[NFP] A General strategy for Menelik II of Ethiopia

[megabearsfan]

I've posted a new strategy guide to my blog. This one is for the new Ethiopian civ, with its leader, Menelik II:
http://www.megabearsfan.net/post/2020/08/15/Civilization-VI-strategy-Menelik-II-of-Ethiopia.aspx
As always, the guide provides an overview of each of Ethiopia and Menelik's unique abilities and units, and then goes into greater detail on how to put it all together in an actual game.

From my play-testing, Ethiopia is a dominant faith-based civilization, so long as it has access to lots of hills and mountains. Ethiopia should try to found all of their cities on hill tiles if possible, in order to claim the free bonus culture and science. You'll also want to settle near clusters of resources so that you can improve them for lots of free faith. The free faith from improved resources and trade routes is applied directly to the city. It is NOT yield on the tile. This means you get these bonuses immediately upon improving the resource, even if you don't have the population yet to work the tile! You can always harvest the bonus resource(s) later, after the faith has been put to good use.

The Rock-Hewn Church can easily attain adjacency bonuses equal to or rivaling those of a good Holy Site. And since its an improvement, it can be torn down and replaced with a Holy Site, Campus, Industrial Hub, National Park, or anything else, if you later decide that you have enough faith already, thank you very much.

I've found the Oromo Cavalry to be a pretty "meh" unit. Personally, I think it's better as a recon unit than as a weapon. That being said, it can also be very good at hit-and-run attacks, especially into hilly areas.

I recommend pushing hard for a classical and/or medieval golden age, and then use the Monumentality dedication bonus and your massive amounts of faith to buy Settlers and Builders to quickly grow your empire. In the meantime, devote your production to infrastructure and military units. Later on, you can build the Grand Masters Chapel and spend all that extra faith to buy military land units, which you can use to swarm opponents, replace defeated military units, or combine with your veteran units to form corps and armies.

You can also spend faith to buy Archeological Museums and Archaeologists (along with Naturalists and Rock Bands) to pivot hard and fast towards a culture and tourism strategy in the mid-to-late game.

The linked guide goes into more detail, and also includes some tips on how to play against Ethiopia.

As always, I'm eager to hear your strategies and get feedback. No matter how many of these I write, there's always tips, tricks, and strategies that I just don't think of. Thanks for reading!

 

[JesseS]

Ethiopia is great with Earth Goddess and I'm surprised you didn't mention it. The rock-hewn churches can be 9 faith (and tourism) with earth goddess, and their appeal bonus helps achieve breathtaking appeal earlier using careful planning. Also, I think you could probably emphasize the "rush to flight" part of their tourism strategy, which is bolstered by Menelik's leader ability.

 

[megabearsfan]

Ethiopia is great with Earth Goddess and I'm surprised you didn't mention it. The rock-hewn churches can be 9 faith (and tourism) with earth goddess, and their appeal bonus helps achieve breathtaking appeal earlier using careful planning. Also, I think you could probably emphasize the "rush to flight" part of their tourism strategy, which is bolstered by Menelik's leader ability.

Good suggestions both. I guess I overlooked Earth goddess because in my test games with Ethiopia, Desert Folklore was just so good. Earth Goddess is a pantheon that I keep forgetting is in the game, since I've rarely found it useful. Does increasing the appeal of a tile also increase the appeal of adjacent tiles? If so, that could also chain for lots of extra faith on adjacent tiles.

 

[JesseS]

Does increasing the appeal of a tile also increase the appeal of adjacent tiles? If so, that could also chain for lots of extra faith on adjacent tiles.

Generally, how appeal works for most improvements/features is that they affect the appeal of the tiles around them, but not the tile itself. Old growth forest is the one exception to this, as it adds +1 appeal to the tile itself.

Late game, you can easily get 200-300 faith per turn from earth goddess once you start being able to plant woods.

 

[tetley]

I'm tinkering with Ethiopia right now, with Secret Societies. I'm not assessing Ethiopia the same as the OP in all aspects yet. Meenkashi and Mahabodi wonders, for example, I think can be passed up. The free religious units the other guy gets for building them amount to cannon fodder for you. You have the faith advantage--kill them and that's religious spread for you. Mont St. Michel is just okay, unless perhaps you happen to get Kandy CS, or you have a specific Voidsingers strategy in mind. The wonder just comes too late, and relics are just a consolation prize for when you lose a religious combat. It's better to keep your Apostles alive and fight with them--and with all that faith, you certainly should have enough around to win the fights. Kotoku-In and Hagia, however, are must-haves. Earth Goddess also looks like a must-have belief, but also Mosques and Holy Order. I think I like Warrior Monks ahead of Jesuits, because Ethiopia can faith-build Archaeology anyway. Grand Master's Chapel is probably the best level-2 government building for Ethiopia, even with Warrior Monks.

