I'll start (with what I know at the moment. Please enlarge on designers and games.) My list in not in order of greatness.
1. Rick Goodman (AoE)
2. Bruce Shelley (Civ2,AoE,RoR,AoK,TC)
3. Sandy Peterson (RoR,AoK,TC)
4. Sid Meier (Gettysburg, Civ 1 and 2, Alpha Centauri)
5. Brian Reynolds (Gettysburg, Civ2, AC)
6. Jeff Briggs (Gettysburg, Civ2, AC)
So now we have coming within a year: AoM,Civ3, and EE.
I know that Bruce Shelley is working on AoM.
I know that Sid Meier is working on Civ3.
And I know that Rick Goodman is working on EE.
(Who else is helping design these 3 games? Anyone know?)
And is our experience with these designers a good indication of how good we expect their new games to be?
Who are the other giants in the world of strategy gaming?
Sara