Best Pantheons for Mali?

[steveg700]

Mali has a good shot at having its pick of any pantheon it wants. Ideally, a pantheon to help generate filthy lucre would be ideal, but there's no pantheon that's a direct contributor to the wallet. So what's good for Mali indirectly?

Feel free to unabashedly go with inside-the-box stuff like Divine Spark. Ubiquity is often ubiquitous for a reason, after all.

 

[Arraz]

It depends.

Desert folklore is an obvious "go-to" for most players because as mali, you will want to have Holy sites/suguba's together and you will probably be in a desert.
It's great IF you are safe.

With that being said... Mali's early game is one of the most difficult of civ 6.
Less prod overall (-1 mines and you likely will have very few chops available), -30% towards builders/scouts/walls/military while you still dont produce enough money and dont get the -20% cost from the suguba leaves you extremely vulnerable.

So, odds are that if you pick desert folklore on higher difficulties, you wont live past the classical/medieval without being crippled.

For that reason, the pantheon that gives +25% prod towards military units in ancient/classical era can help secure your early game.

 

[Datian]

Those reasons are valid but I still stick to desert folklore, for flavor.
If you survive the first era and pick the GA monumentality, the massive faith you'll have from settling 3-4 cities near desert will make up for any production.

 

[Archon_Wing]

The best is religious settlements since you already have a disadvantage to production; getting another city sooner means a lot more. But this isn't very interesting since that's probably the best pantheon when gotten soon enough.

Beyond that, Desert Folklore is good, and River Goddess can be good if you don't have that much desert; because Mali has that food bonus, having amenities/housing will let you brute force things by simply growing bigger and working more tiles.

Forge is good as well because producing army is a problem if you are doing other things.

If nothing else fits, Monument to the Gods can be good if you want to build something like the Pyramids or Artemis in the early game. Note that they do not receive a malus to building wonders so those chops count for 100%.

 

[Deadly Dog]

I think faith generation is a good choice for Mali, so likely desert folklore. My approach was to buy everything I could and since faith is a currency for Mali at least in getting buildings in the Segoba, that would free up gold for other purchases. When the games gives opportunities to purchase with faith (Monumentality, Jesuit Education) it frees up gold for other things.

My Mali game had me focusing on production towards districts, wonders, and projects. Everything else was purchased.

In terms of early game survivability, I would encourage to look to something other than a pantheon choice when that could get your FPT moving.

 

[Pietato]

Depends on how much desert you have, and how safe you are. Religious Settlements is great to overcome early weakness.

 

[MarigoldRan]

Religious settlements.

 

[kryat]

Religious settlements, for identical reasons as above. Desert folklore could help later if you have a lot of desert. But that extra settler really helps you get through the early game.