Top Ten Favorite Leaders in Civilization VI
Since I last wrote at length about Sid Meier's Civilization VI—I mentioned how I had played it so much and not finished a single game—I have beaten it several times over at different levels of difficulty with a variety of leaders. There are a few factors that contributed to me getting over that self-driven desire to keep restarting the game, including the mechanics of the DLC, as well as the changes that are brought about with higher difficulties and mods of the game. I think the mechanics of the Rise & Fall and Gathering Storm DLCs added a lot of needed depth to the strategy of the game and really allowed you to build up your civilizations quickly and optimally. Likewise, some of the visual mods I downloaded to help me better plan my strategy made the experience easier to anticipate and improve over the course of the game’s length. I’m still not good enough to beat a Deity-level game if I get a bad start location, but I definitely feel that where the game finally arrived at the end of its lifespan has made me invest far more time in it than any other game in my Steam library.
So, with all my experience in Civilization VI, it got me thinking about who my favorite leaders were. I narrowed it down in my head and realized that some of them I never actually used to finish a game and had just reached a point of satisfaction that I was willing to start over or try someone else. There are also still plenty of leaders I have never tried, so this list may end up completely wrong within another year or so. At which point, I might make an addendum to everything. But as of 2023, these are the leaders I have enjoyed playing the most in Civilization VI.
10 | Gorgo | Greece
Of the two Greek civilizations, I prefer Gorgo and her focus on military tactics, especially with her ancient-era unit the Hoplite. These units, when grouped together, are extremely powerful tools at protecting your lands at higher difficulties, as well as capturing neighboring cities quickly to maximize the size of your empire. Their adjacency bonuses make three units together hit like a tank, hundreds of years before tanks would be a thing. While both Pericles and Gorgo get access to the Hoplite, she benefits from their use more because of the unique mechanic in which killing a unit gives her boosts in culture.
She’s a leader who benefits from constant combat and steamrolling the opponent. So, farming barbarian camps and persistent war is a good way to work your way through the culture tree quickly. Anything that gives you boosts in the early game can really propel you in the long run, and Gorgo is one of those leaders who can be difficult to stop once she gets going. Even if you don’t want to keep the military movement going, it’s easy to pivot to a culture victory with the Acropolis district and that extra Wildcard policy slot.
9 | Hammurabi | Babylon
Hammurabi is one of the later additions to the Civilization VI roster who really breaks the mechanics of the game completely. He’s a leader who, depending on various factors, can end up being one of the strongest or relatively weak. I have played multiple games as Hammurabi with some being massive successes and some being pathetic disasters. A lot of that came down to luck, the starting location, and the neighboring civilizations. Once you get going with Babylon, however, you know when you’re going to have a strong game.
The main mechanic of science being produced at 50% is a big downside, but it’s almost irrelevant with the fact that you can complete science tech just by getting the eureka requirements. This means that you can get access to much more advanced tech earlier than any other civilization. The gameplay of Hammurabi requires you to constantly hunt for eureka opportunities to quickly make your way through the tech tree. As a result, certain wonders like the Great Library or the great scientists that would normally be considered weak for just giving eureka rewards are much more powerful for Babylon. If you really want to crush the AI, play with a friend online and have one player on a team as Hammurabi. Both civilizations get access to the tech and contribute to eureka requirements, which means your team will very quickly advance through the tech tree and become overpowered.
8 | Kupe | Maori
I like Kupe primarily for the same reason I like several other civilizations in this list: flexibility. The Maori uniquely start every game in the middle of the ocean with the ability to cross oceans immediately and with additional movement while in water. In addition, you get bonus science and culture points per turn before settling your first city, allowing you more time to choose the ideal starting location for your civilization. In addition to that, you also get a free builder when you found the city, enabling you to quickly build up your infrastructure and catch up with other civilizations in the game. The fact that you can keep creating settlers and sending them around the globe to different continents ensures that you can be the annoying cockroach civilization that can’t be eliminated. The bonus of having unimproved forests provide additional benefits is also a pretty nice touch.
