Which is your favorite trait?

[CoZe]

philosophical, cause I'm a GP whore.

 

[Navarre]

When I started playing the game, Industrious was my favourite trait, because I liked to wonder-spam. Then I liked Financial, and now it's Organized which has grown on me. Lower maintenance, cheap courthouses and cheap factories are just great.

When I play Zara Yaqob I often find myself checking if I really play Marathon speed as intended, because my research rate and all my buildings are so fast.

 

[nbcman]

Philosophical since I typically run a SE. I also like Spiritual for the diplomatic and production flexibility.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

Creative for me, without a doubt. It even helps Kubili Khan!

 

[Supr49er]

Organized. -50% Civic Upkeep, and cheap Lighthouses, Courthouses and Factories.

 

[Rameau's Nephew]

Charismatic. Excellent trait no matter how you play the game.


The most addictive traits, though, are easily Charismatic and Spiritual.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Surprised that there is not more votes for charismatic (my vote). Not only is it a sound warmonger trait, but it's also a free +2 for most of the game, a benefit that has large implications on the ease of the early game. It's my vote for top trait.

IMP and EXP are close seconds, as all directly benefit REXing like hell and taking good cities. Of course I like aggressive and organized too, but not as much as the aforementioned 3.

I will happily make use of any trait though.

 

[J-man]

I surprised no one voted for aggresive yet, do only builders vote on polls?

 

[Sisiutil]

I surprised no one voted for aggresive yet, do only builders vote on polls?

I'm not surprised that Aggressive isn't a favourite trait. It's great, but you need something else that will allow you to keep up in techs and/or help your economy recover from the cost of war. It's no surprise to me, therefore, that Alexander is an often-employed Aggressive leader, since his Philosophical trait is ideal for running a SE to support his conquests. Ragnar, who's Financial, is a lot of fun to war with too, especially on water-based maps.

 

[J-man]

Spoiler :

I'm not surprised that Aggressive isn't a favourite trait. It's great, but you need something else that will allow you to keep up in techs and/or help your economy recover from the cost of war. It's no surprise to me, therefore, that Alexander is an often-employed Aggressive leader, since his Philosophical trait is ideal for running a SE to support his conquests. Ragnar, who's Financial, is a lot of fun to war with too, especially on water-based maps.

Yes, that does make sense. Aggresive does nothing for the economy. But protective has 2 votes and is not only worse then aggresive for warmongering. It does nothing for the economy too.

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Charismatic is just a better military trait. The fact that it works on all units, combined with the 2 happy faces early on is just a huge improvement over cheap barracks and combat 1 on melee and gunpowder.

Not that it's a bad trait though, Ragnar and Hammurabi are both top notch leaders.

 

[Jimmyballz]

PHI. I read somewhere here that this trait may have an unfair advantage. For me, it works well for almost any of the victories. I like the Philisophical/caste system/mercantilism/pacifism combination ---->

-jb

 

[Melted Canary]

Aggressive and Industrious are my two favorite traits, and coincidentally my favorite leader is Stalin. I hate financial because it's too powerful (to the point that it makes the game too easy), so I avoid using any leader that possesses it.

I actually prefer aggressive to charismatic. The double production of barracks in the early game is ridiculous; before most leaders are able to get units with ANY promotions it's possible for an aggressive leader to be producing combat 1+city raider axemen. Although it "only" applies to melee units and gunpowder units, I make these the foundations of my army (to the point where I almoust -never- build archery units).

I like industrious, but not for wonder spam. Stalin's double speed forges and double speed barracks means that, in medieval times, he's going to be pumping out highly promoted axemen faster than anyone else can keep up with. Also, although industrious is great for beating people to wonders, it's an oft-neglected point that industrious makes your national wonders produce twice as fast. Thus, Stalin is able to get a city with Heroic Epic+Westpoint+Forge+Barracks far faster than any other leader in the game.

 

[Sisiutil]

Yes, that does make sense. Aggressive does nothing for the economy. But protective has 2 votes and is not only worse then aggresive for warmongering. It does nothing for the economy too.

Well, though Aggressive might not have a lot of huge fans, it doesn't have many detractors either. It's a good, decent, useful trait--handy, but not game-breaking.

