Most Challenging Random Leader/Civ Pairings

[Yaga]

I've recently become enamored of the Unrestricted Leaders flag, and found a few pairings to be particularly challenging:

Mansa Musa / Dutch <-- Tech power house
Gilgamesh / Mali <-- Very nicely balanced early game, but fades post Renaissance
Willem / Portugal <-- Good tech, better military
Catherine / Ottoman <-- Will conquer all your friends and neighbors

Anyone else have some favorite boutique combinations to share?

[snoopy369]

How about Tokugawa/Native Americans? AGG dog warriors and PRO uberarchers that start with 6 experience (Drill 3), 10 with civics (Drill 4)? Or, hmm, is it Mao that's CHA/PRO? CHA/PRO and N.A., again super archers (Drill 4 with only Theo OR vassalage)?

[DirtyMartini]

Churchill is CHA/PRO

[Krill]

Aggressive/Creative Rome can be an absolute ***** to deal with.

[Ming]

I've started messing around with the unrestricted leaders. And in most cases, it usually involves somebody protective

The native americans are a great half with their UB.

[Krill]

Yeah, but dog soldiers suck. You have to get iron for swords or horse archers to deal with archers on hills/ in forests, because you can't get odds with anything else.

[Ming]

While their UU might suck... their UB is pretty good for cranking out massive Drill units

[Krill]

Meh. If you could oracle fued early then but otherwise

[snoopy369]

Dog soldiers are fine, as long as you're mostly building archery units, as you should be with NAs. They serve their purpose - countering swordsmen - just as well as axemen, a base dog soldier is 8 vs sword as opposed to 7.5 for axe, and a combat 1 + melee promoted dog soldier is 9.4 as opposed to 9.25 for axe versus sword. Anything else in that era the archers can handle fine.

They're useless for attacking of course, but as NAs you should be going to longbows or crossbows as quickly as possible anyway if you're going to be aggressive... either oracle feud, or just rush to it (it's what, 4 techs down the line?).

[Dilger]

Not so challenging but a powerful combo
Darius as the Holy Roman....talk about being a financial/ organized beast with their UB and the UU is not so shabby.

[Yaga]

Ran into Wang Kong / Sumeria. Wow but they kicked my butt.

[Fleme]

The only time I played unrestricted leaders was when I wanted to give a try to Boudica of the Romans. AGG/CHM + Praets =