Forgive me, but I'm going to be using Gathering Storm civs and leaders in this one. If nothing else, it means there's going to be more women to choose from. =]

For a bonus challenge, I'm gonna try not to use the same picks as hS did last year for ANYONE involved. Here goes nothing...

---

Delta Juliette: Cleopatra, Egypt
Egypt is a pretty strong nation that benefits from trade, and its bonuses to Wonder production seems like a good fit. Also, putting giant statues of cats everywhere just seems like something she'd do.

Zingenmir: Jadwiga, Poland
Jadwiga is a ruler defined by her faith, just as Zingenmir is defined by hers. She also has military flexibility and favours an aggressive-defence strategy, which I think would work well given Barony Zingenmir's location on the map.

Hieronymus: Harald Hardrada, Norway
This is based in large part on Harald's unique unit, the Viking Longship. Hieronymus shows up in mission posts to prod people about spelling errors; the Longship is one of the best harassment units in the game, as it's able to pillage improvements on dry land as well as those in the sea.

Kaitlyn: Dido, Phoenicia
They look alike, which always helps, and Phoenicia's focus on Loyalty is incredibly strong as well as fitting. It also feels right for her to have a bit more of a naval focus, with her Barony's connection to the sea.

Phobos: Mansa Musa, Mali
Big, burly guy with a beard? Check. Focus on trade? Check. Making SO much money? Check. Okay, maybe not that last bit for Phobos himself, but Mali is a gold-focused Civ the likes of which we've never seen before.

Neshomeh: Eleanor of Aquitaine, France
The flowing hair makes this one for me, I have to admit, but it also works with the culture aspect. With England's UA having been reworked considerably for GS, the French focus on mid-game Wonders - which tend to have Great Work slots - and culture allows her to generate a boatload of it per turn, sprinting through the civics tree and also meaning she can spread Great Works around to manipulate loyalty.

PoorCynic: Pericles, Greece
City-States aren't going to be major players in this game, but you still get a bunch of bonuses from them and that synergizes well with Pericles' Leader Ability. Holding sway over smaller players for no readily apparent reason also seems to fit the guy who wrote the Newbie Guides. =]

Larfen: John Curtin, Australia
Going with your countryman here, Larf. Not much to say beyond that, except possibly "Crikey!" or "By oath!".

Iximaz: Amanitore, Nubia
Some of you might be wondering why this isn't Tomyris, who is a real-life horse girl and just as annoying to fight. Some of you might be wondering why this isn't Gitarja, who builds up and out into the seas themselves with the Kampung. I'll tell you why I picked Amanitore, and that's one thing: archer spam. The Pitati Archer (replacing the, er, Archer) is a brilliant unique unit and Nubia has a 50% production bonus to ranged units. Ix's agents also use bows a lot. It seems to work.

Tomash: Cyrus, Persia
This might be a slightly odd choice, but what I like about Cyrus for this pick is his ability to both wage war (on pill-selling spambots) and build advanced infrastructure (made of code). It also encourages trade, which will make Phobos happy. =]

Huinesoron: Pachacuti, Inca
Doing a lot with a little - especially in mountainous terrain - seems like a great fit for out friendly neighbourhood utterlygeriatricbie's Baronial incarnation. I think that powering enormously large cities with nothing more than expert farming fits his sensibilities.

Scapegrace: Kristina of Sweden
She has my hair, she's a big ol' nerd, and she gets an enormous library to build as part of her leader ability. Nuff said.

With parenthetical notes from Modern hS.

JULIETTE - *Catherine de Medici - spies - France (I have no idea why.)
ESHAKHAR - *Cleopatra - trade, military - Egypt (... also no idea why. Vaguely eastern?)
HIERONYMUS - Gandhi - religion, peace - India (He's old, he's peaceful)
KAITLYN - *Gorgo - Culture - Greece (Greece is cultural, which fits nicely. Also El Jheycom was always Greek-inspired.)
PHOBOS - Harald - Navy - Norway (Big beard. ^^)
PC - Monty - Luxuries, military - Aztec (Monty is a resource-hogging military type; Baron PC rules over the mines that supply our weapons.)
HUINESORON - Peter - faith - Russia (... he's got my hair? Best guess is I was aiming for science + expansion.)
LARF - Teddy - Military - America (Because Teddy is funny. ^^)
IXIMAZ - *Tomyris - military - Scythia (Ix is a terrifying warrior for Goodfic. Also something to do with horses?)
NESHOMEH - *Victoria - expansion - England
(I have no idea why.)

~

Okay, so now my current thoughts:

-Is Larf Australian? In my head he is, so must be John Curtin of Aus.
-I like Kaitlyn of Greece, and would love Kaitlyn of Phoenecia, but in the absence of GS, I think Wilhelmina of the Dutch would work well. She has a focus on culture and loyalty, as well as trade, which Kaitlyn is ideally suited for.
-Neshomeh has to be a writing-focussed leader. Victoria's museums actually fit pretty well; Jadwiga of Poland is another possibility.
-Phobos obviously needs to be big, burly, and bearded. ^_^ Harald is a bit rubbish on a single landmass, but Cyrus of Persia (trade), Robert of Scotland (happiness), or Gilgamesh (exploration) would be good. All are very warlike, too. (Barbarossa is a backup choice, but relies a bit too much on city states.)
-I still like Monty for PC, but Poundmaker for trade also looks good.
-If Kaitlyn is no longer Greece, Hieronymus has to be Pericles, owner of the only grey beard. He's also cultural, which goes well with HG.
-Juliette should be a science leader. Seondeok of Korea looks good for her.
-Cleopatra actually works well for Eshakhar, who is at the junction of multiple trade routes.
-Tomyris still looks good for Ix, or possibly Gitarja of Indonesia, who would work well on the coast (and Ix's largest settlement already has an Indonesian theme).
-For myself, Peter still looks decent. Baron Me has a bit of a religious bent, which fits well.
-Priestess Scapegrace obviously must be a religious leader. Jadwiga of Poland is a perfect fit.
-Tomash, like Juliette, should be a scientist... but through an interesting quirk, most of the science leaders are women. Failing that, Qin Shi Huang of China has a science boost, and gets in on the 'building wonderful things' side of Tomash.

hS

Okay, so with GS released and some interesting DLC out, I need to take a closer look at Civ 6 before the interesting stuff really starts kicking in. I will get back to you closer to the time.

So, any guesses on what sort of PocketsMon there'll be this time around? I'm feeling like mythology is a pretty untapped field; sure, they've done dragons, and [checks] dragons, but the world's myths are stuffed with weird and wonderful creatures they could draw on.

No, I do them a disservice - there's a lot of Japanese myth showing up in their. Point stands, though - they did 'sword' before they did 'manticore'.

hS

I mean, I'd much rather be blissfully unaware of it until Pokemon Day where they may inevitably announce it.

THE WAIT. IT'S TO MUCH.

I've been hoping for Gen 8 news soon, so if this is true I'm very interested. Can't wait to see a proper PokémonbSwitch.