Kupe also gets relatively early access to his unique unit, the Toa. Due to the fact that you usually want to be getting close to your win condition by the time you reach the modern age, later-era unique military units are just naturally less useful. Wars are a useful way of claiming important territory and getting you into a position in which you can pivot to a different type of victory, so having strong, early-era special units, like the Toa, is a big plus.
7 | Gitarja | Indonesia
My other favorite coastal civilization is Indonesia. I tend to stay away from coastal trading civs like England because they lack the abilities that both Indonesia and Maori enjoy, which is the ability to make your coastal cities productive right away. While England has a strong harbor district, it still takes a while to get going, whereas Kupe can get his cities going almost immediately with production.
Gitarja, on the other hand, gets her cities started quickly with her faith bonuses. If you happen to be playing on a map with many islands, lakes, and coastlines, Gitarja can rapidly expand and control a fair amount of space. Her ability to buy naval units with faith—including her unique Jong unit—makes her extremely powerful in those situations. Likewise, her unique improvement, the Kampung, makes her coastline ripe for expansion.
It’s her main passive abilities that really make her stand out, however. Every faith-based civilization in this game is extremely strong, and Indonesia is no different. She is almost guaranteed to have non-stop faith and production growth with her adjacency bonuses. And if you manage to secure a golden age with her, you can use all that faith to pump out builders and settlers non-stop for an era and claim vast swaths of the map.
6 | Poundmaker | Cree
When it comes to the various leaders in Civilization VI that are trade-focused, my favorite is Poundmaker. He may not be the strongest, or the most specially-tuned leader for specific circumstances, like Cleopatra when surrounded by floodplains. However, Poundmaker has a natural ability to expand his empire quickly through his trade routes. It helps that he starts out with a great scout unit that allows you to plan your empire early and quickly. In addition, the Mekewap improvement is one that can quickly grow your cities’ population and economy.
He’s a very straight-forward leader and that’s the main thing I like about him. Whenever I face him as the AI, however, he manages to be one of the biggest threats for some reason. Even though Poundmaker was never a military-focused leader in reality, and his stats don’t lean in that direction in the game, he always ends up having the most science and military strength in every game I face him. Maybe it’s like the infamous Gandhi bug.
5 | Eleanor of Aquitane | France
Of the two Eleanor of Aquitanes available in the game, I personally prefer the French version. For one thing, she gets access to the Chateau unique improvements, which can boost your civilization incredibly quickly. She’s also a wonder builder, which I always enjoy. You get a bonus towards building wonders after the Medieval era and tourism from all wonders is boosted 100%, making her incredibly strong for culture victories in the late game.
More importantly, however, I love the mechanics involving her and loyalty pressure. I enjoy the additional layers of strategy that come with the impact of loyalty pressure from neighboring civilizations, and Eleanor’s ability to annex additional cities into her own region without the other city collapsing into an aggressive free state is really interesting to me. I played a game in which every civilization was on a single landmass, and once I started to acquire other cities passively through loyalty pressure, I watched my empire grow rapidly as others caved to my overwhelming “popularity.”
4 | Ludwig II | Germany
While the other Germany leader, Barbarossa, was the first one I used to beat Civilization VI, Ludwig II is much more my style. His incredibly strong mechanic in which just having a wonder under construction, as well as completed wonders, provides you with free culture points per turn gives Ludwig an immediate edge in the early game. As I mentioned in Eleanor’s blurb, I’m a fan of civs that benefit from building wonders, and Ludwig is arguably the best.
When you consider the other benefits of Germany in which you can build an extra district in each city and the overpowered Hanza district, Ludwig II can easily be seen as one of the strongest leaders in the game. I’ve never had to use the U-Boat to win in any military skirmishes because I’ve usually amassed a big enough land army from all of my Hanzas that have +10 production just from their adjacencies to aqueducts and commercial hubs. I’m a big fan of building up my civilizations to utilize their industrial zones and their adjacency bonuses, and there is no civilization better suited to this than Germany.
