What is a leader and how do I get one?!?!?!?

parchy

Chieftain
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Apr 16, 2002
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Austin, TX
Okay.... I've played Civ2, but I still have no idea what a leader is. Is it an actual unit? What does it do for me? Will it help me, and if so, how? Just tell me everything you know about leaders.
 
In civ3, you get a leader when an Elite unit wins a battle. However, it is random[I think] so you won't always get one. It is usually a rare occurance. The leader cannot attack or defend,[He has a sword in the Middle Ages though, but doesn't use it:confused: ] and has one movement point. The leader can be used to hurry an improvement or wonders, so that the improvement or wonder is finished in one turn. Using the leader is the only way of hurrying a wonder. Or you can use the leader to build an army. An army is like a super unit: you load units into it, like a ship[3 is the max, unless you build the Pentagon, which increases it to 4 units max] and all those units fight as one unit. When each unit in the army gets knocked down to one health in battle, the next unit steps up to fight. The units in the army move together, heal together, and cannot be removed from the army once they are loaded into the army. Whichever option you choose, the leader is lost in the process. You can increse your chances of getting a leader by building the Heroic Epic small wonder[this requires a victorius army to be built.] You should probably use your first leader to build an army, since the Heroic Epic, Pentagon, and Military Acadamy require an army to be built. Armies are also quite powerful, depending on the units in them.
The Military Acadamy allows you to build armies without a leader, but they are expensive. It is a good idea to save some leaders for important wonders, like The U.N., Forbidden Palace, Apollo Project, or any other wonders you really need. And remember, your leaders cannot defend themselves, so they should be escorted by a defensive unit AT ALL TIMES. Hope this helped.
 
Originally posted by parchy
Okay.... I've played Civ2, but I still have no idea what a leader is. Is it an actual unit? What does it do for me? Will it help me, and if so, how? Just tell me everything you know about leaders.

In theory, you have a chance of creating a Leader whenever one of your Elite units wins in combat. Thay are (allegedly) useful for building armies (whatever they do) and as the only way of rush building Wonders
In practice, you will NEVER get one. My advice would simply be: forget about them. Do not base your strategy on their appearance. Any strategy guide that you read which assumes their existence is a crock of ****.
Your basic assumption should be: LEADERS DO NOT EXIST
 
Theres a 1/16 chance of a leader appearing when an elite unit wins a battle. You can only have one at a time, so its best to use him as quick as possible. To get more leaders, carefully choose the battles your elite units fight, pit them against lesser/wounded units. Playing a militaristic civ will help as well, since your units will get promoted to elite faster.

Leaders can rush wonders or build an army. Armies are generally useless, and units cannot be upgraded/unloaded once they are put in an army.

Winning a battle with your army will give the option of building the Heroic Epic small wonder. After its completion, you have a 1/12 chance of getting a leader with each victorious elite unit. Upon winning a battle with your army, you also get the option to a build the military academy. This allows you to form armies without using a leader. Once you use your leader to create an army, he is no longer active, and you can now spawn another with an elite unit.

Getting leaders is a fairly rare occurance and i generally only get 1-2 per game. With my leaders, my first priority is to rush the forbidden palace, if its close to completion or if i don't have the required amount of cities, i'll snag the sistine chapel instead.
 
I disagree on the usefulness of armies. My samurai armies are very effective. It really depends on what units you put in them. If your civ has a defensive speicial unit[hoplite], then armies are useless. If you have a good offensive unit[Mounted warrior, Immortal,samurai] then armies can be very useful. I don't know why Firaxis made it so you can't unload units from armies.:mad:
 
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