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Many threads have looked at the comparisons between individual traits but what has not really been addressed is the combination of your leader traits and what sort of game this should lead to. With eight different traits, there are 28 possible combinations. No two leaders have the same combination and two of the combinations Phi/Ind and Org/Cre are not found in the leader options.
I thought I might then start a thread discussing how to play to the advantages offered by a particular leader/civ.
Leader 1 : Gandhi
Traits (Spiritual – No Anarchy)
(Industrious - +50% wonder build)
Starting techs: Mysticism/Mining)
Special unit: Fast Worker
The one thing missing here is your starting position which will lead towards certain strategies and away from others. Some plans simply won’t work if you aren’t given the resources. However you should always bear in mind these traits and lean towards the advantages they give you. For all these points I will assume that you start with a river and have at least one resource tile by the river requiring a build tech other than mining. I will also assume that you have a reasonable number of woods to chop.
This leader fits perfectly with a slingshot using a Great Prophet. With the industrious trait and starting with Mysticism, Stonehenge is positively begging to be built. To play it safe, you want to start building this straight away. The military can wait as can your first settler.
Your tile selection does not need to worry about hammers since Stonehenge will actually be built by felling trees. Rather, tile selection will be driven by the choice of first tech and you basically have two options.
1) Race for an early religion (either Meditation or Polytheism – you’ll need both)
2) Directly to bronze-working for early worker and chop to speed along Stonehenge.
For me, the first option is too much of a gamble at emperor level although would merit consideration at Prince level. It is just a small bonus and not entirely necessary. By snagging both Stonehenge and the Oracle you’ll be able to get Confucianism and Taoism and I tend to feel that two religion should be enough for most people. If you want more you can always capture other nations Shrine cities later. If you choose to ignore this then my only remaining advice is to play your best card on the race to religion and work the tile producing the most gold.
Option 2) seems to be the best route for me in almost any situation. With mining as a starting tech, you are already 1/3 of the way there so it will not take long. It also gives the added benefit of displaying copper and giving some clues as to a good site for a second city. With this choice, tile selection should be based on city growth since you’ll want that extra population point to rush the worker to completion. From this point forward, I will be assuming my line of tech investment and tile working.
Use your free warrior sparingly but try to go for those nice huts. But your warriors first and most important task is to see out a good second city site. You will probably want to keep this one safe so use whatever cover you can find and avoid fights that are too close to 50:50. Don’t stray too far from your capital because, after you’ve pop-rushed your worker, you may be needed back there if it is likely that it will quickly reach size 3 before the unhappiness from the pop-rush disappears.
The first time you need to check back in the capital will be when it receives its border expansion. This is just to check that it is working the highest food tile available.
Back in your city, your next move will be once your city has grown to size 2. You will then have to do a few calculations to determine when you want to start on a worker. Your optimal choice will be to start building a worker such that your discovery of bronze-working will coincide as closely as possibly with your worker just being in range of a pop-rush. Your city should probably still be using maximum growth but with Gandhi, should probably switch to fast worker before the city reaches 3 population.
When you switch to fast worker, you need to check the tiles AGAIN to see that the worker will be produced as quickly as possible.
When you finally discover Bronze-working you should immediately switch to slavery. With no anarchy, you then immediately rush your fast worker who will then set about clearing forests. Note also that your extra fast worker can start chopping straight away if there are woods directly bordering the city.
The worker can then chop Stonehenge to completion and you could conceivable set the city to maximum production if you are worried about the time race. I would be quite surprised if this route failed to give you Stonehenge at any level simply because the combination of industrious trait and starting tech of Mysticism do not combine in another civilisation.
With lower levels options will exist so that Stonehenge does not need to be rushed and you might, for example, wish to throw out another warrior before the wonder to give more exploration options. However, if Stonehenge can be built early this will reduce the appearance of the Great Prophet and if you have already got Meditation, Priesthood, Writing and Polytheism - but NOT MASONRY – you’ll be able to lightbulb Code of Laws with the Prophet and thus start your own private religion (taking advantage of another trait ability of Spirituals to build a quick temple)
The point of this discussion is that all of my starting characteristics have been used in the early game. Industrious helped speed up Stonehenge, Spiritual saved time with the switch to slavery and your fast worker got those forests down more quickly. In fact, since your starting techs were all in this tech path, you’ve used them too.
