Hey! you a modder now Joseph? 
Nah, its intentional. The reason was that Despotism is a default starter civic in BtS, so instead of changing all the starter civics in Leaderheadsinfos (or was it CivilizationInfos) to Chiefdom, I just made despotism->chiefdom and vice versa. So the <Type>CIVIC_DESPOTISM</Type> is actually Chiefdom and the default starter civic for all Leaders/Civs.
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edit. On a side note: I just took Tokyo from the Japs, and had some really interesting battles. The combat mechanisms are really starting to work as I have always dreamed of with the random siege damage, withdrawal, defender withdrawal etc etc. It feels, imho, much more dynamic. Though I also had a enemy catapult doing "close combat"
Have to see if I can cook something up in the UnitAI dll.
Also considering giving spies some XP from succesfully completed missions. While they are not exactly SuperSpies™, it would be nice to have "favorite" spies.

Nah, its intentional. The reason was that Despotism is a default starter civic in BtS, so instead of changing all the starter civics in Leaderheadsinfos (or was it CivilizationInfos) to Chiefdom, I just made despotism->chiefdom and vice versa. So the <Type>CIVIC_DESPOTISM</Type> is actually Chiefdom and the default starter civic for all Leaders/Civs.
------------------------
edit. On a side note: I just took Tokyo from the Japs, and had some really interesting battles. The combat mechanisms are really starting to work as I have always dreamed of with the random siege damage, withdrawal, defender withdrawal etc etc. It feels, imho, much more dynamic. Though I also had a enemy catapult doing "close combat"

Have to see if I can cook something up in the UnitAI dll.
Also considering giving spies some XP from succesfully completed missions. While they are not exactly SuperSpies™, it would be nice to have "favorite" spies.