Ethiopia screams Voidsingers Society. Reliquaries + Kandy would rock the game with Voidsingers, but even then, you still don't need Mont St. Michel, because you get Cultists producing Relics about the same time you get Mont St. Michel. Maybe you can conquer to get it later. And then you've got the extra early governor promotions from playing SS mode: you need to fill out Moksha soon, so you can faith-buy districts early on for cheaper. Combine with Warrior Monks belief, and you faith-buy Holy Sites...which culture bomb resource tiles...which help make your faith back. Moksha needs Patron Saint promo before finishing Kotoku-In and really buying Apostles en masse, which happens at Reformed Church civic (Grand Inquisitor gov promotion can be passed up along the way: you have the strength in numbers. You don't need +10 theological combat). I plan to juggle those high priorities with also getting un-levelled Liang, Amani, and Magnus, which are also important (I see myself going Liang, then Amani, Moksha->level 4, then Magnus. Reason being that chop-rush can wait a little bit, while district faith-buys need to happen sooner. And getting 7 governor titles doesn't take too long in SS mode). I see all of my governors except Liang going on regular city tours. Moksha needs to travel a lot not just to faith-buy districts, but also for Laying on Of Hands.

Monumentality is important, but with Dramatic Ages about to come out, I don't know what I'm going to do. In old-style on high levels, I would probably opt to go for Dark Age instead. Holy Sites+Moksha faith-buy+Warrior Monks+Monasticism Dark Age policy card really synergize a lot. And then pick up Monumentality in Medieval Heroic Age: Feudalism (and +2 builder charges) comes in early Medieval. Plus, in Heroic you can combine Monumentality with Hunt Sic Dracones to pick up some really nice settlements (if you can still get them). Instant 4-person settlement+Heroic Age = good loyalty = forward settle. I can also throw down Inquisition DA card as a short-term play. Not being able to buy Settlers and Builders with faith during Classical hurts, but Ancestral Hall can help offset that. The problem is, building Ancestral Hall in Classical hurts your Monumentality bonus in Medieval (because you already hard-built settlers and got free builders). If you've got the close neighbors and can survive it, it's probably best to build Warlord's Throne and conquer during Classical instead. That just leaves the last question of how to handle the -25% culture penalty, since you need Theology civic ASAP for the Warrior Monks. You just have to plan on really good science and really bad culture. Usually that means you tend to get really good inspirations for culture, but not so good eurekas for science--which offsets it.

I make my big move at Reformed Church civic, which happens in early Renaissance. Before that, I'm just trying to remain in the game. Hagia Sofia should complete not long after I switch to Theocracy government. With the 2 extra Apostle/Missionary charges from Mosque+Hagia, plus the double promos for Apostles and Warrior Monks from Moksha, it's time to go Religious. With some "assistance" from Grand Master's Chapel and Heathen Conversion. Unless I have Yerevan in the game: then the game gets so easy, I don't even need to wait for Reformed Church. Patron Saint(Moksha) + Yerevan + Mosque = game-ender.

 

[tetley]

I've been playing Ethiopia some more on Immortal (I basically perform experiments on Immortal. Deity is for when I play start-to-finish, using mostly tried-and-true strats). A number of things I've picked up. This is all on Secret Society, non-Dramatic Age:


