What leaders do you love to have in a game?

[NintendoTogepi]

I like Gandhi and Isabella myself.

Gandhi is a great techer and wonder builder, and he's a push over if I want to invade.

A certain game (I played as Augustus Caesar) went like this

*stack of 20 Praetorians and 10 Catapults & Trebutchets arrives at Gandhi's border*

Praetorians: Hai
Gandhi's Troops: O hai
Praetorians: We need ur Hinduism and wonders k?
Gandhi's Troops: But u have Confucianism and the Great Wall and the Pyramids and the Oracle and the Partheon!
Praetorians: But we could always use another religion and more wonders
Gandhi's Troops: K, seems reasonbole

And then I invaded and quickly took over his cities, snatching a bunch of land, several wonders, and the Hinduism holy city of Delhi. I felt bad for poor Gandhi so I left him with one lousy coastal city and one injured long bow unit. Then I took him as a vassal. I usually do that when I invade Gandhi.

But yeah, Gandhi is great. He's a great trading partner, and it's easy to claim his land and stuff. And usually when I invade him, as long as I don't raze his cities, he doesn't really get mad at me. At the game I mentioned above, I got Gandhi to Friendly about 100 turns after I took him as a vassal!

And as for Isabella...

Me: Hai, I'm the leader of the Roman (or any other) civilization, we're mostly Confucian
Isabella: OMG U HEATHEN DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE U SUCK
Me: O wait, my mistake, we're actually Buddhist
Isabella: OMG I LOVE U I LOVE U WHAT CAN I DO 4 U

Basically, as long as you adopt her religion, she'll do anything for you.

As for ones I hate, Montezuma, for obvious reasons.

So what about you? Which leaders do you like in have in a game?

 

[Andvare]

Depends heavily on how and when. I love Monty... On the other continent(s). I like Gandhi, if he's close, not so much if he's close to Monty, on another continent. Same with all the techers (Mansa more than most).

 

[oyzar]

I love wilhelm nearby in the early game as he plays exactly as i would play him most of the time(very low defense...). Otherwise it is the same as everyone else. If i am on continent with just one person i always wish for mansa. In general having mansa on your continent is good times, on the other continent, not so much. In general you want the high limit wfyabta on the same continent. Having loads of religious freaks like isabella, charlie, justian, saladin on the other continent often doesn't hurt...

 

[Diamondeye]

Masochistic, I know, but....

Catherine

 

[Elkad]

I always click Random Personalities, so these kind of threads never apply to me.

 

[Sjaramei]

Non-Protective and aggressive leaders.

 

[Bandobras Took]

So long as I'm Protective, I love having Montezuma nearby.

 

[madscientist]

6 leaders all in the same game that makes things interesting and fun

Shaka
Isabella
HC
Ragnar
Zara
Catherine

Gaurenteed to be an interesting game, especially on a Pangea Map.

 

[pangu]

I love the Egyptians (easy to befriend and helpful in wars) and the Indians (good tech trader and easy to kill) the most, and hate Shaka (he feels like a powered up Monty), Mansa (with him around brokering techs, it is vert hard to get a tech lead over other AIs, and his UU makes it somewhat hard to rush) and Joao (the ultimate beggar...)

 

[Gwynnja]

I felt bad for poor Gandhi so I left him with one lousy coastal city and one injured long bow unit. Then I took him as a vassal. I usually do that when I invade Gandhi.

But yeah, Gandhi is great. He's a great trading partner, and it's easy to claim his land and stuff. And usually when I invade him, as long as I don't raze his cities, he doesn't really get mad at me. At the game I mentioned above, I got Gandhi to Friendly about 100 turns after I took him as a vassal!

He kinda has a hard time keeping up in tech at this point.

I hate sitting bull. He sucks at researching. He tries to get tribute all the time, and his archery units can be a . .. .. .. .. . to kill.

 

[Sisiutil]

Hatshepsut is probably my favourite leader to come across in a game, so much so that I'm actually disappointed if she's my closest neighbour (which means she must die). I find her one of the easiest AI leaders to get along with. After a few tech and resource trades, she's quickly up to "Pleased" even if we're following different religions. Probably because I often run her preferred civic, Hereditary Rule, for a long time in my games, except in the rare circumstance where I've built or captured the Pyramids for early Rep. If she's on another continent, she's almost always one of my triangle diplomacy partners.

As many others have said, Gandhi is also easy to get along with, a good tech trading partner, a pushover when it comes to war, and a very forgiving vassal. Mansa Musa is similar, but I like him less because he's just too good at research.

I also have favourite enemies. When I play as Rome, I love having Monty or Shaka right next door because I know I am going to so enjoy grinding them into a greasy paste thanks to a Praet rush. It makes up for all the times, playing as more peaceful leaders, that they rushed me.

 

[PaulusIII]

Isabella. Since I've quit with adopting own religions I find it easiest to adopt whatever Isabella has founded, because she'll spread it to enough people to guarantee good relations. And of course, I'll quickly get Friendly with her. Same applies to Justinian/Saladin but those two are less trustworthy.

