Who's the most versatile leader?

[QuixotesGhost]

As in the leader who is most capable of achieving every kind of victory, and executing multiple strategies to do so.


I'm going with Saladin.

-Diplomatic: He starts with Mysticism so early religeons are a possiblity allowing him to leverage them to create diplomatic blocs. Plus he is spiritual so he can easily acceed to demands to convert his religeon or switch civics then switch back in 5 turns with no anarchy.

- Cultural: Philosophical allows him to crank out Great Artists and Spiritual gives him cheap temples, for getting Cathedrals built. Plus Spiritual allows you to switch civics on a dime if you get sneak attacked, useful for the cultural endgame for a quick switch to Nationhood.

- Military: Great People can give you access to some nice military techs through lightbulbing, Great Prophets are particularly good for this, giving you Theology for elite units, then Civil Service which is half the prereq for Macemen. And Spiritual allows you to consolidate that much faster between wars becuase you can quickly put yourself on war or peace footing. Plus with Camel Archers you're always guarenteed a Knight unit despite your resources.

- Space Race:He really doesn't have anything specifically to help him out here, but I'd argue this victory condition has less to do with what civilization you're running and how you've set yourself up throughout the game. Any leader if they've managed to set up a powerful empire with good infrastructre has a shot. At this point it's less about your traits, and more about how you've leveraged them earlier on to get a powerful late game empire.



So who's your choice? Make a case for em.

The polls here only have 20 options max, so I'll just sort the leaders by Empire.

 

[Cam_H]

Clearly there's a fairly legitimate argument for possibly half of the leaders, however my vote went for Gandhi.

The Unique Unit : A timeless-unit that will build your first farms and roads all the way through to fixing your bombed uranium mines. It will be with you throughout the game. No need to strategise about bee-lining for any tech's or gearing up for conflict to capitalise on your UU's advantage (or in the case of Montezuma ...).

Traits : I think that 'Industrious' and 'Spiritual' are two of the more flexible traits. Obviously high production cities with quick-built Forges are great for any victory type, and there are so many Wonders that can offer a myriad of benefits, that regardless of your pursuit - Industrious will be of help. Spiritual's cheap Temples are a quick way of addressing happiness issues in newly captured cities from a warmonger's perspective, through to being a necessity for Cultural wins. The period of no anarchy gives great 'pain free' flexibility in switching in and out of 'war mode', or switching religions in order to appease diplomatic pressures.

Technologies - Mysticism and Mining. Starting with Mysticism gives improved chances of picking up an early religion which again can be used in a flexible manner - from hording income through shrines, to strengthening diplomatic ties, to spying on potential victims. Mining is one step from Bronze Working, and allows for a great 'out of the blocks' start, whether chopping for Settlers to expand, or Axes also to expand! Refer also to the U.U.

Victory types :

Conflict Oriented ;

Gandhi, with hammer-oriented Mining and soon-to-acquire Bronze Working overseen by Fast Workers puts India in a great position to kick the game off with an Axe rush. With quickly developed roads, they can improve the mobility of their troops to get to the battle lines. With cities captured, Fast Workers can move around the fat cross quicker and chop either cheap Temples to improve culture and happiness, or cheap Forges to improve the city's overall productivity. Warmongers' wonders are quicker to build; The Pyramids (for Police State), Heroic Epic, The Pentagon, etc. etc. No protracted periods of anarchy when switching in and out of war mode either (a common fate for warmongers) is another benefit of an Indian bully.

Peaceful / Builder Oriented ;

Fast Workers shave time off improving cities, cheap temples keep cities more content, and forges ensure their productivity. A similar point regarding Wonders, where there are a host of options to permit great flexibility in terms of victory pursuit. The absence of anarchy during times of civic or religious conversion allows flexibility. For anyone considering building The Pyramids, Gandhi’s your man, as not only do you get a quicker build, but no anarchy when you use it! Strengthening diplomatic ties through converting religions or civics, responding to an unprovoked attack by quickly getting into wartime civics, or simply saving a dozen turns of anarchy for a time victory will all help the peaceful oriented player with the Spiritual trait.