1) You can time your first rock-hewn church to be either Ancient Age or Classical, for the era points. So if you want a Classical GA, you can prioritize getting it. And if you want a DA, you can hold off on it a little. It's only a few turns' difference.
2). Getting Heroic Age is easy as Ethiopia. Just pick Exodus of the Evangelists dedication in your DA.
3) I'm getting 220 faith per turn in Medieval as Ethiopia almost every game.
4) I am surprised how important Oracle is for Ethiopia, especially if you have lots of CS. You can faith-buy for CS quests. When you level up Moksha, you can buy districts for cheap, which means your Oracle city will always have the maximum # of districts population allows. Get Oracle by conquest (with Warrior Monks), if the situation arises.
5) Pyramids are important, as always. You need more builder charges as Ethiopia, because that adds faith even before you have the population to work the tile.
6). That also means you need to acquire tiles sooner as Ethiopia. I am buying all resource tiles ASAP as Ethiopia, and then improving them ASAP. As other civs, often you wait for the pop to work it first, but not so for Ethiopia.
7). Holy Sites with Warrior Monks belief culture-bomb tiles, which you very much want. The thing is, you don't really need the faith Holy sites give you, so don't worry about the adjacency bonuses--care about the culture bomb. You really only need 2 holy sites anyway, unless you're going for DA Monasticism (you need 2 temples to Inspire Divine Right. Divine Right is important).
8) A levelled-up Moksha with 220 fpt kicks butt. A warrior monk every turn...? Throw in Patron Saint onto Moksha, and your monks remain useful all the way through end of Renaissance (and they can always garrison throughout the game).
9) Holy sites are really not that great for Ethiopia beyond the first two. You don't really need either the faith or the prophet. However they do help with science in Classical DA, and they do culture-bomb resource tiles with Warrior Monks belief, to drive your faith up.
10). Grand Master's chapel is your best level-2 govt plaza building, but it is not a game-changer. Warrior Monks are. The chapel comes into play after Industrial, when you need to start relegating your monks to garrison duty.
11). Have an unused governor promotion queued up the minute you hit Medieval. You need the Voidsingers promo right away.
12). Absolutely do join Voidsingers, but don't join them right away. The level-1 bonus is not that important (unlike level 2). Your priority before that is totally to get Liang and level up Moksha.
13) You have to buy a couple Apostles pre-Hagia Sofia, regardless. Heathen Conversion and Chaplain promotions. Plus you need 6 cities converted already in order to Inspire Reformed Church--and Reformed Church is something you want early. You could (and should) use Missionaries instead for that, but you need the Apostles anyway. And, well, there they are...and you need 6 cities converted. Also, if you Dark Aged, you need an Apostle charge to start the Inquisition. Just be sure you always get the Patron Saint promotion. I wouldn't even buy an Apostle before you get Patron Saint.
14). Enhancing your religion is a tougher decision, because your Apostles are more useful with the double-promotion (from Moksha). I'm usually not enhancing until post-Hagia (and pick up Holy Order if I can).
15). Industrial age onward, Ethiopia seems to use the Garrison policy cards more often (because of monks+heathen Conversion). Also Ethiopia takes advantage of Oracle more often.
16) Good trade in Renaissance! Faith-buy the harbor, then faith-buy the Trader with monumentality. You need only hard-build/gold-buy the lighthouse.
17). You get a lot of faith as Ethiopia, but it is by no means unlimited. A key part of your game is how to spend it well. And a key component of that is to get Theocracy.
18). In a heroic age--especially a Medieval one--you get Monumentality AND Exodus of the Evangelists. That means your faith is getting spread a little thin. You're also contending for Warrior Monks.
19) If you get your Heroic Age pre-Hagia, then I guess you are buying your Apostles pre-Hagia. Hagia is Renaissance. So if you Classical DA, then you will get a Medieval HA and have to live without Hagia. You also have to live without Theocracy until the tail end. But if you Medieval DA and Renaissance HA, you get this awesome HA where you basically try to decide the game right there in Renaissance. Faith would go toward Warrior monks in a Medieval DA (no waiting for the 15% Theocracy discount on monks--they need the fighting xp, and their usefulness only lasts through Medieval and Renaissance).
20) Oromo cavalry are cool, but the problem is that warrior monks are already fast and the stars of the show. However, your first oromo cavalry is era points. Those can go in either Medieval or Renaissance. If you go Renaissance, it's probably a faith-buy.
21). Getting your prophet is interesting. You NEED the prophet. You just don't need it right away--the AI usually doesn't want your beliefs. Getting the pantheon you want is easy (probably Earth Goddess), and the AI will probably not fight you for Warrior Monks. Warrior Monks don't kick in until after you build a temple. So, getting a religion is important--just not the first religion. And that means get all the GP points you can first, and if you can't get it fast enough, you can always faith-buy the balance.
22). Chicken-and-egg situation with your second Holy Site: you can faith buy it sooner, to get the GP points (which means you no longer have to spend faith on a prophet). Or, you can get a GP first, pick up Warrior Monks, then faith-buy your second Holy Site to get the culture bomb. You can't do both. The latter costs more faith, but saves on money from purchasing tiles.
23). I just don't think martyring your Apostles and putting the relics in mosques is your best approach. You have better options. Maybe the occasional Apostle that got an unwanted Martyr promo, but nothing to strategize over. I will give this much:. If you build Mont St Michel, it will no longer be one of your Apostles' two promotions.

 

[Siddharth Venkatesh]

I'm surprised you didn't mention anything about tourism. I find Ethiopia to be a stronger tourism civ than a religious civ because, as you said, they don't have the strongest incentive to build holy sites early or even get a religion. Rock Hewn Churches provide a lot of tourism after flight and you have a lot of faith for rock bands. Getting to the Hallyu card quickly is important so you need good culture and science (for flight + computers) to win quickly.

Classical Golden Ages are huge for Ethiopia. It's not the easiest thing to get, especially on shuffle mode, as the Rock Hewn Church can be hidden, but Monumentality Classical fixes all their early hammer issues. It allows you to painlessly spam Rock Hewn Churches over mines. Maybe you could do an early Moksha faith purchase strategy to compensate for losing the golden age. I would still try very hard for that Golden though, since the timing is a lot better.