Who's the Best New Leader in BTS?

[Alexander I]

Who's the best new leader in Beyond the Sword and why?

My favorites include Pericles, Zara Yaqob, and of course, Hammurabi.

[Pandemoniak]

Charles de Gaulle got a good combination of Industrious and Charismatic for builder and quicker promotions, sided with the French UB Salon it makes it nice to balance strong builder-style with decent defenses.

Still not beating Louis XIV, tho

[onodera]

Mr. Fanta.
Cre/Fin is a powerful combo. You can utilize all squares in your fat cross just 10 turns after the city is founded, can get boatloads of money and run research/culture at 100%. And if you don't screw around and play Dutch, you get hammers in your water tiles and a UU that is much better than a regular unit.

[Alexander I]

Wow. Lots of Dutch support out there. Impressive.

[One_more_turn]

The Dutch got the ultra-powerful plain-vanilla Washington trait.

[onodera]

Washington? Not Catherine?

[fed1943]

Washington was Financial and Organized.
Catherine was Financial and Creative.

Best regards,

[Kekkonen]

I can't see how one could fail to get an INSANE economy going with Darius. Haven't tried him yet, though.

Boudica should be great for warmongering (and boy does the AI know that).

My favorite of the three ones I've tried so far is Sitting Bull, but that's partly because of the civ. Totem pole + protective = best ready-made archers in the game.

[sneaky]

Willem van Orange is certainly one of the best. Great traits and a powerful UB that boosts production intensively.

[onodera]

Originally posted by Kekkonen
My favorite of the three ones I've tried so far is Sitting Bull, but that's partly because of the civ. Totem pole + protective = best ready-made archers in the game.

I have to agree. I spawned next to him in one of my games and decided to rush him. I slaughtered his dog soldiers with my chariots, pillaged everything I could, but couldn't take any of his cities.
That's why you use your spies to make smallpox blanket gifts and do not touch the proud people until your cavalry arrives.

[Kekkonen]

Originally posted by onodera

I have to agree. I spawned next to him in one of my games and decided to rush him. I slaughtered his dog soldiers with my chariots, pillaged everything I could, but couldn't take any of his cities.

Sort of my experience in my Sitting Bull game, but in reverse -- I had Boadicea as my neighbor, and I'm pretty sure that there would never have been a Native American Space Ship if I hadn't had those Drill III Longbowmen.

[Blake]

Lets start with an obvious choice, I'm sure that Booty would be a good nickname for her, but offending Celtic Warlords may not be a good idea.

Boudica (Aggressive/Charismatic) - Celtic Leader (Gaulic Warrior, Dunn, Mysticism/Hunting)

Boudy can be described as Tokugawa on crack (with boobs). Not only does she have dual military traits, one of the traits also doubles as a half-economic trait (especially since she starts with mysticism).

I would describe her as a one trick pony, but it's a bloody fine trick. If any leader is going to knock someone out of the game, regardless of their wishes, it's Boudy. Early melee UU benefiting from both traits says it all.

Note that the Celtic civilization is overpowered - the combination of Mysticism and Charismatic is quite synergetic in that it acts as a "Half Creative" third trait.

However I tend to think that on sum, Brennus is actually the better Celtic leader, since he has the tasty religious synergy while still having military benefits for all unit types, just less for melee/gunpowder.


The next contender is
Pericles (Creative/Philo) - Greek Leader (Phalanx, Odeon, Fishing/Hunting)

Pericles has some amazing synergy and also some other strengths.
Creative and Philo synergize in that the cheap library gives him the fasted possible Academy, especially if he has some fish at his capital to supply the food.
Creative is just an all-around awesome trait, Creative leaders are Just Better in the early game, they do everything faster and are more secure.
Creative and the Odeon synergize - it is cheap, this means even stronger culture, even faster.
For an even better early game, he has the spammable Phalanx UU.

Pericles has an exceptional early game, although the philosophical trait can lose it's luster later in the game, as does Creative. Still, there's no reason why Pericles shouldn't have an extremely strong opening which will lead to victory in the long run.

Is Pericles better than Alexander? Well, Pericles does have more builder synergy (library and odeon), but Alexander has the Aggressive UU synergy. I think both are excellent leaders, but on sum Pericles may edge ahead slightly - however this may be a playstyle thing, there's only one way to play Alexander and he works well, Pericles is more flexible.


A new civ and leader
Pacal II (Expansive/Financial) - Mayan Leader (Holkan, Ball Court, Mysticism/Mining)

Excellent traits and synergy with UB. The Ball Court gives a whopping +3 Happy (2 more), what's more being expansive (for extra health) it's more than likely this happy will be useful.
What could be better than big financial cities? I guess the option of an early religion could be nice... oh wait . Mysticism/Mining are good starting techs giving many options, in particular financial+mysticism is a good synergy, but unfortunately spain on a lake is not possible - but you can't have it all in terms of starting tech. This means you need to have a commerce resource on a river, or an oasis, to get that coveted +3 commerce for an early religion grab.

The UU is not particularly good, although it's decent insurance against not having metal, insurance which unfortunately only helps if you get attacked by mounted units.


Those I feel are the best 3 leaders added in BTS. A strong early game still counts for a lot when it's winning you want to do. Many other BTS leaders have great strengths, but the "Ultimate Turtle Power" of Sitting Bull is not necessarily easily leveraged into a straightforward victory.

The two sea-centric leaders are very nice, and on very watery maps they would be strong leaders. But for general use, the lack of an early UU and early UB means they don't get a top 3 spot. Suryavarman II has strong traits, but let down by a not so strong UB and a UU which may not come into play.

My ultimate vote went with Pericles for having so much synergy it's wrong.
I think however the strongest leaders in the game are still Brennus and Hatshepsut, Pericles may or may not take the 3rd spot, I'm undecided.

[Solver]

However I tend to think that on sum, Brennus is actually the better Celtic leader, since he has the tasty religious synergy while still having military benefits for all unit types, just less for melee/gunpowder.

Absolutely. Booty is unmatched in warfare, but Brennus has more flexibility. Boudica is one of the worst leaders you could have in an isolated start. Brennus is still an above-average warlord, but with much more flexibility.

[DanQ]

... (Franks/HRE)

Originally posted by Blake
Lets start with an obvious choice, I'm sure that Booty would be a good nickname for her, but offending Celtic Warlords may not be a good idea.

Originally posted by Solver
Absolutely. Booty is...

I wonder if Wouter created a few DLs to help sway the vote as it stands here...

[Alexander I]

Originally posted by Blake
I'm sure that Booty would be a good nickname for her

Well, it's better than Boobica, that's for sure. She does have quite the tendency to assert herself.