Protective, on the other hand, has no shortage of people griping about how it's the weakest trait in the game (including yours truly). It's no surprise to me, then, that there is an anti-backlash backlash of people who are willing to defend Protective (Protective's protectors?). You know, just like there's a small, forlorn group of Jar-Jar Binks fans out there somewhere.

 

[AfterShafter]

Well, though Aggressive might not have a lot of huge fans, it doesn't have many detractors either. It's a good, decent, useful trait--handy, but not game-breaking.

Protective, on the other hand, has no shortage of people griping about how it's the weakest trait in the game (including yours truly). It's no surprise to me, then, that there is an anti-backlash backlash of people who are willing to defend Protective (Protective's protectors?). You know, just like there's a small, forlorn group of Jar-Jar Binks fans out there somewhere.

I prefer to think of it as more like the millions of people who just don't get why The Shawshank Redemption is so great are the people who just don't "get it" as to how to dominate with protective

Trying to reduce the position of the lovers of the protective trait to just being a reaction to all the hate for it is a mistake. Some of us take the trait, those incredible resourceless brick-wall archery/gunpowder units, and cram them down the CPU's throat to tremendous effect. Honestly, while protective isn't a trait that I want on its own, it compliments just about any way I choose to play very well, be it peaceful builder, warmonger, SE/CE/EE, whatever, which is something I can't say about any other trait. I really love protective, and did before I realized everyone was calling it "the worst trait" etc etc.

 

[Rusty Edge]

Darius is very strange looking however.

He's Cornelius from Planet of the Apes !

 

[Jabarto]

Honestly, protective is a trait that I want on its own, but it compliments just about any way I choose to play very well, be it peaceful builder, warmonger, SE/CE/EE, whatever, which is something I can't say about any other trait. I really love protective, and did before I realized everyone was calling it "the worst trait" etc etc.

Strange, I would think traits like Expansive, Creative, or Organized - the latter of which, to stay on topic, is my favorite trait - would have a versatile benefit than Protective, which doesn't do anything for you when you're not fighting. I suppose that's just my peacemongering shining through, though.

Not that I don't like Protective, mind you. It's arguably my second favorite trait, to the point that I modded Darius to be Org/Pro just so I could play that trait combo.

 

[StormLord-711-]

Personally, my favorite is charismatic because either the military experience bonus or the happiness bonus (much more worth it than a health bonus since you can combat unhealthiness with food) is great alone, but charismatic has them together. I like to use it in combination with organized. That means I can have higher populations of cities from the extra happiness, as well as more cities from my stronger army, without as much of a penalty. Most of the time I end up being the leader in population. I usually play unrestricted leaders with the HRE, so I can also get rauthuses much faster too, making it easy to control a stable empire (and faster lighthouses from organized are also very useful in any coastal city's expansion, especially when it has little production).

 

[Sisiutil]

Strange, I would think traits like Expansive, Creative, or Organized - the latter of which, to stay on topic, is my favorite trait - would have a versatile benefit than Protective, which doesn't do anything for you when you're not fighting.

That's not quite true--the cheap walls count towards your power rating, so they may help stave off an invasion just by being there.

 

[AfterShafter]

Strange, I would think traits like Expansive, Creative, or Organized - the latter of which, to stay on topic, is my favorite trait - would have a versatile benefit than Protective, which doesn't do anything for you when you're not fighting. I suppose that's just my peacemongering shining through, though.

Not that I don't like Protective, mind you. It's arguably my second favorite trait, to the point that I modded Darius to be Org/Pro just so I could play that trait combo.

Of course it does something for you when you're not fighting... It gives you a big enough stick - without having to focus on military oriented things (upgrades, getting anything but basic archery/gunpowder techs) to survive the wars which, in my experience, do come when you're going all peace-like. Protective is the "big stick" of "walk softly and carry a big stick" and nothing bails you out of an unwanted war that you don't want to dump a ton of resources into like protective longbows. A real feeling of security is definitely "something" when you're not at war.

Ok, and actually, I do have to give a nod to organized... That helps in every way I can even think of playing. One of my biggest gripes with the game is that Pro/Org isn't in it Not a bad idea for Darius. I may make Mao pro/org just for kicks.

Now, before any sort of debate starts up, I'm out for a few hours. Have fun