Germany’s production power makes them well-suited for both military and science victories. Adding Ludwig’s ability involving wonders gives an already strong civilization easy access to a culture victory as well.
3 | Basil II | Byzantium
Basil II is a freight train of a leader. Of the various military-focused leaders in the game, he’s my favorite, especially when associated with the right faith upgrades. When I played Basil II, I had a plan in mind to get a religion that focused on being able to spread my faith more easily and on being able to improve the strength of my units in combat if the civilization I was attacking followed the same faith. As you can see in his abilities, he already has a bonus like that built in.
So, with the additional damage bonuses from a good religion, he’s already a major threat. But when you add on the fact that his cavalry units do full damage against cities following the same religion, he’s downright scary. Once I got access to his unique cavalry unit, the Tagma, the snowball to domination began to roll, and it rolled very quickly. Combine the fact that you get a free Tagma when you build his unique district, the Hippodrome, your military gets large very fast. What’s even better is that those free Tagma units can be upgraded into tanks in the late game and continue to operate at no cost, meaning you can have a huge military and a booming economy in the process, which is useful when you’re likely to make the entire world hate you.
2 | Peter the Great | Russia
Peter was the second leader I used to beat the game. I did so on a difficulty lower than what I usually play because I tend to work my way up to the higher difficulties once I feel I have a good understanding of the mechanics. However, Peter’s strength as a leader in Civ VI is very apparent immediately, especially if you happen to get the right pantheon to boost his faith bonuses. While there are plenty of other civilizations that are built around the faith mechanic, few are as dominant as Russia can be. Their custom faith district, the Lavra, and the fact that tundra tiles are actually good in Russia’s territory practically guarantee the ability to expand your empire rapidly and gain territory faster than the rest of the civilizations.
The trade route bonuses are a great way of keeping you in the game if you have fallen behind other leaders, but that’s usually not a problem with how productive Russia can be in their home territory.
Lastly, the fact that he gets some extra tiles when founding a city means your borders grow extremely fast in comparison to other leaders, ensuring access to more resources quickly. As a result, this allows for a very specific exploit in the game. If you set a game to a custom 1-turn game on Deity difficulty, you can found your city as Peter, and immediately win upon ending the turn. Why? Because the bonus territory gives him enough points to beat the AI in a points-based victory. Try it for yourself if you want that Diety achievement without having to work for it.
1 | Teddy Roosevelt (Bull Moose) | United States
I have probably played Teddy the most of all the leaders without actually completing the game. I definitely reached win conditions multiple times with him, but I didn’t have a desire to continue when I knew the game was already won.
Part of what I like about Teddy is his flexibility. If you happen to get a relatively mediocre or bad start with some weak tiles, he’s like any other leader. If you get a start with some pieces of land that have high appeal, however, he quickly becomes one of the strongest leaders to play in Deity difficulty and keep you on pace with the AI. This is because he suddenly gets access to extra science and culture when the territory has land with high appeal. So, depending on how your first couple of cities go, you could focus on the standard placement of districts to boost your stats, or you could even go the Preserve route and focus on just improving the appeal of your land to keep getting more culture and science the old fashion way.
Roosevelt is strong enough that every time I have played him, I have not reached a point in the science and culture tech trees to access either his unique building or unique unit before I knew I had won the game. While other leaders are great choices for higher difficulty because they have the unique units and buildings early in the game to protect your land, Roosevelt is strong enough with just his basic stats to get you a head start on the various tech trees. The fact that you get additional wildcard policy slots in place of the diplomatic cards is a big boost too. Bully!
Are you a Civilization fan like myself? Do you have any favorite leaders? Do you hate the ones I picked? I’m curious to hear from anyone out there who stumbled onto this site!
