This is a continuing feature for Season Eight 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:
Mansa Musa of Mali
Traits: Financial, Spiritual
Starting Techs: Mining, Wheel
Peace Weight: 9
Declares War at Pleased Relations? YES
Past Finishes: Season Six champion, two Championship losses, one playoff round elimination, three opening round eliminations
Total Medals: 8 First Places 
Total Kills: 8 
Overall Power Ranking: 48 points, 2nd place (out of 52 leaders)
Personality: Mansa Moneybags is the best AI leader in the game when it comes to pure economy and it's not a close comparison. He is an absolute fiend when it comes to research, even under our settings where Mansa's well known propensity to engage in tech trading gets disabled. Mansa Musa benefits from an amazing pair of economic traits, Financial for endless cottage cheese and Spiritual to avoid ever wasting turns with the AI's frequent civics shifts. The Malinese civ has an excellent unique unit in the Skirmisher and a passable unique building in the Mint. The biggest downside here comes from the poor starting techs, and if Mansa chooses to chase after an early religion, he can lock himself out of connecting early food bonuses for quite some time. On that note, Mansa has a surprisingly heavy religious preference including a lesser Religion tech preference paired along with his dominant Gold flavor. He's one of the most likely leaders to found a religion despite not starting with Mysticism tech. Mansa's strategy otherwise tends to be predictable: blanket the landscape in cottages and tech like a banshee. He's extraordinarily good at doing this even on a limited number of cities; we've repeatedly seen a Malinese empire with five cities still leading the pack in tech. If Mansa ever manages to amass a large amount of territory, may god have mercy on your soul, because he will plot war at "Pleased" and isn't afraid to lay the smack down despite his 1.6/10 aggression rating. Mansa Musa is always a dangerous opponent and will usually win the game if he doesn't get roughed up by his neighbors.
Past Performance: Mansa is widely recognized as the premier economic leader in this competition, and his overall prowess and achievements are only rivaled by those of Huayna Capac. Aside from Huayna, no other leader has won more than half of the games Mansa has! Mansa was especially strong in the early seasons of AI Survivor before the free Deity starting techs were removed, making the playoffs in three straight seasons and reaching the Championship twice. He was denied a full victory in these seasons, however, thanks to playoff fields full of low peaceweight leaders who wanted a piece of him, and most recent seasons have seen him get attacked too early in the opening round to really get going and open up the tech leads he relies on. The removal of the free techs seems to have hurt him a fair amount, making it much harder for him to survive these early assaults - but Season Six showed that he's still dangerous if he makes it through the early game, as he performed a full season sweep with three economically dominant victories to finally claim a title. While he's been roughed up quite a bit lately, Mansa still very much fills the "ticking time bomb" role, and nobody else can technologically torch the competition quite like he can.
Alexander of the Greeks
Traits: Aggressive, Philosophical
Starting Techs: Fishing, Hunting
Peace Weight: 0
Declares War at Pleased Relations? YES
Past Finishes: Four playoff round eliminations, three opening round eliminations
Total Medals: 2 First Places, 2 Second Places 
Total Kills: 11
Overall Power Ranking: 25 points, tied 12th place (out of 52 leaders)
Personality: Alex is another of the warmongers in Civ 4. He plays with the Aggressive and Philosophical traits, a weak pairing that doesn't offer much in the way of synergy or individual power. He also gets the phalanx, a powerful unit in the hands of a human but not especially useful in that of the AI (Alex will build plenty of spears anyway), and the Odeon, a nice happiness boost for the midgame. Lastly, Alex has a pair of average starting techs in Fishing and Hunting, and like all Fishing leaders is much stronger when he starts on the coast. With one of the highest aggression ratings in the game (8.6/10), a high unit build preference (8/10) and the military/growth flavour pairing, Alex is likely to go to war early and often. He's also one of the leaders with the "demonic evil" peace weight of 0, which makes any cooperation with the "good" leaders essentially impossible. Like the other warmongers though, Alex is so aggressive that if there aren't any good leaders around, he's pretty likely to just attack one of his buddies anyway. Other than the key aggressive stats, Alex is a pretty generic leader. He has middling numbers in just about everything else, including tribute demands (4/10) and wonder building (4/10), and he cares an average amount about religion too. Look for Alex to be one of the driving forces of this game. He can't get off the warpath until everyone else - or himself - is dead.
