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Game #13 - Mali/Mansa Musa
Game #13 - Mali/Mansa Musa
In the next ALC game, I'll be playing as Mansa Musa, leader of Mali. This thread is to discuss, before the game, how to best exploit that particular leader's characteristics, which is the main feature and purpose of the ALC series. Just so we're clear, I'm playing with the Warlords expansion pack and the difficulty level will be Monarch. The speed is Epic, the map is Fractal. Here's the fact sheet:
Traits: Spiritual (No anarchy from civics/religion changes. Double production speed of Temples.) and Financial (+1 commerce on plots with 2 commerce.)
Starting Techs: Mining and the Wheel
Unique Unit: Skirmisher (Replaces Archer; Strength: 4, Movement: 1, Cost: 25; Unique Characteristics: 1-2 first strikes)
Unique Building: Mint (Replaces Forge; Cost: 120; Requires: Metal Casting; Unique Characteristics: +10% wealth)
We've all played against Mansa, and we all know he's the biggest tech whore in the game. He's a great tech trading partner, partly because he's usually the tech leader, and because he has the lowest (or highest, whatever) WFYABTA setting of all the Civ leaders. He's not usually much of a warmonger, but he's always a threat to win the space race.
So the big downside of playing as Mansa is doing without a great source of tech trades! Then again, we should be able to leverage his traits to get the tech lead ourselves. That's a worthwhile goal in most games, and we could look to play that up here, playing as a tech trader extraordinaire. However, we run the risk of WFYABTA with everyone else. Hopefully we won't care by the time that happens.
What more can you say about the Financial trait that hasn't already been said? No wonder they removed cheap banks from its benefits way back in one of the vanilla patches. The trait doesn't need any more help than what it already does. Of course I'm going to run a cottage economy--with Financial, you'd be nuts not to. We'll be looking to Financial to finance a lot of our research. That means we need good sites for commerce cities, and as early as possible. We may need to consider an early war if we're wallowing in hills and plains tiles while our neighbours are basking on grassy riverbanks.
Spiritual is one of my favourite traits. Some followers of these threads claim that I seem to like changing civics a little more often than I should. I can't imagine why. Well, with Spiritual, the point is moot. It's like paraphrasing that old saying about the weather: if you don't like the civic, wait 5 turns. Seriously, though, we can implement beneficial civics as soon as they're available rather than waiting to change several at once. If we have to war in the mid-game, we can take advantage of queue-building units and then a quick, short change to the war civics for the additional XPs. Diplomatically, we could consider changing religions or civics for a diplomatic boost with another civ.
Based upon his traits, Mansa's one cheap building is the Temple, and I have an idea in mind to leverage this. Basically, we aim to build both the University of Sankore (which is historically appropriate, especially if it goes in Timbuktu!) and the Spiral Minaret (since Mansa was Muslim, thats appropos as well). This means all our temples become inexpensive science and gold contributors, as well as happy/culture boosters. I've tried this strat while playing as Ramesses to great effect, though I will grant he has an additional advantage in that he's Industrious; but maybe Mansa's teching capabilities will give us enough lead time to reach these two techs first and build the required wonders. Preserving a few forests for chopping wouldn't hurt either, and a source of stone, which accelerates the building of both wonders, would be invaluable. This strat means that Free Religion becomes a very unattractive civic until much later than usual. I usually change to Free Religion shortly after Scientific Method makes monasteries obsolete, to recover some of their research boost; if we pull off this strategy, we'd instead want to run religious civics until Computers obsoletes the two key wonders that are its foundation.
Now this brings us back to the starting techs. Mansa begins with two of the most useful starting techs in the game. However, they're not that great for founding a religion. Should we try to do that (since a religion for temples is key to the above strategy), or should we wait for a religion to spread to us peacefully, or should we just look to take a nearby holy city in an early war? I find with a civ that doesn't start with Mysticism that it's best to be opportunistic. If we get the pre-requisites and suddenly notice that, say, Hinduism or Judaism still haven't been founded, then let's go for it; or if that puny weakling Gandhi went and founded Buddhism and he's right next door, let's go kick his butt.
But back to the techs. The Wheel gives Workers something to do right out of the gate and means we can hook up resources ASAP. It also gives us one of three techs we need for the early barb-thumper, Chariots. It's also a pre-requisite for Pottery, a tech we're going to want very early on for a Finanacial civ.
Mining is one of my favourite techs to start with since it gives us a head start on Bronze Working, one of the most powerful techs in the game. And if we start near gold, silver, or gems, so much the better (though gems are usually in jungle and therefore not accessible until Iron Working).
But discussing Mansa's starting techs inevitably leads us to a discussion of his Unique Unit, the Skirmisher, because we need Archery for it and we don't start with Hunting. Now Hunting is a pre-requisite for Animal Husbandry as well, so having it makes that tech cheaper, more so if we also acquire Agriculture first. If we luck out and start near furs, ivory, or deer, that justifies researching Hunting even more. I'm coming to appreciate Archers more as time goes on, and Skirmishers are essential a super-Archer--one additional strength point and an additional first strike chance makes them a very formidable early-game unit. I wouldn't want to rush anyone with them... or would I? Your opinions are, as always, appreciated.
So what this leads to is, I hope, a discussion of the early tech path. Much will depend upon what's available at the start, but I'm thinking of nabbing Hunting first, then Archery, so I can build Scouts and the UU. My first build may be a Worker to give Hunting time to finish so I don't build any Warriors. It would be nice to start next to an oasis, wouldn't it?
Oh, and let's not forget the Unique Building! Mints make one of the best buildings in the game even better. The Forge boosts production and, with one or more precious metal resources, happiness as well; Mints give a +10% commerce boost, which obviously dove-tails well with Mansa's Financial trait. Another early goal may be the Oracle for a Metal Casting slingshot.
Let's take a long-term view towards victory conditions. Since he lacks characteristics that lend themselves to warmongering, I'm anticipating a more peaceful game (though of course I'm not ruling out war completely). This could lead us to one of the more peaceful victory conditions to which Mansa is well-suited: Diplomatic, Space, or Cultural. Much may depend upon the start and any neighbours, of course. Based on Mansa's teching abilities, my own inclination is towards a space race win, but we'll see where we find ourselves.
The more I think about it, the more Mansa sounds like an awesome leader to use. I get the impression that he's pretty popular, but I haven't tried him yet, and I'm really looking forward to it!