Which is your least favorite trait?

[Lexicus]

I voted no least favorite, but if I had to pick it would be financial...damn money-grubbing wusses...

 

[Bleys]

Spirituals power doesnt really shine until later in the game, when you are looking at multiple turns of Anarchy instead of just one. The ability to jump in and out of military/cottage/specialist civics at will is huge in the later stages of the game.

 

[SirLamphead]

I would say expansive, I just never use it.
The worker boost is ok and so is the 2 extra health but it just isn't important to me in the long run.

 

[holiday_hawk]

protective doesn't do me much good since the only time i play with raging barbs i get the GW before the stupid A.I. who doesn't know how good it is and usually i'm attacking the A.I. not the other way around so i don't need a lot of defense at home

 

[oranges]

Why does everybody hate protective it's great if your the native americans or if you have raging barbs on. I voted philosophical because it just doesn't fit my playing style. It's amazing for specialist economies though.

Ah, you're the blasphemer
Seriously though, SE is by no means a necessity to benefit hugely from philosophical. Unless you build absolutely no wonders and limit your cities to just enough food to be able to grow at all, so no specialists whatsoever, it will do its magic. Half the time needed for that great prophet from the oracle means either a certain religion or a shrine that much earlier if you already have one, which in turn means your religion will spread more than those wihtout a shrine, to name just one (early) example.
Cheap universities is the icing on the cake, it means you'll get the Oxford University that much faster too. Did i say I'm in love with philosophical?

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Imperialistic is useless. It's settler bonus sucks and half the time is useless because you're building your settlers with food surplus, which imperialistic doesn't boost. it only boosts hammers. As a military trait, it's far behind aggressive and charismatic, imo. i'd even rather have protective post-gunpowder.

 

[NintendoTogepi]

Imperialistic is useless. It's settler bonus sucks and half the time is useless because you're building your settlers with food surplus, which imperialistic doesn't boost. it only boosts hammers. As a military trait, it's far behind aggressive and charismatic, imo. i'd even rather have protective post-gunpowder.

GG's rock though. I'd say Charismatic > Imperialistic > Aggressive > Protective for military traits.

 

[Stoney the I]

voted protective, but thats probably because i cant seem to make the most of it.

its probably not a bad trait, i just suck at exploiting it.

and i hate AI's with it.

 

[Bast]

Organized... so boring.

Less Civic upkeep cost? Yawn.
Courthouses? Necessary but yawn.
Lighthouses? Probably the best feature.
Factories? Completely unnecessary as for this trait and too late.

Yes, it's a good, strong trait but boring. I never play Organized leaders.

 

[Crowqueen]

Organized... so boring.

Less Civic upkeep cost? Yawn.
Courthouses? Necessary but yawn.
Lighthouses? Probably the best feature.
Factories? Completely unnecessary as for this trait and too late.

Yes, it's a good, strong trait but boring. I never play Organized leaders.

Good for maintenance and on BTS courthouses give you extra espionage points. The first thing I build in a captured city - after the era when I can build Walls - is a CH and they are useful with the EPs even after you get State Property.

It's not boring when you are REXing your way across the map and taking a city halfway across the world without flinching!

 

[Kesshi]

I guess I whore the AP too much . This opens things like religion swapping mid-build to switch what religion you're building the AP under. Civic swaps for diplomacy are painless too. Cheap temples have terrific synergy with this.

I don't use obscene micromanagement (I'm one of the faster players on the forums when it comes to game times), but I seem to do well in my games with spiritual leaders. It's fun to pop into vassalage while massing units then back to bureaucracy...or going serfdom when I don't need slavery for faster improvements. Police State late game for unit crank, theology vs OR vs Pacifism depending on need...turns of anarchy add up.

Does this make it a top trait? Who knows. I really like it for its convenience factor and its synergy with my tendencies. Regardless, it certainly isn't the WORST trait. Drill is a pretty weak free promo until gunpowder tech advantage (unless you play on easy sauce difficulties where you can bring oracled xbows vs classical defenders for hundreds of turns I guess, but IMO only China can really take extreme advantage of this).

