Question re Leaders & Barbarians

[Chowlett]

I play a pretty peaceful style of game, rarely at war with anyone for a protracted period. However, I do go out roaming with my warriors at game start to do expansion and scouting. They regularly reach elite through fighting barbarians, but have never once spawned a great leader. And given my lack of war, that means in 3 games I haven't had one leader! Tricky to compete.

So my question is - is it possible to gain a leader merely from fighting barbarians? If not, I may have to rethink my early game strategy...

[sophist]

Nope. No leaders from fighting barbarians. The best you can do is to get a bunch of elite units, but you have to use them against other civs to generate leaders.

[Chowlett]

Hmm, I see. A more aggressive early game strategy may be in order then. I'm playing the French on Prince level, and have so far lost every wonder up to and including Copernicus's Observatory. I have now, after a war with the Persians, gained Napoleon, but he went to an army, so I do at least have heroic epic...