1st Poll : the best leaders ?

[CyberS]

Hello,

I am working for a french newsmagazine dedicated to strategy video games : www.cyberstratege.com

We are preparing a special edition on Civ4 BTS and we want to make polls to determine what are the best leaders/wonders/unique units/traits on this game.

So here is our first question :
Who are the best leaders in Civ4 Beyond the Sword ?
In fact there are 2 questions : who is the best economic leader ? who is the best military leader ?

For each, could you mention your 3 favorite and add some words to explain ?

NOTE : consider it for a standard solo game : 7 players on fractal, normal size and speed, difficulty prince, beginng in 4000 BC.

Thanks everybody
The mag will be out in October in France, Belgium. There will be maybe an online edition.

Sebastian

PS : the vote will close wednesday the 5th.

[ben04]

What do I get for providing you with the content for your article?

[CyberS]

My gratitude

[Will9]

Economy:
I haven't him played with him yet although I'd guess Darius would be best for economy due to his traits.
I'd put Hannibal as second due to the Financial trait along with the Cothon.
I'd give Elizabeth and Victoria a tie for 3rd for the Financial-Stack Exchange combo.

Military:
Augustus, Preatorians rule.
Hannibal, his economy lets him have a large army that is made even better with the Charismatic trait.
Justinian, Cataphracts with Imperialistic majes great Warlord units plus the Hippodrome lets you stay at war for prolonged time.

[Blaupanzer]

Note the best leaders have been rated by me independent of the civs they lead. Adding in civ considerations increases the value of Charlemagne on the econ side and reduces the value of Tokugawa on the war side.

With that said, the best economic leaders are:

Darius, based on his traits;
William of Orange, based on in-game performance;
Mansa Musa, based on his performance as an opponent -- he always has lots of money and is a threat for tech lead.

The best war leaders are:

Brennus, with enough flexibility to take advantage of peace, he is superior to Boudica (who is, by far, the best war-only leader in the game);
Cyrus, based on his traits;
Tokugawa, based on the units produced with his traits (replaced by Washington if the civ itself is considered).

[Blake]

Humm, i consider the best leaders to be the most balanced leaders, rather than the "Best" military or "best" economic. UIf you're after a best military or economic leader, you're saying "I'm going to rig the settings so the best way to win is by economy/military", and that's not CIV.

The best leaders are:
Brennus: (Cha/Spi)
Being a charismatic leader and being spiritual and starting with mysticism is a very strong trait combination. His copper-swordman is also a good thing. The two main strengths of Brennus is oodles of happiness and wealth from his traits and religions, combined with the crushing military power of Charismatic combined with Military Civics courtesy of Spiritual, when brennus goes to war, romes get sacked.

Hatshepsut: (Cre/Spi)
The true strength of Hatty is in combining the Creative trait with the starting techs of Agriculture and The Wheel with the War Chariot UU. This is not only the fastest possible chariot rush, it's also with a sickeningly strong UU!
Spiritual is a nice bonus for later in the game, when it really starts to come into it's own as a trait.


So I'm going to say the best Economic leader is Brennus, because he does have a decent economy (he can just religion it up with giant cities, doesn't need to monger war), and can also kick ass with the best of them if that's called for. The best military leader is Hatshepsut, because she can certainly kick ass in a rush, and her economy wont let her down either.

In terms of "Min/Max" leaders:
Best Military:
Alexander. Few leaders can afford to devote as much to military as Alexander, Alexander can easily kick ass with his aggressive melee hordes, while keeping research going with a token investment in great people. Combine this with a decent UU and a far above average UB and you have a good leader for smacking neighbors around.
(I'd say the Agg/Org trait combo is just as good, but it's not really on a wonderful Civ in BTS).
A nice bonus of Alexander, is that if you have no neighbors, you can really focus on Philo instead of Agg! Many wallmonger leaders don't have a fallback.

Best Economy:
Willem Van Oranje. Perhaps a popular choice, but the combination of Creative/Financial is top-notch, and it's hard to complain about the UB.

[SpencerH]

Its funny but I hit on Brennus in my second BtS game and found him to be extremely effective for my style of play.

[Jvstin]

[SIZE=1]

Best Economy:
Willem Van Oranje. Perhaps a popular choice, but the combination of Creative/Financial is top-notch, and it's hard to complain about the UB.

On a Pangaea, of course, the UB doesn't do diddly.

However, I have said elsewhere that with a few exceptions (eg Praetorians), I don't consider UBs as compared to their ordinary counterparts to be a deal breaker when picking Civs to play.

[One_more_turn]

1. Caesar
2. Lincoln
3. Darius

But the old Augustus from Warlord trounces them all.

[darrelljs]

My favorite leader for Domination/Conquest type victories is Napoleon.

My favorite leader for Space/Culture type victories is Gandhi.

Darrell

[Arrian]

A possible "stealth" economy leader is Mehmed. ORG/EXP with a UB that provides +2 happy over and above the standard building (aqueduct, +2 health). This makes the Ottomans psuedo-CHA (at least wrt economy), albeit not right away. Another such civ could be the Inca (FIN/IND). Economy isn't all money - production matters too, and 1/2 cost forges are nice. So are terraces.

Leaders that strike me as particularly powerful for economy:

Darius (FIN/ORG, Apothecary)
Hannibal (FIN/CHA, Cothon)
Willem (FIN/CRE, Dike)
Mehmed (ORG/EXP, Hamman)
Maya man (FIN/EXP, Ball Court)

Leaders with good fightin' skills:

Boudicea (CHA/AGG, decent UU)
Either Ceasar (Praetorians)
Nappy (ORG/CHA)
Cyrus (IMP/CHA, Immortals)
Alex (AGG/PHI, Phalanx)

edit: thanks, Kuci. Wanna know how the Colossus works?

-Arrian

[Kuciwalker]

Maya man (FIN/EXP, ? I forget the UB)

Ball Court, IIRC it's got an extra happy (and something else different from Colloseums).

[Kuciwalker]

Alex (AGG/CRE?, Phalanx)

AGG/PHI

[Arrian]

Heh. Oopsie. Is Pericles CRE/PHI? Maybe that's where I got the CRE from...

You don't get to use the shame smilie on me, Mr. I don't know what the Colossus does...

Ball Court: hmm, extra happy is good. EXP/FIN is already solid economically. Not a bad little civ.

-Arrian

[Kataphraktoi]

Not much love for the Rathaus

1. Willem Van Oranje
2. Darius
3. Huaynya Capac

Willem Van Oranje is the best for economy, allowing you to claim resources and land much easier I dont like the netherlands starting techs but you roll with the punches. Darius allow you to have a good rush unit and super econ all at once and cheap courthouses for those conquered cities. Huayna Capac is still excellent, using quechuas for an early landgrab\conquest and still being able to get wonders and econ going