Past Performance: After a lackluster early career, Alex has emerged in recent seasons as one of the competition's most compelling leaders. For the first four seasons, he was just another failed warmonger, with some laughably bad performances and an "only leader to not get beat up" second place as his best finish. That all changed in Season Five, when he scored the earliest kill in AI Survivor history, a blazing fast Turn 80 conquest, en route to an amazing 4-kill Domination victory in just 253 turns! Alex followed this up with a strong second place finish in Season Six and another Domination win from a poor start in Season Seven, and this string of successful opening round outings has catapulted him into the ranks of the seeded leaders for the first time. While he's failed to accomplish anything of note in the playoffs so far, his recent record has proven that he's a dangerous leader indeed when he gets ahead, and one who bears watching closely.
Pericles of Greece
Traits: Creative, Philosophical
Starting Techs: Fishing, Hunting
Peace Weight: 6
Declares War at Pleased Relations? NO
Past Finishes: One Championship loss, one playoff round elimination, one wildcard elimination, four opening round eliminations
Total Medals: 2 First Places, 1 Second Place
Total Kills: 3
Overall Power Ranking: 15 points, tied 27th place (out of 52 leaders)
Personality: Pericles is one of the best leaders at pursuing a Cultural victory and he's had a good bit of success with that strategy in past seasons. Pericles has the ideal trait combination for chasing after cultural pursuits with the Creative + Philosophical pairing, providing cheap libraries and universities and theatres. The Greek civ doesn't offer too much in this regard, with subpar starting techs and an unrelated Phalanx unique unit, although I suppose that the Odeon unique building comes at half cost and can provide more Artist specialist slots. Pericles the AI leader has a peaceful bent in general, with a low aggression rating (3.3/10) and a modest build unit preference (4/10). Pericles would clearly much rather spend his time building wonders instead (8/10), which he'll do with great frequency in each game. Unlike many of the other peaceful leaders, Pericles doesn't place much of an emphasis on religion and rarely founds one of his own faiths. His research flavors are Production and Science, which also makes him a bit of a strange bird since he doesn't have a Culture or Religion tech preference in there. Overall Pericles is an easy neighbor to live with, as he almost never makes demands and has a middling peace weight that avoids either end of the spectrum. He's a leader who wants to be left alone and can become very dangerous if he gets that wish.
Past Performance: Pericles's career got off to a promising start. Both of his first two opening round games ended up being largely controlled by high peaceweight leaders, allowing him to cash in with Diplomatic and Cultural victories, and a Second Place finish from a more hostile playoff field in Season Two seemed to confirm his aptitude. But then he just kind of... stopped. Nothing has gone right for Pericles since then, and he's only scored a single point across the past five seasons. His failed performances have varied; some really were beyond his control, but there's also been several games where he messed up himself or simply failed to accomplish anything. The Season Six opener in particular saw him gifted a great start, only to lose one of his first cities to the barbarians for an extended period of time and never fully recover. It seems that while Pericles is capable enough to usually get it done in a favorable situation, he lacks that special spark needed to be a truly good or interesting leader.