More on Spiritual;

As someone who plays Asoka more than any other leader (I've had 12 cities pre-currency, thank you Organized!) I'd like to point out Spiritual's hidden diplomatic bonus. Whenever a leader you like asks you to change civics or religion, you can easily swap over for a +2 relations bonus. Yes, +2. You're avoiding a -1 for denying, and you're getting a +1, a net gain of +2 to that leader. After a few turns (speed dependant) swap back. Does it hurt your empire a touch? Sure, but no more than making your entire empire revolt for a few turnns like you would when you swap civics under normal games.

Spiritual is a tool, and just like any other tool, it depends on how you use it.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

GG's rock though. I'd say Charismatic > Imperialistic > Aggressive > Protective for military traits.

Aggressive opens up some cheesy nonsense though. I don't know if you've ever done amphibious granadier/rifle/infantry amphibious attacks after bombarding with frigates, but it is extremely fun (also effective and fast). Of course it makes early game rushes and stack protection easier also. I'd take it over any military trait for pure war ability, and place it only behind charismatic (which actually dishes out a significant early economy boost) as an overall trait.

 

[Bleys]

I would say expansive, I just never use it.
The worker boost is ok and so is the 2 extra health but it just isn't important to me in the long run.

EXP is very underrated. Personally, I see it as a license to build off of Fresh Water if the spot is good. Its also extremely helpful later in the game, when you start seeing a lot more pollution from buildings and such.

It is also incredibly powerful on water-based maps where you run a GLH based TRE. Those fast harbors are like free money. Cheap granaries dont suck either, especially early on when you want one baddly, but just seem to need to build units and monuments and courthouses and whatever-else. It turns Granaries into 1-pop whips.

I used to see AIs like Jaoa, Hannibal, Willem, Ragnar, etc, as the best watery-island based leaders, but since playing Mehmed in the recent Water PYL, I have a whole new appreciation for ORG/EXP on those maps. If the Ottomans started with Fishing, I would put Mehmed Number 1 on water maps in a heartbeat. As it is, hes an incredible Unrestricted Leader with a Fishing-Water UU/UB combo. Mehmed of the Dutch, LOL, he would ROMP! In fact, I have been looking for an oddball combo like that to try a new Unrestricted game, and I think I will go for Mehmed the Dutch or Portuguese on an M&S map.

 

[CCRunner]

I don't really like protective. I prefer aggresive or, even better, an economic trait like financial or organized.

 

[zebomba2]

Protective is totally useless to me, I could as well leave my cities empty. What wins wars is a big stack to kill their stack once they set foot inside.

Spiritual is almost cheating, having access to everything with impunity. If you rush the Pyramids and the Paya then it's almost boring. Slavery with no revolts (because you don't stay in slavery, see), primitive civics to save cash when you don't need a real civic, changing religions in a heartbeat, and on higher levels, a tool to brownose the AI.
If you are feeling evil, did you know you can build the Cristo Redentor for half price so not only you deny it to others, you can now switch every turn?

Philosophical is less powerful than it sounds as it doesn't double the number of GPs as it would look like at first. But it's fun to see how many GPs one can squeeze in a given game.

All other traits seem to have their uses.

 

[AfterShafter]

You know, I'd be interested to see everyone who gives an opinion state the difficulty they play on too. I'd imagine that certain traits are more popular on lower difficulties, and certain on higher.

 

[Jimmyballz]

Thats why I show my current difficulty level in my profile, and as my title

 

[Kesshi]

You know, I'd be interested to see everyone who gives an opinion state the difficulty they play on too. I'd imagine that certain traits are more popular on lower difficulties, and certain on higher.

AfterShafter,

I dislike Creative and Financial, and I've beat a few Diety games. Then again I also dislike Cottages, Vassals, and Spies. I'm a weird player.

Just by the way, I don't play Deity all the time and I still regularly lose Emperor games. I feel at parity with the computers at the Emperor level, though with the right start I feel like I could outright out-tech them. I may need to kick it up to Immortal, but at that level (and Deity) the game feels like work.

My favourite traits are Industrious, Spiritual, and Organized. I don't know what that says about me. I think I like those 3 because I can get "the most" out of them at higher difficulties as well as I usually play Huge maps, meaning again, I get "the most" out of them.

By the way, I really did vote for Financial. Financial helps me so very little in the game, as I always run a Specialist Economy.

 

[oranges]

Aftershafter, what exactly did you have in mind? Obviously, charismatic and expansive would have higher value on higher difficulties due to lower initial health/happiness, but other traits seem to scale well enough on all difficulties.

 

[Onagan]

Spiritual, in RL and CL. It's useless