This is a continuing feature for Season Nine of Civ4 AI Survivor: a preview of each game before it begins, providing a quick summary of the leaders involved and how the community expects the game to shake out. We start as always with an overview of the map:
We've had requests in past seasons for an overview screenshot of the map with the resource icon turned on:
It's hard for me to see much of anything with all of those little icons but you guys asked for it, you've got it! Now for a look at our individual leaders:
Churchill of England
Traits: Protective, Charismatic (0 culture traits)
Starting Techs: Fishing, Mining
Peace Weight: 6
Declares War at Pleased Relations? NO
Flavors: Primary Military, Secondary Gold
Warmonger Respect: 0
Base Attitude: 0
Favorite Civic: Nationhood
Zealotry: Low to Medium
Past Finishes: Season Six runner-up, two additional Championship losses, one wildcard elimination, four opening round eliminations
Total Games Played: 15
Total Medals: 2 First Places, 5 Second Places
Total Kills: 5 
Overall Power Ranking: 25 points, tied 16th place (out of 52 leaders)
Personality: Churchill has arguably the second-worst trait pairing in the game, with the below-average Charismatic and the terrible Protective. The English civilization with its high potential starting techs and strong uniques help compensate, especially since Protective and Charismatic can combine to make some pretty scary Redcoats. Churchill is unique in the sense that he has a low score in basically every category. He doesn't build a lot of wonders (2/10) or units (4/10) and he has a pretty low aggression rating (4.3/10) too. In fact, the only thing this guy really cares about is espionage (7/10); that's literally the only number above a 5/10 in his personality. He also has a neutral peace weight, so Churchill is fair game to fight the good or evil leaders. Lastly, his flavours are Military and Gold. It all makes for an uninteresting personality that's more likely to brood in a corner than anything else.
Past Performance: For the longest time Churchill was a nobody with zero accomplishments to his name. However, he has gone on an absolute tear over the past few seasons, so much so that he is now a seeded leader. He first turned heads in the Season Six opener with a shocking upset against a hostile low-peaceweight field thanks to a setup that was perfect for his favored strategy of "turtle up with his defensive traits then run over the map with Cha/Pro Redcoats". He would eventually sneak into the Championship game, where he claimed two scalps en route to a season silver medal. He then cemented his "scrappy high peaceweight" status by quietly returning to the Season Seven Championship off a pair of second place finishes. However, he found his way back into the win column in the most recent season; following a lucky Opening Round second place finish, he grinded out a playoff victory against a weak playoff field (despite nearly messing up by forgetting to bring siege units in the era of castles) to qualify for a third championship in a row! To be fair, it took him five seasons of failure to reach this point, alternate histories have indicated that some of these results were rather unlikely, and Churchill's incredibly slow starts have proven to be his Achilles heel. However, he's quite dangerous once he unlocks his Redcoats, and over the past few seasons has established himself as a sort of higher peaceweight Mao.
Augustus Caesar of Rome
Traits: Industrious, Imperialistic (1 culture trait)
Starting Techs: Mining, Fishing
Peace Weight: 8
Declares War at Pleased Relations? NO
Flavors: Primary Production, Secondary Military
Warmonger Respect: +1
Base Attitude: 0
Favorite Civic: Representation
Zealotry: Low
Past Finishes: One Championship loss, three playoff round eliminations, one wildcard elimination, three opening round eliminations
Total Games Played: 14
Total Medals: 3 First Places, 2 Second Places
Total Kills: 3
Overall Power Ranking: 22 points, 22nd place (out of 52 leaders)
Personality: Augustus is a pretty middle-of-the-road AI, albeit one who loves wonders (8/10 wonder rating), which can sometimes get him into trouble. On the other hand, he does have the Industrious trait to help with his wonder-building alongside Imperialistic to quickly settle the map when he puts his mind to it. While Augustus isn't particularly focused on economy, with Production/Military tech flavors and moderate unit build and aggression ratings of 4.6 and 4, he does fall under the peaceniks' camp with a high peaceweight and refusal to declare war at Pleased. He has two secret weapons that make him more viable than usual in low-peaceweight fields, though: a hidden "warmonger respect" rating of 1 that has sometimes helped him maintain cordial relations with the wolves of the world, and Praetorians. The mighty Roman unique unit can be one of the most impactful in the entire competition, and has probably made the difference between mediocrity and the playoffs for Augustus multiple times by now. Taken as a whole, Augustus's package does seem to be stretched in too many directions, but it is one that lacks any glaring Achilles' heels and can take advantage of a favorable start - especially if it lines up with his heavily situational Fishing/Mining starting techs.