Qin Shi Huang
Traits: Industrious, Protective
Starting Techs: Agriculture, Mining
Peace Weight: 2
Declares War at Pleased Relations? YES
Past Finishes: Three playoff round eliminations, four opening round eliminations
Total Medals: 3 Second Places
Total Kills: 3
Overall Power Ranking: 9 points, tied 36th place (out of 52 leaders)
Personality: Qin Shi Huang has the unfortunate penalty of being saddled with the worst trait combination in Civ4 for AI Survivor purposes. The Industrious trait seems to cause the AI leaders to tie up their cities on wonders in lieu of expanding out across the map, while the Protective trait is well-known for being the weakest of the bunch. Defensive promotions and cheaper walls can help string out a losing game but won't do much of anything to help win a game. Qin's saving grace is the Chinese civilization, with its amazing starting tech combination and powerful Cho-Ko-Nu unique unit. The extra promotions on this unit are about the only useful thing that Qin gets from his traits. Qin's AI personality is mostly that of a peaceful builder, as he has a low aggression rating (3.9/10) and a fairly high wonder emphasis (6/10). Qin generally won't pick a lot of fights as he doesn't make a lot of demands and he has a low train unit emphasis (2/10). This economic setup is oddly paired with a low peace weight and the ability to plot war at "Pleased" relations. This is likely the reason why Qin has outperformed his terrible trait combination, as low peace weight leaders who can successfully pull off economic development tend to be some of the strongest competitors in AI Survivor. It's too bad for Qin that he doesn't get more useful traits to pair with his otherwise promising setup.
Past Performance: Qin was a mediocre leader even at his peak in Season One, and has never truly risen to greatness. He's turned in middle-of-the-road performances most of the time, not playing really disastrously or sinking his own game (except once, when he overexpanded from a poor start and dramatically crashed his economy), but also never enjoying any great successes. He's managed to complete a few joint conquests to build into decent positions, but that's it - none of his games have seen him really pull out in front or become a dominant leader. Probably his best showing was one of his most recent, in his Season Seven opener, where he took the majority of cities from an early dogpile and rode that and a strong start to the tech lead at the end of the game. Even then, though, his overall position was about even with two other leaders, and he ultimately finished in Second Place. Qin's low peaceweight has perhaps been his biggest asset, helping him to hang around and secure some Second Place finishes that he otherwise would not have gotten. Don't be surprised if he manages to slip through, but don't expect him to be one of the big movers in his games either.
Saladin of Arabia
Traits: Spiritual, Protective
Starting Techs: Mysticism, Wheel
Peace Weight: 4
Declares War at Pleased Relations? NO
Past Finishes: Season Seven runner up, one playoff round elimination, two wildcard eliminations, three opening round eliminations
Total Medals: 2 First Places, 2 Second Places
Total Kills: 5
Overall Power Ranking: 19 points, 21st place (out of 52 leaders)
Personality: Saladin is one of several leaders that focuses on religion and military; unlike most of the other leaders with this combination, he's only middle of the spectrum in terms of aggression and peace weight. Saladin is hurt badly by his leader traits and Arabian civilization, with the useless Protective trait handicapping his performance. He is also penalized by having to start with arguably the worst starting tech pairing in the game in Mysticism and Wheel. Saladin's free starting Deity worker cannot hook up any food resources or build mines, while being stuck two techs away from both Bronze Working and Animal Husbandry. Saladin heavily emphasizes religion and he will therefore always try to found one of the Meditation/Polytheism faiths, leaving him even further in the hole compared to his rivals. This poor starting situation typically leaves Saladin significantly behind the other leaders and makes it hard for him to keep pace with their expansion. Most of his AI ratings are in the middle of the range of available values, such as his aggression rating (5.5/10) and peace weight. Saladin rarely makes demands of his neighbors and will be a good friend when sharing the same faith, though his preferred civic of Theocracy makes it almost impossible for rival religions to get any kind of footing. This is a straightforward AI personality: he's going to try to found a religion and then attack those who don't share it, although not nearly to the same degree as someone like Montezuma or Isabella.
