Civilization 7's leaders represent a major break with the series' traditions, in that they're completely separated from the civilization you choose. You can mix and match with total freedom. Want Ben Franklin to lead the Romans? Sure. Pharaoh Hatshepsut at the head of the Mayans? You bet. However, while you'll choose a new civilization for each of the three acts, your leader will remain the same throughout. So picking one is the most consequential playstyle choice you'll make before starting that first turn.
Leaders also come with a couple attributes, which can include Cultural, Diplomatic, Economic, Expansionist, Militaristic, and Scientific. These open up special perk trees you'll unlock as you go that are similar to civics in past Civ games. It's unclear at this point whether each leader will only get perk points in their listed attributes, or if they just get those types of points more often. However, everyone can get Wildcard points, which you can spend in any tree.
Here are all of the leaders we know about so far:
Unique ability: Imperium Maius. +2 Production in the Capital for every Town. Can purchase Culture Buildings in Towns. +50% Gold towards purchasing Buildings in Towns.
Our advice: Towns in Civ 7 are not quite full cities, as they don't have a production queue, but can be improved by spending gold. This is even cheaper for Augustus, and his bonuses encourage you to have many Towns to feed the production of the Capital. All roads lead to Rome, as it were. It seems like a really fun playstyle, reminiscent of Civ 5's Venice, which still remains probably my favorite civ in the series.
Unique ability: Warrior-Queen of Zazzau. +1 Resource Capacity in Cities. +1 Gold per Age for each Resource assigned to Cities. +5 Combat Strength on all Units in Plains and Desert.
Our advice: It seems like Zazzau will be a strong pick for making money and winning early wars (assuming you can fight in flat terrain). You'll also likely want to get trade going fairly early to be able to fill all of those extra resource slots.
Unique ability: Dhammaraja. +1 Food in Cities for every 5 excess Happiness. +10% Food in all Settlements during a Celebration. All Buildings gain a +1 Happiness Adjacency for all Improvements.
Our advice: India is often a food and population boom civ in these games, and it seems like Ashoka can turn any civ he leads into one fairly easily. Grow fast and remain stable with happiness bonuses. This is even more important in Civ 7, since you need population growth to build improvements.
Attributes (Emperor): Economic, Militaristic Attributes
Attributes (Revolutionary): Cultural, Militaristic
Unique Ability (Emperor): Empereur des Français. Reduces the Trade Route capacity for a target civilization and causes massive Grievances. Gets bonus Gold per Age for every leader he's Unfriendly or Hostile with, but less Gold per Age for every leader who sees him as Friendly or Helpful.
Unique Ability (Revolutionary): La Grande Armée. Gives all army commanders extra movement and granting Culture each time he defeats an enemy unit.
Our advice: Emperor Napoleon sounds like a lot of fun for an experienced player, since he's all about picking fights. His ability is extremely powerful too, to make up for the fact that you're going to want everyone to hate you most of the time. If you want a little bit less of a chaotic campaign, his Revolutionary persona simply offers some straightforward ways to pump up your culture when fighting.
Unique ability: Keju. Increased Growth Rate in Cities. Increased Science from Specialists.
Our advice: Like India, China has often been a civ focused on growth in this series, but also science. Since in Civ 7 you will often be making a choice between building a new improvement or assigning a specialist, it seems like Confucius will favor playing tall, with less sprawl and more dense city centers.
Unique ability: TBA
Unique ability: God's Wife of Amun. Adds Culture for every imported Resource. Increased Production towards the construction of Buildings and Wonders in Cities adjacent to Navigable Rivers.
Our advice: Hatshepsut likes to build and trade. However, her bonuses are heavily dependent on geography, which is going to play a big role in where you choose to settle your cities. More than other rulers, it seems, she may be reliant on picking a civilization that has harmonious bonuses to get the most out of her abilities.
Unique ability: TBA
Unique ability: Nicaakiyakoolaakwe. Increases Food, Production, and Combat Strength based on the number of allied City-States.
Our advice: True to his historical alliance-building, Tecumseh is going to want to unite lots of smaller powers across the map into a strong confederation. Food and production are good for everyone, but the bonus to combat strength will especially help players going for a militaristic playstyle.
We've only seen a handful of Civ 7's leaders so far, so keep an eye out as Firaxis reveals more and we ponder how best to play them. A lot more than the way leaders work is changing, too: Here's everything we learned about Civilization 7 after visiting Firaxis to play it ourselves.
