I guess it's hard to argue with the gnomes for first preference. The ability to build improvements faster and not having to build as many workers would have a big impact over the course of the game.
Kurios 2nd - they have an awful lot going for them: large population = better trade route payoff; Centaurs and Centaur Chargers require *no* buildings; worldspell can be used early or saved for wartime culture bomb. A team setting nullifies most of the Kurios' weaknesses.
Keelyn 3rd, I guess: she's just so overpowered that it's better to have her on our side. But those turns with many dozens of puppets and spectres to move around were just <shudder>.
Falamar is another overpowered leader, but strongly dependent on map settings. I'm assuming the map will have some water, but this could be either a very bad or very good pick. Again, though, a team setting would help make up for his weak melee line.
Vampires are very good, but I'm worried that they might require too many specialized techs. Code of Laws is on the way to Currency, but Feudalism doesn't give anything other than Vampires, now that Royal Guards have been moved to Stirrups and Social Order.
Elohim and Amurites are worth picking just for their world spells.
Leader traits that would be good to have: Organized for Command Posts; Raiders for deep strikes or pillage economy (pillaging a town down to nothing yields about 100-200 gold for a non-raider civ, should be double for raiders), Arcane for faster mages. As plako said, it would be great to have a Financial civ that runs 0% slider and funds research for the other two.
Adaptive leaders: Varn, Cardith, Falamar, Cassiel.
Kurios 2nd - they have an awful lot going for them: large population = better trade route payoff; Centaurs and Centaur Chargers require *no* buildings; worldspell can be used early or saved for wartime culture bomb. A team setting nullifies most of the Kurios' weaknesses.
Keelyn 3rd, I guess: she's just so overpowered that it's better to have her on our side. But those turns with many dozens of puppets and spectres to move around were just <shudder>.
Falamar is another overpowered leader, but strongly dependent on map settings. I'm assuming the map will have some water, but this could be either a very bad or very good pick. Again, though, a team setting would help make up for his weak melee line.
Vampires are very good, but I'm worried that they might require too many specialized techs. Code of Laws is on the way to Currency, but Feudalism doesn't give anything other than Vampires, now that Royal Guards have been moved to Stirrups and Social Order.
Elohim and Amurites are worth picking just for their world spells.
Leader traits that would be good to have: Organized for Command Posts; Raiders for deep strikes or pillage economy (pillaging a town down to nothing yields about 100-200 gold for a non-raider civ, should be double for raiders), Arcane for faster mages. As plako said, it would be great to have a Financial civ that runs 0% slider and funds research for the other two.
Adaptive leaders: Varn, Cardith, Falamar, Cassiel.
. Now if the last round is also unfavourable to us we can't even get any synergy for our last picks. 