[R&F] Civ of the Week: Kongo

Who should be next weeks Civ


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Nope, don't like it. Design seems to be "Way overpowered at winning one way, but can't win at all another way, therefore it all balances out". That's not how balance works.

Not balanced mechanically. Thematically, abilities feel ridiculously mismatched for the kind of civ that the Kongo actually is. But may that's just me, and the Kongo actually do enjoy massive tourism from having a veritable dragon's hoard of religious relics and the world's greatest works of art.
 
I recently discoverd that when you build the Mont St. Michel wonder, any existing Apostles you already own are instantly granted Martyr. So, I just save any Apostles that I may have earned earlier to use after completing the wonder.

Keeping your Apostles alive is a good strategy, anyway. They can apply more pressure through religious combat than they can exerting their last charge.

Having the Martyr promotion is the main reason to want to finish an Apostle off. The challenge is it needs to be from losing a combat, not using it's last charge.
 
It's weird that I didn't comment on this thread, as Kongo is one of my favorite civs:
  • The leader ability is a direct malus. You get the free apostles, but they are not going to do much for you, unless you try to use them for generating relics. That is a strategy which depends on your opponents doing what you need them to do, though. The other potential use is to block religious victory for another player.
  • I don't really mind Mvemba not being able to pursue a religious victory, as I don't really enjoy religion in Civ 6 much.
  • Kongo is the civ for huge passive yields.
  • A fully themed Archeological Museum, which is not that hard to get, will give you a whopping +12 food +12 production +24 gold, passively.
  • The Mbanza, which can be spammed excessively, gives you +5 housing +2 food +4 gold, passively.
  • Kongo can grow their cities very large rather quickly, thanks to practically unlimited housing, and good passive food yields.
  • Kongo can also develop their cities quickly, by using their great gold income to purchase districts and buildings.
  • One potential weakness is that while Kongo gets everything else they need for growing big cities, they don't have any bonuses to amenities.
  • Extra great person points are always fun.
  • I quite like the Ngao Mbeba as well. It comes around early enough, replaces an already useful unit, and provides some nice bonuses for defending against archers and fighting in forest/jungle.
Overall, there is a lot to like about Kongo. Are they among the more powerful civs? I don't know. But for my playstyle, they are pretty great. If tall cities were more valuable, Kongo would be even better.

Since the leader ability is mostly a malus, I sometimes find it amusing to fantasize about having an alternative leader for Kongo, or using one of the other leaders. Jadwiga might have been a good fit, with her relic and Holy Site abilities, as would Montezuma, with his extra amenities.
 
Religious convert is certainly not a malus...
People forget about heathen conversion (great on deity barbs) now that religious units move on another layer, ZoC from barbs is ignored and they can easily walk into the middle of a barb pack and get up to 7 free units. Imagine receiving thousands of golds worth of units for free...

Aside from that indulgence vendor is free gold and martyr is self explanatory

When you compare it against the nonexistent bonuses of founding a religion yourself, the free apostles are easily a net plus. I very rarely build holy sites anyway. (waste of cogs and policy slots needed to boost them) relics and/or harvest pantheon are much better sources of faith
 
I recently discoverd that when you build the Mont St. Michel wonder, any existing Apostles you already own are instantly granted Martyr. So, I just save any Apostles that I may have earned earlier to use after completing the wonder.

I totally forgot about that wonder since it is is not worth it most of the time. I may have to build this the next time I play Kongo or Poland.

No, to increase your Founder's belief benefit. Oh wait, that mechanism doesn't actually work due to an apparent bug so n m

Even if it did work, the AI is pretty aggressive about spreading its own religion. All your cities will get religion eventually. You might be able to speed it up some by spreading it yourself but the utility is pretty marginal
 
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