Leader personalities

[Footie Mad]

Now that many of us have a few games under our belts, what are your impressions of the different leaders?

As expected Montezuma is very unpredictable and tends to attack sooner or later, so hardly someone to rely on. Otherwise I have found the russians with both Catherine and Peter to be sure to assault you sooner or later, often when you are involved in another campaign they will let their hordes run in through you borders.

Hatsheput is very peaceful but tends to get strong and influential, a silent threat so to speak. Suprisingly i'm yet to experience great aggression from any of the two mongol leaders but this might be more of a coincidence.

[Solver]

Huayna Capac - quite peaceful, happy to trade, extremely happy if you share the same religion.

Tokugawa - moron.

Saladin - has ended up being very strong every time I've played vs. him.

[Jethro83]

Montezuma... grrr... I hate him like I hated Xerxes in Civ III. I've been at war with him at some point every game he appears. Even if he is pleased, he'll find some moment to catch me off-guard and attack.

Tokugawa is yet another character I hate this time around. There has not been a single game where I've gotten along with him. I've only been at war with him a few times, but its clear to me that I'm never going to get along with the likes of him.

Both FDR and Washington are easy to get along with as far as I can tell.

Caesar is surprisingly easy to get along with. Never been at war with him. "Want some salad? I made it myself."

Bismarck is similar to Caesar. I've always gotten along with Bismarck. Not so surprisingly I've gotten along with Frederick too.

Alexander is similar to Caesar, though I've been at war with him at least once.

Isabella just refuses to get along with me. While I've never actually been at war with her, she is always annoyed with me.

Catherine is a step down from Izzy, because while she's always annoyed with me, I remember one game when she was on the opposite side of the world and landed an invasion. Why is it that the civs far away are more likely to declare war than my immediate neighbours?

Mansa Musa is someone I've been able to get along with, but he hoards all of his technologies and refuses to trade them even when he is pleased with me.

While unsurprisingly, Genghis Khan is a warmongering bastard, I've still been able to cut deals with him sometimes. Of course, my early harassment against him, cutting off his supply of horses makes him more manageable.

Louis XIV despite being a pompous ass is easy to get along with. Napoleon... not so much.

Saladin is a weird one. There are times when I've gotten along with him, other times not so much. Though like Isabella, I've never been at war with him.


I haven't seen enough of Gandhi, Asoka, Elizabeth, Victoria, Hatshepsut, Cyrus, Peter, Qin, Mao, Capac, and Kublai Khan to be able to comment about them.

[Nacht]

Isabella just refuses to get along with me. While I've never actually been at war with her, she is always annoyed with me.

She is very strict on religion I think.

[Jethro83]

She is very strict on religion I think.

I figured as much, but she's still fairly belligerent when I have the same state religion as her.

Anyway, in most circumstances, her state religion tends to be one that none of my cities have, so I guess its something that can't be helped.

[taggart]

Tokugawa is yet another character I hate this time around. There has not been a single game where I've gotten along with him. I've only been at war with him a few times, but its clear to me that I'm never going to get along with the likes of him.

Out of the five or so games I've started, Tokugawa has been on my border 4 of the 5 times and every single time he has attacked. In my latest game, our relationship was +4/-1 (+3 total - not too bad) and he still attacked for no reason.

I'm thinking of neutering him in the XML files. Very annoying.

[Solver]

More elaborate comments:

Tokugawa - the weakest AI, by far. He is xenophobic and hates everyone. You and everyone else. Generally, in a game with 7 players, Tokugawa will manage to be Furious at no less than 5.

Huayna Capac - willing to trade and really loves you if you share his religion. However, attacks weaker civs happily.

Montezuma - psychopath. He will likely attack you sooner or later. If you start close to him, prepare for war. You'll have to be really lucky to get him as a real ally.

Isabella - arrogant and unfriendly, backstabbing bastard. You may get along with her if you share her religion, but otherwise, you're screwed.

Genghis Khan - a smart warmonger. Might declare war, but will certainly trade if the trade is also good for him.

Louis XIV - every game I've met him, I eliminated him early so can't say .

Napoleon - the only AI I've never met, weird, after all this time.

Mansa Musa - loves to research stuff, is generally a happy camper and you can very likely get along fine with him. However, he might just sit on his techs and refuse to trade.

Saladin - basically judges you based on your religion. Can be a PITA if he wants to because he usually ends up being strong.

