as a dark elf, switching one dwarf for another, etc)

I like the Luchuirp under barbarian trait leaders; the barb trait limits how much xp farming you can do by fighting barbs early on, but that doen't matter to golems anyway. Barnaxus can still get his promotions by attacking animals, and it isn't as likely that he will be killed by barbs early on if left wandering the wilderness unguarded.

I also liked to use Cardith of the Khazad (when his Sprawling trait was implemented) because the AI limitations on building too many cities (thus depleting the vault) stopped him from building too many useless settlements and incurring the anger of his neighbors because of his large and poorly defended borders. Also, its hard to get a more productive city than one with an overflowing vault and city hub.

And of course, Charismatic Vampires are always nice.


Magic Resistant is still in the game (like Scorched earth), but no civ actually has it. I believe that adaptive leaders can still choose it to replace one of their other traits though (And that It is sometimes applied through Perpentach's insanity)

 

[Grey Fox]

Unrestricted leaders kinda annoys me because so many random leader choices don't seem to fir at all with their civs. I wish there was an intermediate form between restriced and unrestricted, where it would let you manually assign leaders from different civs but wouldn't randomly put leaders and civs together. Typically, I just want a few thematically appropriate changes (Tebryn rejoining his old civ, the Amurites, Thessa as a dark elf, switching one dwarf for another, etc)

You can do that by modding. A leader can be assigned to every civ. But then you might end up facing the same leader as an opponent unless you manually change AI leaders I think.

 

[onedreamer]

Suggestions for good leader + civ combo strats?

Those already in place are the best IMO. The mod was thought up like this, it's not like in Vanilla Civ where playing different civs doesn't change as much as playing different leader traits.

 

[Caradoc]

I had a good game with Garrim + Grigori.

 

[xendelaar]

I use Sidar with Capria (?)
That way my priests will gain more xp every turn. In mid game I'm popping a shade every 2 turns or so. It's awesome.