Past Performance: Let's just say that Augustus followed his contemporary Horace's advice of "carpe diem" to the letter, as all of his best games have seen him take full advantage of good starting positions. Whether it's a capital location that works particularly well with his starting techs, or a scenario where he can put his Praetorians to good use, or just a nice isolated position where he can expand to a big size while building all the wonders at his leisure, when an opportunity is there Augustus usually seizes it. His latest season was his best yet, as he leveraged two strong capital locations to dominant wins, then amidst a formidable economic Championship field scored the game's only conquest en route to a strong fourth place finish that came closer than expected to a Diplomatic win. He's also proven capable on the battlefield despite his low kill count, having a fair share of kills sniped from him after he did most of the work. On the other hand, when he's not putting up a top-two worthy performance, he's generally not doing anything of real interest; he's been involved in a couple of cases of trolling where a warmonger was body-blocked by closed borders from finishing off their defeated opponent, but that's about it. Pay special attention to his starting location when assessing Augustus's prospects; he has real potential if it's good and situated in a corner, but if it isn't, he's probably going to be stuck playing a mediocre builder's game.
Catherine of Russia
Traits: Creative, Imperialistic (1 culture trait)
Starting Techs: Hunting, Mining
Peace Weight: 2
Declares War at Pleased Relations? YES
Flavors: Primary Culture, Secondary Military
Warmonger Respect: +2
Base Attitude: +1
Favorite Civic: Hereditary Rule
Zealotry: High
Past Finishes: One Championship loss, two playoff round eliminations, one wildcard elimination, four opening round eliminations
Total Games Played: 13
Total Medals: 3 First Places, 1 Second Place
Total Kills: 7
Overall Power Ranking: 24 points, tied 16th place (out of 52 leaders)
Personality: Catherine has arguably the best traits for rapid expansion in the game, with Imperialistic for building settlers quickly, and Creative for foolproof settling. She also gets the powerful Cossack alongside the too-late-to-matter Research Institute with the Russian civ. Lastly, Catherine gets the mediocre Hunting/Mining combination, meaning she has to research a few techs before she can get her food resources up and running. Catherine is one of the more unique personalities in the game, with traits perfectly suited to her boisterous style of settling in everyone's faces and then deciding to murder them on a whim. In particular, she is the only AI leader in the game who can be bribed to join a war against someone she is "Friendly" with! Her aggression rating is quite a bit lower than one might think (6.7/10), although perhaps it had to be that way so that she wouldn't just be a female Shaka. Other than that most of her numbers are fairly average, including unit (4/10) and wonder build (6/10) ratings. She also has a fairly unusual flavour combination, being inclined towards Culture and Military, and that in combination with her Creative trait has helped her avoid common warmonger pitfalls. Catherine is one of the most likely AIs to claim a large portion of the map peacefully, and her moderate aggression rating means she can sometimes get the snowball rolling, but if she falls behind she usually makes too many enemies to get away with it.
Past Performance: Cathy is a fan favorite who's repeatedly been a major player in her games. She's won with very strong performances in three different openers, and she's still important when things don't go her way. A perfect example is her appearance in the Season Six Championship, where she was the score leader after the landgrab and primed to be a top competitor for the title, only to get attacked on the exact same turn that she launched her own war, get trapped in a 2v1, and eventually become the first eliminated. Unfortunately, last season was her least remarkable one, as she barely clung to a Wildcard spot from a horrible Opening round starting position, before aligning herself with the wrong religious faction in her Wildcard game to become First To Die. It does seem like Cathy's more likely than some of the other low peaceweights to get trapped in too many fights at once, resulting in her spotty record - perhaps that's her feisty AI personality coming into play. Regardless, it's rare indeed to see her completely falter and be a non-entity, for her premier landgrab traits almost always result in her being one of the strongest leaders after the early game, and she's fun to watch and root for.
De Gaulle of France
Traits: Industrious, Charismatic (1 culture trait)
Starting Techs: Agriculture, The Wheel
Peace Weight: 0
Declares War at Pleased Relations? NO
Flavors: Primary Production, Secondary Growth
Warmonger Respect: +2
Base Attitude: -1
Favorite Civic: Nationhood
Zealotry: Low
Past Finishes: Two playoff round eliminations, two wildcard eliminations, four opening round eliminations
Total Games Played: 11
Total Medals: 1 First Place, 1 Second Place
Total Kills: 5
Overall Power Ranking: 12 points, tied 36th place (out of 52 leaders)
Personality: Both De Gaulle and the political entity he represents (post World War 2 France) were rather polarizing during Civ4's development and that is evident in his joke AI personality that is given a "demonic evil" peaceweight of 0. His trait combination of Charismatic and Industrious is underwhelming for AI Survivor purposes, lacking synergy outside of the occasional Stonehenge build which is not particularly likely due to his 2/10 wonder emphasis. De Gaulle does get to take advantage of France's excellent starting techs and solid Musketeer unique unit but that's about all he has working in his favor. Moreover, he displays obnoxious behavior towards his peers, being one of the biggest backstabbers in the game whilst being unable to get along with anyone save for the most vicious warmongers, but he's also a complete coward - another relic of the questionable stereotypes that seep into his design - and if he does not have any easy ways to grow strong he usually just sits there doing nothing and going irrelevant. It's a confusing and incoherent AI personality which not only lacks the requisite ruthlessness needed to be a true conqueror but also displays average-at-best economic skills.