 

[Synex]

Get to the mid-game and i'd say Russia by far.

If you've done things properly, you'll be pulling 1000 gold/turn.

From here you can:

Rush-Buy your most advance units. Up to 10/turn. No-one can keep up with production like that.

Rush-Buy temples + catherdrals in your 3 top culture cities, and get a cultural win in 50 turns.

Bribe other races into loving you, thus winning Diplomatic.

Out-tech everyone to space ship parts and build your way to freedom.

Or just out-culture and culture-flip everyone elses cities.

Money really does make the world go round.

 

[vilemerchant]

Get to the mid-game and i'd say Russia by far.

Yes and isn't she the most gorgeous peice of pixellated ass you've ever seen

 

[jimbob27]

Incans I reckon.

If you wanna be warlike, they're agressive... If you wanna be peaceful, then use mysticism to dominate the religions, and use cottage spamming to take advantage of their financial trait.

If you're being warlike you can start a war straight away with the quechua, if you wanna be peaceful, then the quechua will help a lot against barbarians, and you can still sneak an early war in before anyone has discovered your victim, so you won't get negative dipomatic points for it.

 

[juballs2001]

i went with mali and Mansa Musa... love the Financial/Spiritual trait duo.

 

[nealhunt]

Mali.

Spiritual allows you to pursue any strat you want plus have a solid secondary strat going.

Financial because commerce can be used to do whatever you want. As Synex says, money makes the world go round.

The UU is defensive but it is completely independent of any resources at a point in the game when you really might not have them.

 

[Mano3]

Get to the mid-game and i'd say Russia by far. If you've done things properly, you'll be pulling 1000 gold/turn... Money really does make the world go round.

How do you pull-off the Cathy Cottage Spam with the new patch?

 

[Armorydave]

Since I have won every victory type with Catherine I am going to have to say Russia. Financial/Creative works no matter what victory you pursue.

 

[Gherald]

Pleased to see so many votes for Inca. Definitely the most versatile in that you can opt for an all-out rush if you're so inclined.

Catherine is also good, but Cre is not nearly as versatile as starting with Mysticism.

 

[uberfish]

Got to agree with the poster who said Inca. They have traits and techs to support either a warmonger, economist or religious start and their UU is very useful for either defence or offence in the critical early stages of the game.

 

[deeperthanu]

mali cause of spiritual and financial. Never cared about UUs so the uu doesnt matter to me.

 

[Zombie69]

My vote is for Inca as well. Great for war and for peace.

 

[Drakan]

Mali. Both traits are very good. And the ealry UU alllows for early undisturbed empire build up.

 

[Instant_Cereal]

Definitely India.

 

[cabert]

i think spiritual is a no-brainer
you just need it (well not exactly, need but so much easier), for a diplo win
it's also a very good trait for cultural
and it's quite useful for warlike players too

second trait isn't as important, but financial can be the most allrounder trait
so i go for Mali, good uu too

 

[Gnarfflinger]

I went with Huyana of the Inca. He has Aggressive so when you want/need to kick some ass, he's ready to brawl with cheap barracks and combat 1 on your melee and gunpowder units. He has Financial so that when you aren't fighting, you can cottage spam to get a tech advantage, giving you Feudalism, Theology and maybe even Macemen before your target is ready. When you fight, it hurts them worse than it hurts you, so you have the tech lead to pursue Cultural or Space Race.

 

[jimbob27]

i think spiritual is a no-brainer
you just need it (well not exactly, need but so much easier), for a diplo win
it's also a very good trait for cultural
and it's quite useful for warlike players too

second trait isn't as important, but financial can be the most allrounder trait
so i go for Mali, good uu too

Sounds like somebodies got a crutch!

 

[soulja173]

it's a tie between Ghandi and Capac in my eyez >.<

 

[Gnarfflinger]

I have wanted to try Mansa Musa. I think his UU would nerf an Axe rush, and the "Quick Change" of Spiritual and the Tech race edge of Financial might suggest that even I can't screw that up...