Hannibal gives me the willies

[Shogun Gunner]

Originally posted by bvoncranium
I don't even use my diplomacy screen once Catherine The Great starts smiling at me

That's pretty bad. I would rather have Ivan the Terrible smile at me!

At the very least Firaxis could have put Cathy on the Adkins diet. If she won't do it for herself, she should do it for show business!

[Plotinus]

Shogun Gunner, you may be interested to know that Theodora was, in real life, not only a Monophysite but an actress and high-class prostitute. The future Emperor Justinian had to have a special law passed by his uncle, Emperor Justin, allowing him to marry her, since Roman Emperors had previously only been allowed to marry nobles.

Perhaps you just need to raise the price a little...

[grappleman]

wow justinian seemed to be a man of class a new law eh? thats funny, very classy justinian, very classy....

[Plotinus]

Justinian was classy through and through - the last of the great Roman Emperors, a military colossus who reconquered pretty much the whole of the old Empire, the man who essentially wrote Western law for the rest of history (when people talk about "Roman law" they mean the Code of Justinian), and a surprisingly good theologian to boot - even if he did call the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 and destroy the writings of Origen, the greatest Christian writer of all time. He also lapsed into the Aphthartodocetic heresy towards the end of his life, and in my opinion anyone who can even pronounce that, let alone believe it, is clearly someone to be reckoned with (especially as Justinian was actually a Slav and always spoke Greek with an accent). Justinian was the obvious choice for the Byzantines' leader in CivIII, too, but I think it's rather nice they went for his wife instead, who was also very important. They were kind of the Posh and Becks of the early Byzantine Empire, with added armies.

I'll shut up now... ;-)

[Shogun Gunner]

Originally posted by Plotinus
Shogun Gunner, you may be interested to know that Theodora was, in real life, not only a Monophysite but an actress and high-class prostitute. The future Emperor Justinian had to have a special law passed by his uncle, Emperor Justin, allowing him to marry her, since Roman Emperors had previously only been allowed to marry nobles.

Perhaps you just need to raise the price a little...

Hmmm... A "Christian Prostitute" I must say Plotinus, either you are a throwback or a great student of history. I had to look up "monophysite" on google.

Next time I'll offer her ivory and gems!

[Plotinus]

lol, yes, Christianity was much more interesting in those days, it seems...

Can't I be a throwback *and* a great historian? ;-)

[Vince278]

There sure are alot of ugly people in the portraits. I'm sure Attila looked better than that.

[dexters]

... portraits are just that, fake computer portraits. im sure most of these CG models don't have much mass below what you see on screen.

[steven8r]

I still think that Cleo, with her Ptolemic good looks takes the cake. But, when PTW came out, Isabela gave her a good run. And now we have Theodora.

There's 3 countries that I'll now just occationally have to give techs to. That's so unfair!

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by steven8r
I still think that Cleo, with her Ptolemic good looks takes the cake.

Oddly enough, by all accounts and depictions, the real Cleopatra was not an attractive woman by modern standards. She had a round, chubby face, a hooked nose and overly-large eyes. She looked more like the lead actress from My Big Fat Greek Wedding than a she did a young Elizabeth Taylor.

I wa so annoyed by the Alexander graphic that I swapped his and Caesar's. What they were thinking when they did Alexander's leader head, I don't know. He looks Anglo-Saxon, not Greek/Macedonian. He also looks like a dandy, something he certainly wasn't.

Joan of Arc's graphic bothers me in that it is Joan of Arc rather than an actual French leader. That they wouldn't choose Napoleon, who is iconic of French leaders, is off-putting. Even if it was due to PC and wanting another female leader, they could have at least chosen Catherine de Medici, a woman who held real authority over France.

While we're griping, let's talk about Gandhi. Can we say, "we haven't bothered to look beyond cultural stereotypes to find other leaders, so we picked Gandhi!" I mean, having him as the civ leader is wrong because 1) He never was an actual Indian head of state, and 2) He would never be waging war and acting like the game Gandhi behaves. Now, this is being picky, except there are several other choices more suitable. How about Indira Gandhi, a female? Or Chandragupta, a great emperor?

Anyway, that's enough for now...

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Plotinus
The future Emperor Justinian had to have a special law passed by his uncle, Emperor Justin, allowing him to marry her, since Roman Emperors had previously only been allowed to marry nobles.

This isn't quite true--Roman Emperors could marry whomever they pleased, once they were actually Emperor. Heliogabalus married a chariot driver. So it wasn't just a marriage of uneven rank, it was a homosexual marriage of uneven rank.

Sure, sure--the army eventually killed Heliogabalus, but that was because his mother was a controlling ***** whom everyone hated, and because the Emperor had spent so much money on lavish parties that he was unable to pay them...

[Plotinus]

[Boris] Apologies - my memory's a little rusty after 14 and a half centuries, you know. Of course Justinian wasn't yet emperor when he married, although he was pretty much acting like it, I recall.

I agree with the inaccuracy of Alexander, and the slightly odd choice of Gandhi - I suppose they wanted someone everyone had heard of. But I've always found it odd having Gandhi turn up and demand things with menaces before declaring war on me. The French leader in the original Civ was indeed Napoleon. They also had Stalin leading the Russians, who was much more fun to deal with than Catherine - although I suspect they've removed him on grounds of questionable taste. But they've kept Mao, of course, who (unverified historical assertion alert) had more people killed than Hitler and Stalin put together.

[Feldspar]

the five turn plan

The Mao AI should never irrigate - mine everything!

[Jaybe]

The Mao AI should never irrigate - mine everything!

Ha! ALL the AI would do much better if they almost did that.

[TheArsenal]

While acknowledging historically there could be leaders that make far more sense for India, and can see how it aggravates those who would like to see more historical accuracy, I am amused that Ghandi is in the game as one of the toughest trade negotiators and prone to the sneak attack. It adds a certain amount of off balanced levity, much like the goofy comments the various leaders give during various diplomacy situations.