Past Performance: Saladin is a pretty solid AI who is probably a bit unlucky to have not scored more points than he has. He logged a pair of solid second-place finishes in the most recent season, becoming the tournament's runner-up, but he's also had quite a few other games in the past where he played solidly throughout and was close, only to either suffer a late conquest or else just barely get edged out for Second Place by somebody else. Saladin tends to perform quite competently, usually possessing a competitive empire after the landgrab, and has on multiple occasions won games simply by steering a steady course to prosper while his competition implodes. He's unlikely to race out to victory, but is there to take the win when other leaders slip up. Perhaps the biggest weakness we've seen from him, though, is that while he loves to found Islam, he's doesn't do much to spread it (or any other religion he ends up with) around. As a result, Saladin often finds himself in the role of the religious outcast, and this has gotten him into trouble several times in the past. If he can avoid that, though, he's quite capable of putting on a decent performance that at least puts him in the conversation to advance to the next round.
Washington of America
Traits: Charismatic, Expansive
Starting Techs: Agriculture, Fishing
Peace Weight: 8
Declares War at Pleased Relations? NO
Past Finishes: One Championship loss, two wildcard eliminations, four opening round eliminations
Total Medals: 1 First Place, 1 Second Place
Total Kills: 1
Overall Power Ranking: 8 points, 41st place (out of 52 leaders)
Personality: Washington has a pacifistic AI personality combined with traits that lend themselves towards combat, leaving him stuck in an ineffectual spot that has achieved little to date. He has the combination of Expansive and Charismatic leader traits, a setup that theoretically leads to highly promoted units and faster expansion through cheap workers and granaries. Unfortunately Washington's personality is designed to play a peaceful builder game, and these traits simply aren't as useful as what other economy-focused leaders get to play around with. Extra happiness and health in each city is OK and all that but they're nowhere near as good as being Financial or getting the free culture from Creative or the free civic swaps from Spiritual. Washington certainly isn't helped by hauling around the American civilization, with its incredibly late-arriving unique features and only decent starting techs. Washington the AI has a low aggression rating (4.3/10), a high peace weight, and won't declare war at "Pleased" relations. He doesn't make many demands and typically acts as a great neighbor aside from a penchant for espionage spending (7/10). However, Washington inexplicably has Military and Growth tech preferences, causing him to prioritize military techs that he won't use and ignore development-focused research. It's a bizarre tech prioritization system that badly undercuts his performance. When combined with mediocre traits and the weak American civilization, it's easy to understand why Washington has struggled in past seasons.
Past Performance: Washington has seen little success in the competition, with all eight of his points coming from Season Five and nothing to show from any other years. Season Five was clearly a case of "right place at the right time", as a distant second-place finish managed to get him a beautiful starting location in the playoffs, which he leveraged (in a legitimately strong performance) to his only victory. Meanwhile, his failures have taken various forms: he's been stuck surrounded by hostile leaders and left without hope several times, tried and failed to fight his way into a strong position a couple of times, and in his very first appearance, successfully avoided fighting a single war throughout his entire game... resulting in him getting passed up and finishing in third place. Aside from his win, Washington has never done anything very impressive, and while he's not the worst leader in the competition, he's clearly one of the lesser ones, requiring things to line up just right in order to put up a strong performance.
Zara Yacob of Ethiopia
Traits: Creative, Organized
Starting Techs: Hunting, Mining
Peace Weight: 6
Declares War at Pleased Relations? YES
Past Finishes: Season One runner up, one playoff round elimination, five opening round eliminations
Total Medals: 2 First Places, 2 Second Places
Total Kills: 7
Overall Power Ranking: 21 points, 20th place (out of 52 leaders)
Personality: Zara plays with the Creative and Organized traits, combining to push a landgrab style of play and giving production discounts on a huge variety of buildings. For his unique items Zara plays with the Oromo Warrior, a slightly better musketman, and the Stele, useful for a cultural victory and not much else. Lastly, Zara gets the Hunting/Mining combo for his starting techs, which means he can be slow to connect his food resources, especially if he goes for a religion. Zara's numbers tend to be in roughly the middle of the board, including his aggression rating (5.6/10), unit build preference (6/10), wonder build preference (4/10) and even his peace weight, at a neutral 6. His flavours are Growth and Religion, an unusual combination that could lead to healthy and happy cities, while the last unusual thing about Zara is the huge diplomatic emphasis he places on faith. The diplomatic bonus for sharing a religion with Zara can go up to +8, and the penalty for religious differences is nothing to sneeze at either. Expect Zara's diplomacy to follow religious alignment to a tee, and when he finds himself on the wrong side of a coalition, Zara had better watch out.
