Combos you like

[Dilger]

I still like Darius of the HRE for an organized monster.

[Seedle]

I like Zara Yaqob (Cre,Org) of the Romans. Praetorians are strong enough on their own that you don't NEED agg or chm, though they certainly don't hurt. The free border pops mean I don't have to waste turns and hammers on monuments or theaters in all the cities I'm conquering. If I do need culture for some bizarre reason, I have cheap libraries. And organized means less upkeep and cheap courthouses to further lower upkeep in conquered lands.

[Vampgelus]

If you want nice UUs, just give a try to churchill of the USA... Navy Seals with free drill 1 and -25% for promotions... nice

About the roman story, i'd prefer Lincoln of the romans rather then Bodica. +10% strengh is nice... PHI is even nicer ^^.

What could I say if not that i actually am addicted to CHA leaders

[Theben]

Originally posted by Fleme

Churchill of the Native Americans.

That was my suggestion. Imagine him with Stonehenge.

[Hauptman]

I have to agree on the Philo leaders combined with the romans. When I play Philo, every single little extra bit helps. And the romans get alot extra! 25% GP points on top of everything else is HUUUUUGE!~


Alexander of Rome?

[Fleme]

Is there a PHI/CHA leader? If not, then I suppose Alexander would be the choice.

[Seedle]

Lincoln is PHI/CHA. But I'm not sure I see the appeal of PHI with Rome, you don't want to be building wonders, and you don't want to be running specialists, you want to be building Praetorians and working mines to build Praetorians.

As far as other combos I like, I've just discovered the joys of editing the XML. Turns out IND/PHI/CRE is even more broken than I thought it would be, and I thought it would be very substantially broken.

[snoopy369]

You do have to have some cities supporting that army with gpt and beakers...

[Seedle]

Originally posted by snoopy369
You do have to have some cities supporting that army with gpt and beakers...

Well, sure, but you can go a long way with just conquest money with praets. I guess, like so many things, it comes down to play style (and the difficulty you play.) When I play Rome, I beeline iron and focus all my energy and resources on building praetorians. It takes the AI a long time to build units that can counter praets, and by the time they do, I've conquered enough of the world that I can easily catch back up in research if I've fallen behind.

Also, my confusion wasn't about the role PHI played, it just seems like the wrong trait for the job. To really maximize PHI, you need to be building wonders, buildings to support specialists, and running caste system. As I said, I don't want to build anything but Praets as much as possible, and I would rather be whipping Praets and courthouses than running caste system. In short, it seems difficult, if not impossible, to maximize both the value of Praetorians AND the value of Philosophical. Organized and even Financial seem better suited as commerce engines for Rome.