My proposal is to alter that piece and to grow Leader capability over time and government. Consider this two separate proposals ("Civil Wars and Revolutions tied to Leaders" and "Extra abilities for Leaders over time and government"). I'd like to see them both.This is you. If you lose this unit, you lose the game. So don't.
The Leader unit
- A Leader lost in combat initiates a Civil War (if you have 2+ cities) and a Revolution (with maximum Anarchy time of one turn) rather than losing the game
- Movement is only one (until Horseback Riding) rather than the current two
- A Leader can additionally be carried in a Carrier, Helicopter, or Mech. Inf.
- When a Leader is killed on a tile without any defending units, 100 gold is looted from his convoy, but only by land units or helicopters
If there is to be Anarchy, the Leader remains for a random amount of time up to half of the period of anarchy. At this point, the old Leader disappears (this happens immediately if there was no Anarchy due to the Statue of Liberty). Upon establishment of the new government, a new Leader appears in your capital.
There is a chance (equal to the previous Government system's chance of Civil War) of your old Leader going Rogue and reappearing (this will not happen if that Leader was defeated in combat, as your Leader is dead! Instead, you must contend with the leader of your breakaway population, whom is far better equipped).
If your last Leader goes Rogue, he'll randomly reappear in the next few turns, with backup, in a manner similar to a Barbarian Leader's uprisings (some merging of concepts can happen here). He'll also have a small bit of money (1-10% of your treasury at the time your revolution started). A Rogue Leader has all of the Diplomat (and, if you have Espionage, the Spy) unit's capabilities, although he can be captured (at half the odds) upon failing one of these extra actions. The backup will use the level of technology you had when the Leader disappeared and will have numbers proportional to the nation's population at that time. Every turn a Rogue Leader survives following his reappearance, he gets a random 0-10% of the value of the tax you collected that turn (half of this comes from your treasury). He will desperately try to regain one of the cities he used to control and will not be above sabotage and poisoning to make it happen.
The Statue of Liberty cuts the chance of a Leader going Rogue in half.
Leader names
Your name theoretically changes here. I kind of like this idea, as it allows you to do the default increments (Richard the Lionheart becomes Richard II, etc.) or else change to one of the other offered names (or an increment thereof). The name choice should be yours. This might be awkward; for example, diplomacy tends to identify by leaders rather than by nations, and if leaders can change, diplomacy should mention the nation in addition to the leader.
A Rogue Leader would have a nation and be able to participate in diplomacy. The nation's name would change to some iteration of yours, e.g. if your nation were X, it could be Old X, The Real X, True X, New X, The Estranged X, X in Exile, The Free X, Confederate X, The Free Y of X for y = {Republic, State, Nation, People, ...}, government-specific names like: Despotic X, Democratic X, Dynastic X, People's Republic of X, Soviet X, The People's X, or anything suggested by a history major.
Extra Leader unit abilities from technology
Certain technology add capabilities to your Leader's capabilities:
- Automobile: Your Leader unit gains one movement
- Chivalry: Mounted units occupying the same tile as your Leader are considered one step more veteran (with elite, the multiplier increases to 2.25x; this seems balanced, as it would make an Elite led Cavalry 18/6.75/2 versus e.g. Elite Armor's 20/10/3, so the unit that obsoletes it is still preferable)
- Monarchy: If a city of size under 3 is celebrating and housing your Leader, the output of its food resources doubles
- Espionage: A Diplomat, Spy, or Barbarian Leader defeated by your Leader becomes yours (it moves to the same tile as your Leader). A converted Barbarian Leader becomes a diplomat and its other units are unaffected.
- Horseback Riding: Your Leader unit gains one movement
- Radio: Your Leader's vision is one tile larger (like a Spy)
- Refrigeration: One free worker is available in the city that houses your Leader
- Trade: Your Leader can establish trade routes at a cost of 1/3 movement
- Writing: Your Leader unit can perform Establish Embassy and Investigate City actions like a Spy (cost: 1/3 move)
Your Leader affects cities he is in or immediately adjacent to. This differs depending on your system of government.
- Communism: All trade lost to Corruption is added to Luxury
- Democracy: One citizen that is unhappy due to aggressively deployed military units is made happy
- Despotism: Makes one content citizen happy, or two if you have Code of Laws, or three if you have Code of Laws and Theology. If you have The Republic, also makes one content citizen unhappy (two if you have Democracy)
- Monarchy: Makes one unhappy citizen content and increases Luxury by 50% (Increasing with your economy-affecting buildings, your Luxury will be one of: 50%, 100%, 150%, or 200%)
- Republic: One citizen that is unhappy due to aggressively deployed military units is made content