Caesar and Frederick - generally easy to get along with. Give them a nice trade or two and you'll have good relations.

[Azuarc]

I've had many of the same experiences -- Isabella unilaterally hates you if you don't follow her religion. Tokugawa is an isolationist hater. Montezuma simply attacks you.

I've also seen that Peter and Alexander tend to like to raise cain. Asoka and Hapshetsut always seem to build strong power bases and make early religion grabs. Mansa is generally peaceful but can be eventually driven to war. Cyrus, too, although he tends to be slightly more belligerent. Americans are typically peaceful builders until they have a strong base of power. The British rulers are pompous no matter what.

But everyone will love you if you share their religion.

[khumak]

Montezuma is just generally an ass in this game. Doesn't matter who I play, if Montezuma is in the game there's about an 80% chance I'm at war with him at any given moment. I suspect it really has more to do with the aggressive trait than anything specific to Montezuma though. I've noticed that I'm never at war with Ghandi or Roosevelt. Although frequently I wind up playing Ghandi because his traits rock and so do fast workers

[aceshigh]

Isabella - arrogant and unfriendly, backstabbing bastard. You may get along with her if you share her religion, but otherwise, you're screwed.

I'll agree with this. I was just playing one game where I didn't meet her till late game. We didn't have the same religion, so I quickly grabbed liberalism and went free religion to negate the hate (she was #1 score, I was #2). I got her to borderline pleased, still cautious, but +1 overall, then I built the UN and had most of the support to win a diplo victory. The instant I proposed the diplo victory vote, she declared war on me. I'd call that unfriendly and pretty backstabbing.

Also, Peter (Russians) is a bastard too. Same game, he leeched techs from me the whole game, but I had him friendly most of game, more than +15 relations. When I went free religion, we lost some relations, but he was still overwhelmingly pleased. When the time came to vote for me to win, he abstained. Cost me the game pretty much...

Can't really rate them all, but some that stand out to me are:

• Roosevelt (easy to get along with, but generally won't go to war for you)
• Mao/China (generally demanding and annoying/annoyed)
• Alexander (middleish, but generally easy to get along with, good ally if he likes you)
• Cyrus (excellent ally, easy to get along with).

[Peets]

Originally posted by Solver
Mansa Musa - loves to research stuff, is generally a happy camper and you can very likely get along fine with him. However, he might just sit on his techs and refuse to trade.

In my last game he was very happy to trade with me.

[Martinus]

• Kublai Khan - a wily warmonger. He will usually bide his time before attacking you, and then overcome you with superiour forces (which, unlike those of his grandpa's, will also be technologically superior. I have not tried to ally with him, but from his comments I judge he is pretty ready to backstab you.
  
• Louis XIV - a true bastard. Despite his cultural outlook, he will brutally extort tributes from people and invade them, especially when they are fighting someone else. Don't turn your back on him.
  
• Elisabeth - pretty happy to trade and ally with you, as long as you respect your committments and come to her help (she is often quite hated by many other leaders, for some reason). Also, the least likely to look at your religion.
  
• Catherine - demanding, but if she is happy with you (i.e. you are not trading with her enemies etc.) she will make a trusty ally. Perfect to team up with if you have permanent alliances in game - I still remember the game where she utterly destroyed Isabella on her own.

[Footie Mad]

For some reason Napoleon almost never comes up if you only choose random. Anyway I once chose him and he coordinated a three nation simultaneous attack on me that totally ran me over. Maybe there's a reason for him being a little rare.

I have to agree with Tokugawa, he's a really strange guy. On pangea maps you have to keep relations with many different civs and he always winds up getting mauled since he just can't seem to get along with anyone for a longer period of time.

I strongly dislike Gandhi and his smug face, always building massive cities and going for a space win.

[baboon]

Roosevelt: decent ally, won't do much for you. Asks you to help but won't help you. Did attack me once when I was a bit weak.

Kublai Kahn: agressive one, good army. a good friend too.

Elizabeth: nice as an ally, although she agreed on peace with Kublai right after dragging me into war.

Peter: always angry, always friends with the other guys that don't like me.

Tuko: always angry, always the first one I attack

Isabella: I'm always a different religion so she hates me

Ghengzis Kahn: Different every time

Caesar : nice guy, good cook

[Xanthippe]

If leader personality can ahve such a big influence (and what leader ever ruled for 6,000+ years ?) then there should be larger selection of leaders for each Civ or leaders should be readily 'moddable'.