Past Performance: Zara was perhaps the biggest star of Season One, rebounding from near-elimination via the Wildcard game and putting out three straight strong performances to come just short of winning the title. (Instead, he sat back while slightly under the Domination threshold and let Justinian win via space instead, in classic AI fashion.) However, his career since then has seemingly been dedicated to proving that this performance was a fluke. Zara has accomplished very little from Season Two onwards, failing a little or a lot depending on the game, but in any case almost never becoming truly strong or a major figure. He saw a small resurgence in Season Six, with a narrow second-place Wildcard finish and trio of kills briefly regaining him a position as a seeded leader, but then lost that position right back with an embarrassing early elimination at Alexander's hands in his Season Seven opener. Zara also has the unenviable record of the earliest elimination in AI Survivor history, as his Season Five opener saw him rushed by Alex (again) without having even teched Archery and thus summarily wiped out. Actually, three of the last four seasons have featured Alex killing Zara early in the opening round, so prepare to see a quick exit if you see Zara starting next to the Greek conqueror again - although you shouldn't expect too much from him in any case.
Here's what the community was thinking based on the prediction contest before the game took place:
Mansa Musa was unsurprisingly the overwhelming favorite to win Game Four, although not quite to the same degree as Kublai Khan had been heading into Game One. Saladin was the only other leader to draw more than a handful of votes for the top spot, and then he had the most support for the Runner Up category as a lot of people liked his setup. There was another strong favorite in the First to Die category as about half of the community selected Pericles as the first to be eliminated, with Washington trailing in a distance second place. Given the support for Mansa, the community also heavily picked peaceful victory conditions with Spaceship and Cultural both voted far ahead of Domination for a change.
Finally, here are some of the best/craziest written predictions about what would take place during the game. There were many other excellent entries but I had to pick and choose my favorites to keep this from running on too long. Thanks again for the submissions!
JackDRB:
If Mansa Musa has a million fans, then I am one of them.
If Mansa Musa has ten fans, then I am one of them.
If Mansa Musa has one fan, that's me.
If Mansa Musa has no fans, then I am no longer alive.
If the picking contest is against Mansa Musa, then I am against the picking contest.
Till my last pick, I will pick Mansa Musa to win.
kcostell: All that empty space behind Alexander feels like a bit of a poison pill -- lots of fertile ground for Barbs and not so much for cities. I'm hoping the eastern jungle drives Zara west, leaving the southeast free for Mansa Musa and keeping them from coming into too much conflict early.
Aprender: Alex and Pericles fight. Alex wins. Mansa benefits from being far away, but because of an unexpected war with Washington, he can't quite do Mansa things.
NotSpamBot: Alexander aside this looks like a pure echo game. And given that Mansa Musa is present I am of course going to bet on... Zara. It's not that I have become scared by the season thus far (at least not just that) but I just don't like how little production Mansa's capital has and the utter lack of happiness near him. Also, he's peaceweight 9, Washington is 8, and everyone else is beneath that so I am betting on there being some incompetent warring going on in that direction after Alexander kills himself.
the_lord_admiral: Looks too easy. Mansa with a healthy chunk of space, a long river, and most critically, two high peaceweight neighbors can't possibly lose, right? I can't see any choice but to pick him for some sort of quick victory where he out-techs the entire world. Which means that this is probably the game where we finally get the ridiculous warmonger snowballing an early victory en route to conquering the entire map that I've been looking for the past few rounds.
