Who Are Your Cursed Leaders

[IagoAlberto]

This is a thread born out of frustration following a bad game as Hatty. I just can't seem to have a good game with her. Nothing wrong with her traits or uniques, in fact they're both great! I've had great games as Rameses II but never Hatty.

So fellow civfanatics, who are the leaders you see as cursed. In other words they're good on paper but never work out in game? Mine are obviously Hatty and Peter of Russia.

 

[nbcman]

Mine is Boudica. I can't get the hang of the Celtic Civ. But hopefully after reading Sisiutil's most recent ALC I can get some tips.

 

[Crighton]

I always get thrown up a creek when I get Toku, not sure why but i always get screwed.

Other than him . . . . . . . the Egyptians never seem to be all that for me.

 

[AbbieRevo]

I know this is going to seem ridiculous, but I can't get JC to work for me. For some reason my Praet rush is weak, I just don't understand....

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I have a good leader (Washington) but no bad ones.

I can blow a game with ANY leader just fine, and the odds don't seem to favor one over the others .

 

[thelibra]

Tokugowa FTL!!!

I almost always play on Random, and when I get Tokugowa, I -ALWAYS WITHOUT FAIL- end up in the worst possible location, either surrounded by a ton of desert squares, tundra squares, snow squares, jungle squares, or on some pathetic 1-2 square island. I have never even had so much as a "meh" start location as him, requiring me to spend the first 2-3 turns just scrambling for a starting city location that isn't abysmal.

The Jungle squares at least are improvable, but when you have to wait till IRON AGE before you can improve all but a couple of your tiles, it's kind of a bad start.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Two random games in a row, and I wind up with Survy. I love a challenge but playing Khmer is a losing battle for me.
Yes, I'm currently getting pounded.

 

[-FC-Commando]

Many many games i started with Peter, missing Mysticism by a few turns and the Oracle. Oh dear i cursed a lot.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Two random games in a row, and I wind up with Survy. I love a challenge but playing Khmer is a losing battle for me.
Yes, I'm currently getting pounded.

He is a good REX guy. Cheaper workers can put up cottages or improve commerce resources faster, not to mention the speed at which new cities grow thanks to the granary (these are compounding benefits and make EXP deceptively strong early when applied with creative - a granary is your first building and you can whip it for 1 pop and grow very fast...!).

Be sure to chop or whip the cheap library early to get some specialists going/spawn a GS for an academy. If you're expanding a lot via war just go with bulb/trades, otherwise it's a bit situational.

Sury is a top tier REXer so get the good city sites ASAP (it helps to be able to brutally culture rape resources off an AI, especially if it means gold or gems).

Toku is one of the harder ones to actually leverage - no economy traits whatsoever! He can tech pottery immediately if needed so he has a leg up there. Otherwise he's a straight war guy and should be played like one - you have access to powerful units of all kinds early on and should make use of them. Grab as much land as possible because you'll need it to tech easily later on.

If you get a sizeable empire with toku and survive until nationalism, ALL draft options from samarai on are incredibly useful. Drafting is very, very strong once you have 12+ cities and one of them has globe. The troop spam is unbelievable.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Be sure to chop or whip the cheap library early to get some specialists going/spawn a GS for an academy. If you're expanding a lot via war just go with bulb/trades, otherwise it's a bit situational.

I didn't know about Survy's REXing abilities, but I do have about 9 cities, and one I just captured from Bismark. I usually have a strong economy, but this game it's been really hard to keep the tech slider above 40%, and I'm getting out-teched badly. I agree with the whipping of the library though, and I'm currently whipping a few courthouses in a couple of low hammer cities. That should help, and I'm beelining Communism for the State Property. This should be interesting, Shaka's next door and my power is low...

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I learned a lot about massive #'s of early cities from InvisibleStalker. You can get to 10 around the 1 AD mark...usually more like 200-400 AD though. The slider *will* go under 40%. It might go under 10%. If you know what you're doing though this isn't necessarily bad for you long term. Very important to have to grow cities though so that they can actually do something other than be 4 pop centers. Often this takes care of itself by claiming or rushing resources though! If it doesn't try to tech or extort monarchy - library scientists can keep you from going belly up completely.

 

[Atwork]

right now it's HANNIBAL!! Damn him.

 

[Junuxx]

The Egyptians often confuse my strategy because they are Spiritual but don't start with Mysticism, which is unusual. I can't remember succesful with Saladin or Hammurabi either, but maybe I just haven't played as them enough.

 

[Sian]

even though i've tried to play with Darius several times i just can't seem to be able to warp my head around him