Past Performance: "De Lol" has a pretty unremarkable track record and is rarely one of the more interesting figures in his matches. He was infamous for his terrible ranking in the competition's early days thanks to suffering very early exits in the first two seasons, but since then his performance hasn't been notably bad - just mediocre, such that two or three other leaders are usually doing better in any given game. He had a single strong performance in an ideal setup leading to a win in his Season Three opener, but his subsequent outings have proven that this was simply the game where everything lined up right, and his only other playoff appearance in Season Six was of the "last on the lunch menu" variety. In all fairness, he has looked a little better in some Alternate Histories and has been cursed with poor starting positions and diplomatic fields - his ultra-low peaceweight has generally proven to be a major liability. However, with no particular strength or strategy he likes to follow, De Gaulle is unlikely to play a notable role in most games.
Napoleon of France
Traits: Charismatic, Organized (0 culture traits)
Starting Techs:Agriculture, The Wheel
Peace Weight: 0
Declares War at Pleased Relations? YES
Flavors: Primary Military, Secondary Gold
Warmonger Respect: +2
Base Attitude: -1
Favorite Civic: Representation
Zealotry: Low to Medium
Past Finishes: One playoff round elimination, two wildcard eliminations, five opening round eliminations
Total Games Played: 11
Total Medals: 0 First Places, 1 Second Place
Total Kills: 9
Overall Power Ranking: 11 points, tied 38th place (out of 52 leaders)
Personality: Napoleon is a deeply militaristic leader who will emphasize unit production over everything else. While he doesn't have the Aggressive trait to bolster his Grand Armee, at least they can rack up Charismatic promotions considering his 10/10 boldness rating that will make him sic his armies anywhere and everywhere no matter the practicality. Organized, in theory, can help him recover quicker if he does manage to get a conquest off. France is a great civ choice as usual, with excellent starting techs and a useful unique unit in the Musketeer. Napoleon himself has a one-track mind as an AI leader: he loves to start new wars (9.1/10 aggression rating), he will train oodles of units (10/10), and he has the lowest peace weight possible to cause him to hate the "Good" leaders and see even the heads of meaner leaders as fine additions to his collection. To tack on, Napoleon doesn't care a whole lot about religion and he doesn't waste time building wonders. It should come as no surprise that Napoleon has Military as his primary research flavor along with a lesser Gold emphasis, and of course he will plot war at "Pleased" relations. Overall then Napoleon is pretty similar to Shaka and Ragnar and Boudica, albeit with a slightly more economic bent.
Past Performance: Napoleon is a rather interesting case in these games, as he's racked up an impressive kill total akin to that of a seeded leader, yet has never won a game and only placed second a single time. While he's had a few games that didn't amount to anything, he's usually able to serve as something of a credible threat and at least help to roll over a weaker neighbor, but when it comes to converting this into a real advantage and snowballing ahead, so far he's failed to get it done. The closest he came was in his Season Six opener where he was able to find sustained success on the warpath, only to get repeatedly backstabbed and kept from properly converting it into a win, having to settle for second place instead. This was not his fault, and neither was his fall in the playoffs which came as a result of triggering a defensive pact that was signed on the SAME INTERTURN that he declared war. He's actually been pretty unlucky in general, including last season when he got bumrushed by a psychotic Stalin on Turn 52 to ruin what was looking like a promising start. With that said, when you look back at Nappy's track record, he still falls short of being a truly good competitor even though he is more of a threat than your typical crazy warmonger.
Stalin of Russia
Traits: Aggressive, Industrious (1 culture trait)
Starting Techs:Hunting, Mining
Peace Weight: 2
Declares War at Pleased Relations? YES
Flavors: Primary Military, Secondary Production
Warmonger Respect: +1
Base Attitude: -1
Favorite Civic: State Property
Zealotry: Nonexistant
Past Finishes: Season 3 champion, one Championship loss, one playoff round elimination, five opening round eliminations
Total Games Played: 13
Total Medals: 4 First Places, 2 Second Places
Total Kills: 10
Overall Power Ranking: 34 points, 8th place (out of 52 leaders)
Personality: Stalin had one of the most dominant stretches in AI Survivor history, compiling a staggering track record of success that we're still not entirely sure how to explain. His traits are nothing special, with the Industrious trait largely acting as a detriment to AI performance and Aggressive never grading out as anything better than average. Stalin has undoubtedly been helped by his Cossacks, the primary highlight of his Russian civilization. Understanding why Stalin has repeatedly crushed his opponents requires a deeper dive into his AI personality. He has a low peace weight and an above average aggression rating (7.6/10) while avoiding the truly nutty behavior of someone like Montezuma or Genghis Khan. Aside from a somewhat high build wonder rating (6/10), most of Stalin's AI ratings are in the middle of the spectrum and don't stand out one way or another outside of 10/10 espionage spending. What's unusual about Stalin is the fact that he doesn't care about religion at all, showing as little interest as fellow comrade Mao with miniscule shared faith bonuses and differing religion penalties. This may be a factor in his more successful games as Stalin doesn't get hung up on religious diplomacy and can act as he sees fit. He otherwise has Military and Production tech flavors and, of course, can plot war at "Pleased" relations. For whatever reason, this "militaristic but not too much so" package has been extremely successful in prior seasons of AI Survivor.
