Which Leader/civ is your Archnemesis?

[Wen123]

I had a fun immortal game recently with Shaka and Gandhi as neighbours. Funnily enough most love Gandhi and hate Shaka but this game turned out the other way round. Gandhi founded his own religion while I shared one with the rest of the continent - Shaka, Qin and Sury. Not exactly the best lot, fairly aggressive, and all can declare at pleased.

A couple of shared wars on Gandhi later (I didn't do anything) we're all best buds. Shaka vassaled Gandhi which screwed his relations with the others and later Qin and Sury declared on Gandhi + Shaka together. I was up to +17 on some of them till the refusal to fight Shaka took its eventual toll. Actually won a completely peaceful diplomatic (as opposed to diplomation) victory for once.

Neighbours with a cultural UB/high cultural inclination can be very annoying too. Look at the 2nd pic - it's one of my own cities (unrestricted leaders) built very long ago, with Sushi and Hermitage and running artists recently in to fight the losing cultural war. Great city site totally swamped by Qin's stupid holy city culture, becoming a worthless size 8 city sigh.

 

[azzaman333]

I've played so many games that I hate them all equally.

 

[Eagle_eye]

hateshput. hateshput. *shudder* I utterly despise hateshput, because she always ends up with super high culture cities, to the point where it can take 10 units to take a single poorly garrissoned border city.

 

[The Rook]

Probably Zara. Not the leader I least like to meet, but most frequently turns out to be relevant for longest, very rare that he puts in a poor showing.

Honourable mention to Shaka, if he isn't vassaled in his first war he'll probably take over the whole continent, that's hoping he isn't on YOUR continent.

 

[Negator_UK]

Skaka and Ragnar for all the reasons you have said - Ragnar in particular builds big stacks, but both these guys know how to combine troops & siege.

Cathy, Rexes well and very conquest orientated - always wants to screw my diplo by getting me to sever trade ties, then hits me when friendly anyway after she's gotten huge - and she can do ciltural wins - ouch..

Toku - a real millstone of a neighbour but can be a nice backward conquest if he's on an island by himself.

 

[i_imperator]

Monty, Shaka, Ragnar and Cyrus(He builds too much), and Alex of course.

 

[The Almighty dF]

Shaka Zulu.
In every game I'm in where he pops up, I try to unite everyone -against- him. He's a plague, a scourge.

He's Civilization's equivalent of a zerg rusher, and that really, really irritates me. He just comes in with wave after wave of cheap units that wouldn't normally be a threat, but since he's made so many he's able to take out your defenses. It's like being poked to death with a toothpick, except it all happens in the same turn.
No other leader gives me such a hard time, except maybe Sitting Bull, who is kind of a stubborn jerk... or Montezuma, who loves rushing.

 

[Brownsfan02]

I don't really have one, but Shaka is a pain. One time he sent (no joke) 5 spys at me at once I captured all of them, he then proceeded to declare war on me and own me with like 6 stacks.

 

[lasombra1984]

1. Any religious zealot leader, especially Isabella (though I'm playing zealotic Justinian)
2. Always "Annoyed" Montezuma
3. Tokugawa - bastard which never opens borders for my missionaries

 

[Fatality_Slim]

I actually cant stand the leaders who are quick to vassal to other people, because it can completely mess up a normally awesome endgame. A Psycho like Shaka or a jackass like Sitting Bull irritate me, but they at least fight their own wars.

What drives me nuts is that every game I play with Mansa Musa, he cozies up to some random neighbor and acts like a tech power-up for them before I can get to him and conquer him. Peace vassaling, especially when a civ's position ISN'T completely untenable, makes the vein in my head pound. Add Brennus and Ghandi to the list of game altering vassalwimps, but NO one is a bad as Mansa on pulling the ejection handle and hiding behind a random powerhouse.

 

[Dostojevski]

Gilgamesh of Sumeria. He hates me and I hate him. Not the biggest warmonger but usually techs good so you have to fight up to date units.
Otherwise I hate Montezuma, he will always declare on me. It does not matter how nice I am to him or what I do he always decide to beat me up anyway
Mehmet II of Ottoman Empire, expands like crazy and knows how to beat up other AIs early and often. Had a great game as Pericles of the Greeks where I thought everything was running really smooth, untill Mehmet got the United Nations and won a diplo victory with the help of all his vassals as I was going to launch my spacecraft

 

[dirtyparrot]

For some reason Ragnar owns me. I know that you can get him to pleased relatively easily for some reason, he comes after me before I can get him to friendly and he's not your typical dumb war-monger.

 

[NonPrayinMantis]

Shaka, CivIV enemy number one! I often declare on him before he can DoW on me, just because!

But one other leader has always irritated me in almost every game I find him in: Hannibal. Hannibal the back-stabber, good-techer, and huge fleet builder who ALWAYS kills my seafood in a water rich game!

NPM

 

[Gliese 581]

I personally hate encountering Gilgamesh in close proximity.

 

[jwez11007]

I actually cant stand the leaders who are quick to vassal to other people, because it can completely mess up a normally awesome endgame. A Psycho like Shaka or a jackass like Sitting Bull irritate me, but they at least fight their own wars.

What drives me nuts is that every game I play with Mansa Musa, he cozies up to some random neighbor and acts like a tech power-up for them before I can get to him and conquer him. Peace vassaling, especially when a civ's position ISN'T completely untenable, makes the vein in my head pound. Add Brennus and Ghandi to the list of game altering vassalwimps, but NO one is a bad as Mansa on pulling the ejection handle and hiding behind a random powerhouse.

I agree with the anti Mansa sentiment. One of my recent games as genghis saw an exciting keshik womping go south real fast as mansa first accepted my second target (cyrus) as a vassal, entering the war against me. Then, when I managed to take both of their capitals mansa vassaled himself to my only pleased AI(Saladin). I was really looking forward to a continent wide keshik sweep (or at least 3 of the 4 Ais), but Mansa had to screw things up by opening a two front war and then b**** out when I got things going the other direction.

 

[The Almighty dF]

I'm loving that there's something of a consensus in this thread.
Seems like one of the neighbors is Shaka. Figured as much.

The man really -is- a threat if he doesn't lose his first war.

 

[sherbz]

Im surprised no one has mentioned Catherine. I freakin hate her. She declares at pleased and is creative, so she is real annoying if you spawn next to her. I often find that i will have 2 or sometimes even 3 wars before i can tech HR and get her to friendly. In order of hate:

Catherine
Willem
Shaka
Gilgamesh
Sury
Nappy

 

[The Almighty dF]

Im surprised no one has mentioned Catherine. I freakin hate her. She declares at pleased and is creative, so she is real annoying if you spawn next to her. I often find that i will have 2 or sometimes even 3 wars before i can tech HR and get her to friendly. In order of hate:

Catherine
Willem
Shaka
Gilgamesh
Sury
Nappy

I might just be lucky, but in all of my games Catherine seems to be a pushover.
She makes a lot of demands, but she's always low in the score department and I can talk some others into beating her into the ground.

 

[ventrue]

For me, it has to be either Justinian or Boudica.

Justinian is always huge and near the tech lead. Boudica always vassals 2 or 3 other civs and then dogpiles on you.

Next, it would have to be the usual suspects: Monty, Toku and Shaka. They do nothing but slow you down and annoy you.

 

[UWHabs]

I'd say Justinian and Shaka for me. Shaka is the most reasonable of the warmongerers, in that, he can actually keep up in tech. I don't mind Monty, since he's crazy, but usually backwards.

After them, I hate all protective civs that happen to start like 8 tiles away. I have trying to rush them.