Which AI leaders do you pick?

[Maceman]

Do you pick the AI leaders at the sart of a game?
If yes, which leaders do you prefer or dislike and why?

In my games, I try to find a balance between friendly and hostile leaders. And usually, every leader trait is present at least twice among the AIs.

 

[Soil]

Nope, plus I have random personalities on. I don't like to be able to predict another Civs future actions.

People say random personalities weakens AIs due to their traits leaning towards their playstyle, but I'm not hardcore enough a player to notice any change in their performance. Playing for fun is my main objective.

 

[Swedishguy]

Having all leaders as Isabella DOES mean a very fun and interesting game...

 

[Sjaramei]

I prefer to avoid the insane techers. Mostly it's random, but i tend to pick all European cast sometimes, and max warmongers others (Having Shaka,Ragnar, Alexander and the rest makes very interesting games )

My worst nightmare: Mansa and Elizabeth stuck on an island together sharing religion and tech trading like mad going for the spaceship!

Isabella is a sweetheart.. i don't know why you all hate her

 

[KMadCandy]

generally i go random except for HoF gauntlets.

sometimes i'm not in the mood to deal with cathy, so i roll to pick another russian leader and include that one to make sure she won't show up , but leave the rest random. i love having alex as a buddy, i never play as him! altho i don't put him in on purpose to guarantee that he'll show up, i avoid playing Pericles since i know that means alex can't join the reindeer games. the one time i did play as pericles, i did add alex as a leader. got a lousy start tho and didn't play past the BCs, should try him again...

once in a while i'm in a goofy mood and want to try some new wacky thing and i don't necessarily want to pick and choose who to play against, but i do want to exclude a number of leaders for whatever reason. maybe by trait (nobody ind or prot) or nobody with myst, whatever. in those cases, i have hubby do the rolling and the map start for me. that way i know those guys aren't in there, but i don't know who did get picked so i still get surprises *giggle*. hubby comes in handy!

 

[Maceman]

Having all leaders as Isabella DOES mean a very fun and interesting game...

Does that work?
If Isabella declares war on you, how do you know which one?
I had a game with Louis XIV and Napoleon in it, and someone asked me to stop trading with France... er, which France?

 

[Maceman]

once in a while i'm in a goofy mood and want to try some new wacky thing and i don't necessarily want to pick and choose who to play against, but i do want to exclude a number of leaders for whatever reason. maybe by trait (nobody ind or prot) or nobody with myst, whatever. in those cases, i have hubby do the rolling and the map start for me. that way i know those guys aren't in there, but i don't know who did get picked so i still get surprises *giggle*. hubby comes in handy!

What is hubby?

 

[KMadCandy]

hubby is what i call my husband on these boards. obviously not everybody has one conveniently in the same house to do stuff like this, i'm rather spoiled .

 

[Maceman]

And I thought he was a mod or something like that

 

[Silence101]

I like to pick some of the AI leaders - there's some leaders I just enjoy having in the game. I probably leave about half of them random though... usually play with 16 - 18 Civ's.

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

Always on random for me

 

[Adam7Eight]

Always on random for me

Same here.

 

[Swedishguy]

Does that work?
If Isabella declares war on you, how do you know which one?
I had a game with Louis XIV and Napoleon in it, and someone asked me to stop trading with France... er, which France?

Just have different civilizations for each Isabella.

 

[magicalsushi]

I've mostly been picking leaders for themed games recently (Mesopotamia, Africa, etc.), or pairing them up by trait for team games. However, at some point I'd like to have a game vs a few of my favourite leaders. I like the ones with the most extreme personalities. I'll probably go for:

Tokugawa - extremely isolationist
Catherine - extremely untrusthworthy
Isabella - extremely zealous
Mansa Musa - extremely keen on trading tech
Gandhi - extremely friendly
Montezuma - extremely aggressive
Ramesses II - extremely keen on building wonders
Mehmed II - extremely keen on taking vassels
Saladin - extremely non-extreme!