Who is the best leader for an "Al Gore" challenge?

[Swein Forkbeard]

Having done The Al Gore Challenge myself, I would say that ORGANIZED is the most important trait. Without Code of Laws, city maintenance is a killer.

Financial would help, too. Unfortunately, if you have Warlords, there's no longer a Fin/Org leader...

My personal recommendation would be Asoka (Spi/Org) if for no other reason than to grab Buddhism early. Founding an early religion can be essential to keeping your economy afloat, as well as converting your neighbors to the same faith, so they don't attack you.

Good luck with the challenge, and let us know how it goes, ok?

I'm not sure about organized. You won't get cheap courthouses and factories.

 

[Swein Forkbeard]

I guess an Imperialistic/Financial Victoria wood be good for the challenge.

Failing that, an Industrious/Financial Huayna Capac

 

[WilliamOfOrange]

The sole exception appears to be Oil -- in my game, I was able to culturally steal an oil well from America, which gave me Oil despite not having Combustion. I wasn't able to build anything with it, but I could trade it away.

And that's because Oil is revealed by Scientific Method, but you need Combustion to build anything will it. You were likely in between those two techs.