Civ Discussion - Buganda

[bengalryan9]

The next civilization on our march through the modern age is Buganda. Bugunda is a cultural and expansionist civilization with a starting bias towards tropical and lakes. Their associated wonder is Muzibu Azaala Mpanga, which gives base +4 food, and +4 culture and food on improvements and districts on lake tiles but must be built adjacent to a lake. They can be unlocked by playing as the Abbasid or Songhai, by choosing Amina, Harriet Tubman, Hatshepsut, or Ibn Battuta as your leader, or by having two settlements with city centers adjacent to a lake.

Their unique ability is River Raids, which gives culture when pillaging buildings or improvements equal to the yield or healing gained, as well as giving the amphibious trait to land units and making embarking and disembarking cost no movement.
Their unique military unit is the Abambowa, a line infantry replacement that gets +10hp when pillaging any tile.
Their unique civilian unit is the Mwami, a commander that gives +50% yields from pillaging within the command radius.
Their unique infrastructure is Kabaka’s Lake, which gives +3 happiness and lake yield bonuses but has to be build on flat terrain and you can only have one per settlement.

Bugandan Civics:
‘Nnalubaale – unlocks Kabaka’s Lake and gives +2 culture and food to lake and navigable river tiles, and at mastery unlocks Muzibu Azaala Mpanga, the Clan Society tradition, and gives +1 movement for embarked units
Blutabaalo – gives +50% yields and healing from pillaging buildings, and at mastery unlocks the Ng’oma tradition and gives experience to commanders for pillaging in their command radius
Nyanza – gives +1 culture and +1 happiness on quarters adjacent to lakes or navigable rivers, and at mastery unlocks the Interlacustrine tradition and gives +1 population to settlements adjacent to lakes

Bugandan Traditions:
Clan Society - +3 happiness in settlements for each other friendly settlement within 6 tiles
Ng’oma - +6 combat strengths for units adjacent to a lake
Interlacustrine – all buildings gain adjacency from lakes

What are your thoughts on Buganda? Are they strong, weak, or just right? How do you like to play as them, or what do you feel are strategies that they struggle with? Which leaders make for good pairings, and which civilizations make for good forerunnners earlier in the game? Let’s discuss!

 

[Krikkit1]

So does
Interlacustrine – all buildings gain adjacency from lakes
Mean Lakes act like Wonders for adjacency ie bonus Canneries but not Grocers, or is it all buildings

 

[bengalryan9]

I don't have a ton of experience with Buganda but I do think they're interesting. As someone who plays peacefully I don't really care about the pillaging side of things as much, but the culture, food, and adjacency bonuses are fun to try to leverage. They have good civics and traditions IMO and they are one example of a civ that *really* pairs well with their associated wonder.

I do think to realize maximize their potential you'd need to plan on playing them from the start of the game and plan your settles in antiquity and exploration accordingly. They definitely are going to be very map dependent.

Lakes can be kind of weird in this game, at least in my experience. There are times I've settled next to what seemed like a lake (multiple water tiles completely surrounded by land) only to find that the game didn't consider it to be a lake. I think this happens more with really large bodies of water. Haven't really paid attention to it recently so maybe it's been patched at some point, not sure.

 

[Leucarum]

I really wanted to enjoy Buganda. Just based on vibes alone they appealed, but lakes is a pretty lackluster thing to build a civ around and I just don't enjoy pillage gameplay civs (whether it's Norway in 6 of Bulgaria/Buganda in 7).

Great choice of civ, gameplay isn't there for me. They had a shot at increasing the number of modern civs I like beyond just 1... But sadly didn't.

 

[UWHabs]

I'm playing as them right now, and my only frustration is that it's annoying how their special lake almost works like a lake in most cases, but not quite. So, for example, it doesn't count for their "+1 pop for settlements next to a lake" or for the placement rules of the unique wonder. I struggled to find a site for it - in the end, I had to convert a settlement to a city just to build it.

The pillaging is strong too, especially when you stack the bonuses. I came from Bulgaria too, so for example, when I pillage a wharf, I get something like 500 gold and 500 culture. I'm not struggling for culture naturally, but all the rest adds up to some pretty insane yields as you work your way through enemy lands.

 

[Siptah]

I have played them only twice, and once was in the obligatory Bulgaria-Buganda Meme run.

Their pillaging is nice and fun, the lake play is something different for maximizing yields - but both aren’t game changing.

The CS near lakes, commanders leveling up fast from pillaging, and extra happiness from nearby settlements makes them very good at conquest. It‘s probably the best civ for ultra-wide play with 40+ cities, and one of the easiest to get there, besides the average UU.