TheOneAndOnlyAtesh: Your Honor, I present to you this evidence that, I promise, shall implicate Mansa Musa for the brutal murder of Alexander the Great. (Phone rings) “Yo Zaraaa!!! It’s Alex! They kinda call me Big Al these days. What is up my man? How’s it been going lately? Hey hey hey, why the hostility, bro? Yeah, I know that I kinda, ya know, took all your money, I own your business, slept with your wife, and now your kids call ME Dad, but, no hard feelings? We’re still best friends, blood brothers, right? Hey, it’s ok. You can always cry on my shoulder, aight? I’m only here to help you bro! I promise, this time we will be in this together, kapeesh? Alright, you see Mansa to your North, right? Yeah I think you can get him. Ok I know y’all are like friends but look, I think you are capable of more. Plus, Mansa’s so annoying, isn’t he? Yeah that’s the Zara I always knew you could be! Destroy him! I’ll eat my lesser Greek twin meanwhile. Zara? Hey Zara? What happened, Zara???!? Ugh, that guy was always a loser. Oh w— oh Maansaaa Musa?!? Yooo, what’s up broski? It’s Alex, they kinda call me Big — Mansa? What are you doing? Mansa?!? Oh no oh no Mansa No MANSAAAAAA ARRRGGGGH AAAARRRGGGHHHHHH” (crcrcrk the call hangs up)
Ethan: Why Washington? Well, I have a conspiracy theory that the leader in the top middle of the map overperforms in AI survivor - the actual games, not the alternate histories. That's why Hammurabi won G1, Justinian won G2, and Sitting Bull won G3 (though technically there was no top middle leader). Maybe it's an odd AI quirk related to replacing the A through G leaders or maybe it's because of the observer Civ, but I'm gonna stick my neck out for this one. Anyway, my theory for how the game goes is that Washington gets an early kill on Mansa after a "surprising" (but not to me) early attack. South Greece kills North Greece - ahistorically, given the leaders - before getting slowed down by protective leaders to their east. Eventually Washington eats Zara and wins a late domination victory.
Chaplain: Mansan RunAway
haphazard1: Washington acts as a meat shield for Mansa, giving Mali time to tech ahead. Alex destroys Pericles in a battle of the true Greeks, then moves east against Saladin. Zara manages to ally with Mali via shared religion and takes second. Qin...not sure what Qin does, but it is nothing important.
Alhambram: Doomsday clock is ticking for non-Mansa leaders to beat Mansa Musa who is hiding behind two meatwalls. Saladin and Qin should do this job with excellent starting lands and surroundings. Just hoping for them that Alexander is going after eastern high peaceweights soon he is done with Pericles and not slamming into Qin or Saladin to help Mansa win.
Plains-Cow: Sitting Bull started off with a capital plains-cow tile and chose OPTION A! He then proceeded to kill the top-ranked AI in CIV IV AI Survivor before going on to win culture, with 2nd-place to Freddy who became enlightened after securing his own plains-cow tile in Angle. This week, we see Mansa with loads of starting land space, peaceful neighbors, AND a plains-cow capital?! The game was rigged from the start, Jimbo. It'll be Mansa 1st, Washington 2nd, and Zara tasting Alex's sandals for the umpteenth time.
Eauxps I. Fourgott: Mansa will undoubtedly be the favorite here, but there's all sorts of ways this could go wrong for him. Sal or Qin could snowball off of their juiced starts and race out in front. Alex could conquer Zara yet again, as the fates decree, and use Ethiopia as a staging ground to invade Mali. Washington could channel his inner Benedict Arnold and backstab Mansa. We shall see.
AncientNoob: Alexander warmongers himself out of the game after defeating Pericles
Bernn: I'm so conflicted on this one. On paper, it looks like a total Mansa Musa slam dunk: a bunch of pretty passive leaders, none of whom are that great at teching, and only one real warmonger who's stuck on the opposite side of the map. It's hard to imagine Mansa facing much pressure early on, and like usual if he survives to midgame he'll run circles around the competition. But I'm just not thrilled about his start, since it's uncomfortably deserty and he often likes to go for religion. We could quite easily see a Mansa without food resources for the first 25 turns who ends up with just 5 or 6 cities total post-landgrab...which is probably enough for him to win with anyway, but that's undeniably a rocky situation. I'll go for more of a dark horse here: Qin. Great start and he's aggressive enough to bully his softer neighbors if need be. Mansa will probably be the tech leader all game, but if Qin grabs 2x the cities I think that's a stronger long term position.