I also love the Egyptians and Indians, but that's because they usually make for easy cannon fodder.

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Hatshepsut is probably my favourite leader to come across in a game, so much so that I'm actually disappointed if she's my closest neighbour (which means she must die). I find her one of the easiest AI leaders to get along with. After a few tech and resource trades, she's quickly up to "Pleased" even if we're following different religions. Probably because I often run her preferred civic, Hereditary Rule, for a long time in my games, except in the rare circumstance where I've built or captured the Pyramids for early Rep. If she's on another continent, she's almost always one of my triangle diplomacy partners.

As many others have said, Gandhi is also easy to get along with, a good tech trading partner, a pushover when it comes to war, and a very forgiving vassal. Mansa Musa is similar, but I like him less because he's just too good at research.

Actually Hattie's favorite cvic is organized religion. And she's probably my favorite civ to be isolated with pre-astronomy. With the same religion and organized religion you're guaranteed to be friendly with her. And friendly civs will trade anything they're not using to you and ignore the "we don't feel like trading this just yet" limits, you can be constantly trading and keep up if not pass the rest of the world technologically.

I like Ghandhi and Mansa because i can conquer them easily even if we're at tech parity. But i never trade with Ghandi unless the map is also full of peacemongers. If there's multiple warmongers trading with him is sure to get you the "you traded with our worse enemy" and constant requests to stop trading with him since he's so unpopular with those with low peaceweights.

I also really like Qin. I get addicted to the hammer bonus of Bureaucracy so I always stay there even after it's more beneficial for my financial situation to switch to free speech. He gets huge diplo bonuses from running bureaucracy, so I almost always stay friendly with him, often without even trying. And he's a pretty good attack dog, even if he's actually not naturally aggressive despite his low peaceweight. I can't remember the last time he started a war, but he's always ready to be bribed.

I also like Isabella. Same religion is sure to get you to friendly, switch to theocracy and you can treat her like crap and she'll still be friendly. Good attack dog, always ready to be bribed, and she can be backstabbed while her army's on the other side of the continent, and she'll still be friendly after she capitulated and probably pleased during the war. She's also good to be stuck with in isolation with for the same reasons as Hattie.

 

[madscientist]

I forgot about Qin, or even Mao for that matter. One of those backstabbing AIs you can never trust even at the end of the game. Getting him to vote for you in a dilpomatic vote is a very rewarding event!

I am surpirsed BB, he's almost as untrustworthy as Cathy.

 

[semirami]

Ghandi and Hatty as your closest neighbours isnt a challenge. Few days ago I axe rushed Ghandy and found Delhi protected by 1 warrior at 1500BC! No it isnt a settler difficulty, it is Emperor, where AI starts with Archery. Few games ago I axe rushed Hatty, found Thebes with 1 Archer. Thebes was a double holy city with Stonhendge and The Wall!

The leaders I really hate are:

The rexers- Charlemagne, Joao, Cathy
The psychos- Monty, Sury
The zealots- Saladin, Isabella, Justinian

And of course Toku

 

[Sisiutil]

Actually Hattie's favorite cvic is organized religion.

Are you sure about that? In the info center, it's listed as HR. Unless Warlords or BtS changed it?

 

[semirami]

Are you sure about that? In the info center, it's listed as HR. Unless Warlords or BtS changed it?

Civilopedia(BtS) says OR for the both egyptians.

 

[Iranon]

Qin and Catherine make for interesting games. Reasonably easy to get along with, willing attack dogs but untrustworthy... fun times all around.

For a similar reason, I hate Suryavarman: Just as dangerous, but not easily bribed. The only leader I dislike more is Sitting Bull - spamming horrible but hard to take cities, getting spy crazy on me instead of researching and being a decent trade partner.
Dishonourable mention: Joao. Also a jerk, he's only tolerable because he's easy to conquer.

Now for the AIs I actually like... Hatshepsut and Tokugawa if I can get a foot in the door (event, same religion...). A loyal ally is twice as loyal if he dislikes everyone else.



Oh and regardless of like or dislike... as soon as I'm the tech leader, Mansa Musa needs to die.

 

[Bradlius]

For me, it really depends on what kind of game I want to play. And sometimes it DETERMINES what kind of game I want to play. If I get Mansa Musa or Gandhi nearby, I am going on an axe rampage before they get too tech-wise. If I get one of the aggro's, I can just defend a bit till I achieve tech dominance and then take them down a notch.
I like Tokugawa, though. I never get along with him, but in my games, he never seems to get too far ahead of anyone, and everyone hates him. My only Diplomatic Victory was when I led a three-way dog-pile on him. We had a Mutual Military Struggle love-fest.

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

There's nothing about Tokugawa that makes him any more loyal than any warmonger. He can attack you or be bribed to attack you at pleased just like most of the rest. If you want a loyal warmonger befriend Brennus, Boudica, Cyrus, Hannibal, Justinian, or Mehmed. They won'l attack you and can't be bribed to attack you at pleased. Contrary to popular belief, Joao also is not a backstabber. He's not particularly aggressive and won't attack at pleased.