Armies

[Duque]

I've been waging some major wars now, and I find that I rarely use armies. On the rare occasions when I get a leader, I want to use them for rushing wonders (which is almost a too powerful feature in my opinion). For example, in the game I'm playing now I've been at war almost constantly, but I've only gotten two leaders so far and since I used them for wonders I haven't had a victorious army and thus can't build the military academy.
And even if you do, is the production cost for building an army worth it, or would it be better to spend the shields building more units instead?
Anyway, I see why building the academy would be useful if you are waging a lot of wars, since it will increase the chance of getting leaders which you can use for wonder building.
Any thoughts on this?

[Libertarian]

Everything is a trade-off. Such decisions comprise Sid's whole theory of good gameplay. What civ are you playing? I think leader strategies depend a lot on whether your militaristic.

[Duque]

I'm Persia, so I'm not militaristic. But I do have loads of Elite cavalry after my war against the Babylonians. I think it's a bit strange that only two leaders have appeared during 2000 years of warfare, I got more leaders the last time I played but that was on a lower difficulty level (does that matter?). I'm playing on Regent now, btw

[BLackraven42]

It's worth building just one army so you can build the military academy. Then youcan build lots of armies to make battles easier. (You ever tried an army of modern armor? They kick butt.)

[HunterAssasin]

In my current game I've been at war for nearly five millenia and have only aquired two leaders and both of them before I completed the Heroic epic. I still think it's worthwhile to use your first leader to create an army so you can build the heroic epic and military academy.

[Duque]

Well, I got my third leader now, and of course he appeared when three of my elite cavalry were defending against an attack deep inside the enemy territory. I had visions of a heroic escape, or some kind of dunquerque-like extraction using ships, but naturally they only lasted one turn. They had railroads and kept sending knights until they were dead. Bummer!