Past Performance: Stalin's accomplishments are compressed into a single blaze of glory, but that blaze was so big and bright that he still remains Top 8 in power rankings many years afterwards despite a multi-season streak of futility. Stalin was crowned champion after an utterly dominant Season Three; throughout that season, he kept jumping into dogpiles at the perfect moments, and ended up with three wins and seven kills to attain the highest single-season score in AI Survivor history. Even Alternate Histories proved that his games, while not slam dunks, were still plausible scenarios that suggested some inner strength in Comrade Stalin. He further bolstered his reputation with a return to the Championship the next season which included another strong victory in the opening round. Since then, however, he has completely flailed around, scoring literally ZERO points from Season Five and on - which makes his Season Nine position in the leaderboard even more crazy. He's had promising starts each time, only to completely fail to accomplish anything with them and end up eliminated sooner or later; his most recent appearance in Season Eight, where early copper led him to ignore expansion to declare a suicidally early war against the worst possible target he could have attacked, was a new low for him. Stalin's history before his breakout season was also unremarkable, with just one backdoor second-place finish and one kill across the first two installments, and it's worth noting that his tendency to ignore early culture has shown itself as a serious weakness in recent seasons, one that stunts his early game and forces him to play catch-up. At this point it is valid to question whether Stalin is actually a good leader or simply got really lucky in his heyday, and with each season that he comes up empty, the latter seems more and more likely.
Suleiman of the Ottomans
Traits: Philosophical, Imperialistic (1 culture trait)
Starting Techs:Agriculture, The Wheel
Peace Weight: 4
Declares War at Pleased Relations? NO
Flavors: Primary Culture, Secondary Military
Warmonger Respect: +1
Base Attitude: 0
Favorite Civic: Hereditary Rule
Zealotry: Low
Past Finishes: One Championship loss, one wildcard elimination, six opening round eliminations
Total Games Played: 11
Total Medals: 0 First Places, 2 Second Places
Total Kills: 5
Overall Power Ranking: 9 points, tied 44th place (out of 52 leaders)
Personality: Suleiman is a fairly standard militaristic AI leader tied to a good civilization and an interesting pairing of traits, with Imperialistic favoring rapid expansion across the map while Philosophical works at cross-purposes through the running of specialists. That's great for humans, but countersynergistic for the AI. He also benefits from the Ottoman civ, which features excellent starting techs and two very good unique features in the Janissary and Hamman. Suleiman's AI personality emphasizes military aspects but not to an overwhelming degree. He has a high aggression rating (7/10) and does like to train units (6/10). On the other hand, his peace weight is in the middle of the scale and he won't declare war at "Pleased" relations - he can pretty easily not feel like attacking anyone. Suleiman surprisingly doesn't care much about religion at all, although he has decent odds to found one because his tech flavors are Culture and Military. His setup is a mixed bag overall, with conflicting leader traits and several different points of emphasis in Suleiman's personality. The various parts can occasionally come together into a larger whole, the keyword being "occasionally".
Past Performance: Suleiman was a part of the very first Championship, but only off a pair of distant second-place finishes. Sullla speculated at the start of that finale that Suleiman wasn't actually that strong, and he's certainly been proven right as a pair of kills are all that "Sillyman" has to his name since. There's not a whole lot in particular to say about Suleiman's performances across the past eight seasons, nothing remarkable that's happened. He's just been generally ineffective. The closest he's come to success since 2014 is finishing within 200 points of second place in a Wildcard game, and when you can say that, you know you don't have a very strong performer on your hands. Now, he has been a little unlucky - for example, despite a bad jungle start in Season Eight he actually had good odds to advance to the playoffs! He was also extraordinarily dominant in his Season Seven alternate histories which we completely missed out on seeing in the actual game that took place. Nevertheless, AI Survivor has historically not proven kind to jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none leaders, and Suleiman is no exception.
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Check back later for the community predictions shortly before this game begins!