Guanidine: Dreams come true if you are Mansa: reclusive river valley, a friendly screen from the ugliness on the other side of the world, and little competition for the cultural highlights of the tech tree. Maybe not as golden a starting position as Qin or Saladin, but Mansa makes the moneybags
Zigzagzone: Saladin. The only man with near-guaranteed friends from religion and acceptable peaceweight for his neighbors, probably the best diplo situation on the map. Fantastic land once he goes through the early game. Excellent city pickup opportunities from a 2v1 against Pericles, or Qin, or even Washington (yes, who will attack Mansa at least some of the time). Can he rise to the ocasion and grab a win in this game?
Mansa da man: It's finally time for my boy Mansa!!! And man does it look good for him! The land itself is nothing spectacular but being surrounded by high peaceweight AIs and more importantly, as far as possible from Alex, what more could you ask for! There's just 2 problems he'll need to overcome, his land is a bit limited so he'll need to expand outwards and not repeat Huayna's mistakes from last game. He's also a bit short on happiness resources which could be a problem until Calendar but there is some Ivory down South and Silver in the North. If he looks good past Calendar, he should be a sure bet to win unless Alex rushes Zara AGAIN and snowballs. Second place is a bit trickier but Saladin looks to be the best shout. He's a very competent AI despite having poor traits and techs, kind of like the less talented boy who keeps his head down and works hard. He can't stop a runaway financial AI, like we saw with Darius last year, but he's got some good land in the middle and usually picks his wars smartly. I can see him doing well but Mansa winning by culture far before he barely reaches Industrial Era.
SirSystemError: Okay, look. I'm the only one who called the game winners last time. Call me crazy or lucky, but my results were fact! So trust me when I say Mansa is toast. IT'S ZARA'S YEAR. SEASON ONE WAS A LUCKY FLUKE? I THINK NOT!! SEASONS 2-7 WERE UNLUCKY!!!
BigBlueBen: I fully expect Mansa's start to be terrible, he might even go religion and / or masonry before getting any tile improvement other than roads at his capital. But can any of the other leaders take advantage in time? I don't see Alex snowballing fast enough without copper and two protective neighbors (and no border with Zara). I don't see either of Mansa's neighbors killing him early either... so, FIN / ALIVE wins again? It's not like any of the other favorites this year have failed...
zoogzoog:
(Drum roll)
In the next episode.
(Epic Music with images of an hoplite battle)
Blood and tears, civil war rampages in greece.
(Epic Music continue on a desert background with camel archers advancing)
Love and hate, religion conflicts spread from the center of the world.
(Sad Violon smoothing the less louder Epic Music - Images of a dagger backstabbing and after multiple daggers stabs, the victims murmuring "You too my son")
Trahison and Dogpilling.
(Only Sad Violon - A child is crying in a dark room)
High pw innocents are slaughtered.
(Full of hope violon - A torn and suffering hero having richer and richer garments as the time pass)
Will our hero Mansa will prevail?
(A Door is slammed)
The response in the next episode!
(Silence and black)
(No music - A young very excited guy with the face all red is running and trying to talk to an older businessman with a cigar, a big smile and who have all his eyes on a secretary)
Boss, boss, boss, i have an idea for the next article! please, please. Boss, boss, please.
(very quiet reggae music - The boss with his perfect big smile is finally looking at the young businessman )
Jerry my boy, we all know about your nerds aliens in the artic betting on us conspiracy theory. You have to stop, we all love them and don't ask me why.
(Loud Reggae music - Aliens with dreadlocks, nerds glasses and rabbit teeth in a sauna and pretty boys and girls with ice mointains in the background)
(End)
Oh my hmmmm my pick hmmmm Mansa!
