What do you think of the Leaders?

José Rizal - B. I think he's upper B-tier for me. Good inspired choice, clear-cut niche but doesn't set my world on fire. Does what he's supposed to do. Welcome to the roster! :-)
 
Rizal's ability seems really passive and boring to me. But people seem to like it, so...
I suspect it's the weakest leader bonus, yeah. Himikos and Baroque Freddie pending, ofc.

That said, the bonus is flavourful and that works for me.
 
I think Rizal's ability does just reward you from playing normaly, making it very newbie friendly. But I think that if you lean hard into the happiness generation he could easily chain celebrations together
 
Himiko - C: This is and remains a questionable leader choice, especially as a leader with two persona's, but I can Tolerate it, I guess.
 
Himiko's abilities don't really interest me much. I suppose base Himiko's ability to take deals without having to think is nice, but her shaman persona doesn't really scream any specific playstyle to me, (are Culture and Happiness even that related, outside of vibes?) just changes to science and culture numbers when from what we've seen it isn't hard or even preferable to supercharge a specific tree yield. I guess you'll get early Civics like your Pantheon/Religion/Ideology earlier... the one idea that sticks out to me is to pick the Age's designated "immediately try to kill everyone" Civilization (Persia, Mongolia... Prussia, maybe?) and rush a neighbor before they can pull ahead in science, using your upgraded Happiness buildings to minimize the damage taken by your Settlement Cap. I suppose it's important to have some versatile leaders without a very specific gameplan, but the combination of mostly in-the-background boni and a malus makes me struggle to imagine a situation in which I'd pick her.
 
are Culture and Happiness even that related, outside of vibes?
Religious buildings provide Happiness. Culture and Happiness are the signal she's a religious leader. Kind of.
 
Religious buildings provide Happiness. Culture and Happiness are the signal she's a religious leader. Kind of.
She will work well enough with Majapahit, won't she? I suppose I can see the vision. Kind of.
 
my impression from the recent previews is that happiness is the most valuable yield. Chaining celebrations for the substantial bonuses and policy slots seems to be one of the best bases for a good game (and it‘s flexible). Hence, Shaman Himiko seems to be rather flexible as well, besides the reduced science output. It will be a bit of a challenge to find the right balance for culture and science when playing her though, and maybe someone like Qing isn‘t a good fit. Aksum-Hawai‘i is definitely a strong option. Or Maurya-Normans.
 
Friedrich - A - Amazing choice, and I am LIVING that they characterized him as a sassy, snarky gay man, with matching voice. I relate so much <3
 
Friedrich - A - Amazing choice, and I am LIVING that they characterized him as a sassy, snarky gay man, with matching voice. I relate so much <3
I have almost no gaydar whatsoever, but I definitely did not get that impression from Friedrich.
His abilities are among the best in the game; I love getting free Infantry units, and his ability to steal Great Works in his Baroque persona turns Prussia into the Raiders of the Lost Ark Germans that I was hoping to channel.
I do find the Baroque outfit extremely gaudy, however; I wish there were an option to chose which skin you want, instead of them being tied to the mechanical abilities.
Still, I'll be taking Friedrich and Prussia on a Last Crusade for the Holy Grail on my second playthrough, right after Lafayette
 
I have almost no gaydar whatsoever, but I definitely did not get that impression from Friedrich.
His abilities are among the best in the game; I love getting free Infantry units, and his ability to steal Great Works in his Baroque persona turns Prussia into the Raiders of the Lost Ark Germans that I was hoping to channel.
I do find the Baroque outfit extremely gaudy, however; I wish there were an option to chose which skin you want, instead of them being tied to the mechanical abilities.
Still, I'll be taking Friedrich and Prussia on a Last Crusade for the Holy Grail on my second playthrough, right after Lafayette
I suspect the Baroque design was actually from the later (posthumous) portraits of him. During his lifetime he is shown largely in Prussian blue or very dark clothing, afterwards and through the 19th century he seems to have been increasingly portrayed in very bright Indigo Blue clothing, which would not have been completely out of place while he was alive as court dress, but definitely would not have matched his militaristic contemporary image.
 
Friedrich - A - Amazing choice, and I am LIVING that they characterized him as a sassy, snarky gay man, with matching voice. I relate so much <3
It's surprisingly hard to pick up sass in German if you don't speak it (German not sass) - I thought it would be universally translated a bit more. I guess "complex persona" is the new euphemism for being gay? I'll have to try that one in conversation.

That said, as much as I love the model, the representation, and the costumes. I could take or leave his actual abilities... Powerful sure, but there are other leaders who'll shape your game in much more interesting ways... I think of the two I prefer Baroque, just as it gives you an alternative way to get great works if you don't want to play religion in exploration (assuming relics = great works in that age).
 
It's surprisingly hard to pick up sass in German if you don't speak it (German not sass) - I thought it would be universally translated a bit more. I guess "complex persona" is the new euphemism for being gay? I'll have to try that one in conversation.
Frederick's feisty in his little dialogue, which makes him the sassiest leader so far.

Which is actually cool because he's also warmonger coded. "Kind of hates the world, and the people in it" is a pretty cool personality to give to a war leader, and isn't often done with refinement.
 
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