All in all, fun and reasonably strong. Yet, I agree with the notion above that it‘s not a spontaneous pick, but one that you plan to take an age in advance already.

And re what makes a lake: sadly, some maps have a lot of Caspian Seas, i.e., inland oceans. This is less of an issue with fractal though - what I usually play. Hopefully, the new map scripts reduce inland oceans and makes these lakes.

 

[A_Most_Foolish_Fool]

Haven't played much Buganda so far, but they are an incredible follow-up to Bulgaria in games where you are thinking about going Military or Culture. All of the bonuses Buganda gets synergize well with the gameplan of going for a Culture victory while starting some wars with weaker opponents as you get a lot of Culture, Happiness, and situational Combat Strength. One component of their kit, that feels incredibly underrated is the Amphibious Trait being applied to all units as it allows you to use all of the Cavalry you built up as Bulgaria and apply them to pillaging and taking coastal areas more easily that may have been trickier to take in Exploration. You don't really want to take a detour to the Unique Civic tree when going for a Culture Victory in most cases, but with Buganda taking a quick detour to Blutabaalo for the additional pillaging bonuses feels worth it for the very strong Culture boosts to get you to Hegemony quickly. Really curious to experiment more with this civ in the future as it seems very strong (and very cohesive) and is one that I had been sleeping on for awhile.

 

[queenpea]

I like their music!

Don’t find a lot of enjoyment in the “cultural” gameplay hidden in a war mechanic, and pillaging doesn’t really capture my imagination, either. I’ve just never been a big military player—nothing against the pillaging community!

 

[disjointaccount]

Put me in the camp of being underwhelmed by Buganda. The lakes thing is very niche and tricky to make work, and their power level just doesn't feel sufficient to reward that. On paper, I like a pillaging-centric civ, but it just doesn't really feel as impactful in modern. As such, I rarely bother going for their unlock.

 

[Chefofrats]

I was waiting for a discussion of Buganda. I never picked them in the modern age as none of their kit looked particularly nice. Lakes... A mediocre improvement limited to one per city... Pillaging with infantry... Um, ok. Micromanaging dozens of slow units as they pillage dozens of squares sounds like a chore rather than fun. I was hoping somebody would explain what the *real* trick is with Buganda. But apparently there simply isn't one?

 

[Leucarum]

Honestly. since the Civ you pick in Modern doesn't matter - there is an argument they are the best since they do have the best soundtrack of the era...

 

[A_Most_Foolish_Fool]

I was waiting for a discussion of Buganda. I never picked them in the modern age as none of their kit looked particularly nice. Lakes... A mediocre improvement limited to one per city... Pillaging with infantry... Um, ok. Micromanaging dozens of slow units as they pillage dozens of squares sounds like a chore rather than fun. I was hoping somebody would explain what the *real* trick is with Buganda. But apparently there simply isn't one?

One thing that has helped pillaging to feel better is coming from Bulgaria where you already should have a lot of cavalry built up. That cavalry in modern will become amphibious and using amphibious cavalry/tanks gives you a very flexible unit dedicated to pillaging all tiles with no walls fairly quickly. The lake bonuses are something that is nice to have, but in my opinion have little bearing on whether or not you choose them due to how their kit is put together. You get so many bonuses to pillaging from Bulgaria and Buganda that each pillage feels quite impactful.

 

[pjotroos]

I have tried them in three separate games so far, and I really struggled to get much use out of them.

Lakes are, without fail, the rarest terrain I get in my games. They are also rarely worth expanding into in the previous eras, so you either pick Buganda because you had those sub-optimal tiles before, or you now have to spend your population on growing onto them, instead of adding specialists. Great interaction if you got it in Exploration - and carried the tradition through - but at odds with how you want to develop in modern (unless most of your lakes are in towns).

Same goes for the pillaging focus. I use pillage heavily in the previous two eras, whenever I'm at war. By modern, I only really go to war because I'm aiming for the military win - in which case, pillaging slows down conquering - or I play defensively and settle wars quick. I'm sure there's a niche play when you use war to speed up science or culture in term of turns taken, but it would come at a cost of longer age playtime-wise. It doesn't speak to me at all.

I do like how their own wonder interacts with the rest of their kit, though. They take it from nice-to-have a to a must-build, which is how I'd like more modern wonders to feel for their relevant civs.

Kabaka's Lake is beautiful. I like building a few in different biomes for their aesthetics alone.

As for the overall rating - strong or weak - I'm not sure if they are weak, exactly, but they are definitely fiddly, and feel like a lot of work to get some results, and for that reason, they're the bottom tier of modern for me, unfortunately. I'll have to try Simon Bolivar with Bulgaria into Buganda one time, though, and see if Burn The World (And Repair It For Free) playthrough changes my mind.