I thought I might then start a thread discussing how to play to the advantages offered by a particular leader/civ.
Leader 1 : Gandhi
Traits (Spiritual – No Anarchy)
(Industrious - +50% wonder build)
Starting techs: Mysticism/Mining)
Special unit: Fast Worker
The one thing missing here is your starting position which will lead towards certain strategies and away from others. Some plans simply won’t work if you aren’t given the resources. However you should always bear in mind these traits and lean towards the advantages they give you. For all these points I will assume that you start with a river and have at least one resource tile by the river requiring a build tech other than mining. I will also assume that you have a reasonable number of woods to chop.
This leader fits perfectly with a slingshot using a Great Prophet. With the industrious trait and starting with Mysticism, Stonehenge is positively begging to be built. To play it safe, you want to start building this straight away. The military can wait as can your first settler.
Your tile selection does not need to worry about hammers since Stonehenge will actually be built by felling trees. Rather, tile selection will be driven by the choice of first tech and you basically have two options.
1) Race for an early religion (either Meditation or Polytheism – you’ll need both)
2) Directly to bronze-working for early worker and chop to speed along Stonehenge.
For me, the first option is too much of a gamble at emperor level although would merit consideration at Prince level. It is just a small bonus and not entirely necessary. By snagging both Stonehenge and the Oracle you’ll be able to get Confucianism and Taoism and I tend to feel that two religion should be enough for most people. If you want more you can always capture other nations Shrine cities later. If you choose to ignore this then my only remaining advice is to play your best card on the race to religion and work the tile producing the most gold.
Option 2) seems to be the best route for me in almost any situation. With mining as a starting tech, you are already 1/3 of the way there so it will not take long. It also gives the added benefit of displaying copper and giving some clues as to a good site for a second city. With this choice, tile selection should be based on city growth since you’ll want that extra population point to rush the worker to completion. From this point forward, I will be assuming my line of tech investment and tile working.
Use your free warrior sparingly but try to go for those nice huts. But your warriors first and most important task is to see out a good second city site. You will probably want to keep this one safe so use whatever cover you can find and avoid fights that are too close to 50:50. Don’t stray too far from your capital because, after you’ve pop-rushed your worker, you may be needed back there if it is likely that it will quickly reach size 3 before the unhappiness from the pop-rush disappears.
The first time you need to check back in the capital will be when it receives its border expansion. This is just to check that it is working the highest food tile available.
Back in your city, your next move will be once your city has grown to size 2. You will then have to do a few calculations to determine when you want to start on a worker. Your optimal choice will be to start building a worker such that your discovery of bronze-working will coincide as closely as possibly with your worker just being in range of a pop-rush. Your city should probably still be using maximum growth but with Gandhi, should probably switch to fast worker before the city reaches 3 population.
When you switch to fast worker, you need to check the tiles AGAIN to see that the worker will be produced as quickly as possible.
When you finally discover Bronze-working you should immediately switch to slavery. With no anarchy, you then immediately rush your fast worker who will then set about clearing forests. Note also that your extra fast worker can start chopping straight away if there are woods directly bordering the city.
The worker can then chop Stonehenge to completion and you could conceivable set the city to maximum production if you are worried about the time race. I would be quite surprised if this route failed to give you Stonehenge at any level simply because the combination of industrious trait and starting tech of Mysticism do not combine in another civilisation.
With lower levels options will exist so that Stonehenge does not need to be rushed and you might, for example, wish to throw out another warrior before the wonder to give more exploration options. However, if Stonehenge can be built early this will reduce the appearance of the Great Prophet and if you have already got Meditation, Priesthood, Writing and Polytheism - but NOT MASONRY – you’ll be able to lightbulb Code of Laws with the Prophet and thus start your own private religion (taking advantage of another trait ability of Spirituals to build a quick temple)
The point of this discussion is that all of my starting characteristics have been used in the early game. Industrious helped speed up Stonehenge, Spiritual saved time with the switch to slavery and your fast worker got those forests down more quickly. In fact, since your starting techs were all in this tech path, you’ve used them too.
So far, the only happiness resource around is silk so it would seem that religious happiness is going to be my priority for now. The calendar tech will lose me those nice GP points from Stonehenge
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