Deity Songhai Playthrough

[Minh Le]

Hi guys. After a dozen games, I feel like Im getting more used to Standard speed now. So I decide to make a playthrough with more action. This time Im gonna play as Songhai, one of my favourite civ in the game.
The Songhai is one of the three civs which have terrain advantage in warfare. The other 2 are the Iroquois and the Inca. The Inca is the strongest IMO because the ability to traverse mountain is just too strong, also his UU come very early, has a very strong promotion which keeps after upgrade. The Songhai stays in the middle and Iroquois is the last.
The Songhai's UA - River Warlord is actually very strong. Its very annoying to play against Songhai AI because river plays a vital part in warfare. The Amphibious promotion is very handy.
Songhai's UU is an absolute beast. The raider promotion is sooo cool. They are fast, strong, they hit like a truck both units and cities and steal gold while doing so. They are absolute the strongest Ancient/Classical UU.
The UB is great too. It comes fairly early and grand Songhai a lot of production, when combine with Authority, it helps the Songhai getting infrastructure up very fast.
And here is the 1st part.

Goddess of Protection is very strong with mobile warfare tactics. As you can see I can hit the enemy city with my Mandekalu, then retreat to my territory and heal up very fast for a second round of attack. As Songhai I dont need archer nor spearman, just ManCav is enough. The gold stolen is used to purchase more ManCav. Im gonna try to bully my neighbours as hard as I can to get the lead early and snowball. I made a stop at religion choice, which beliefs should I pick?

 

[soupwithsauce]

Loved it! You have inspired me to start a Songhai playthrough tonight. You’re a pretty good general, using the kill to heal mostly instead of playing passive. When you were aggressively mousing around Siam, I knew he was going down!

I’ve been mostly playing marathon games where you get more time to build your army.. would you say it is possible to beeline Statue of Zeus as Songhai or would that limit the time of relevance for the ManCav?

And as for religion belief, Hero Worship is an obvious choice but I think long term Theocratic Rule is solid as well. When you play wide and get lots of luxuries, it’s easy to trade and proc WLTKD. It’s looking like you can wipe your continent, so you might not need the production from Hero Worship. Assuming Persia doesn’t eat Arabia and snowball, or vice versa.. I am also peeking at Veneration, but diligence or synagogues can work too. Hell anything can work if your army is bigger

 

[Minh Le]

Loved it! You have inspired me to start a Songhai playthrough tonight. You’re a pretty good general, using the kill to heal mostly instead of playing passive. When you were aggressively mousing around Siam, I knew he was going down!

I’ve been mostly playing marathon games where you get more time to build your army.. would you say it is possible to beeline Statue of Zeus as Songhai or would that limit the time of relevance for the ManCav?

And as for religion belief, Hero Worship is an obvious choice but I think long term Theocratic Rule is solid as well. When you play wide and get lots of luxuries, it’s easy to trade and proc WLTKD. It’s looking like you can wipe your continent, so you might not need the production from Hero Worship. Assuming Persia doesn’t eat Arabia and snowball, or vice versa.. I am also peeking at Veneration, but diligence or synagogues can work too. Hell anything can work if your army is bigger

I dont think going for Zeus is good as Songhai. It suits a spearman rush strategy more than Cav rush. ManCav is so important, you just need to build the 1st one. Then use that 1st Cav to hunt barb camps, raid cities and buy an army. A detour to Bronzeworking will delay it too much.
I had Gold as monopoly so I think I will try out the unpopular Herp Worship in this game. I think Herp worship + Mosque will have some synergy here.

 

[Minh Le]

Hi guys. Part 2 is up. Hope you guys enjoy this.

In this part, I picked Hero Worship and Mosques as my beliefs. On my continent I have gold and Lapis, so my GA can last for quite a while. I will try to grab the Chicken Pizza too. I dont need the faith from HW though, maybe it will be useful for some extra Prophets for Holysites. I picked Mandir as the 2nd follower and Mendicancy as Enhancer because these 2 are my favourite and they are good for wide empire.
I got rid of Ramkham because I dont want him to spread his religion to me. Next Im gonna take out America, poor guy. Persia are eating Arabia and will be a major power, but I still have the lead. My army need some more ranged units now so Im gonna build some trebuchets. Knights upgraded from ManCav are really good, but they now have penalty attacking cities so I cannot use them alone to take cities with castle.
I made a stop at medieval policy choice. Which tree should I pick?

 

[soupwithsauce]

Hi guys. Part 2 is up. Hope you guys enjoy this.

In this part, I picked Hero Worship and Mosques as my beliefs. On my continent I have gold and Lapis, so my GA can last for quite a while. I will try to grab the Chicken Pizza too. I dont need the faith from HW though, maybe it will be useful for some extra Prophets for Holysites. I picked Mandir as the 2nd follower and Mendicancy as Enhancer because these 2 are my favourite and they are good for wide empire.
I got rid of Ramkham because I dont want him to spread his religion to me. Next Im gonna take out America, poor guy. Persia are eating Arabia and will be a major power, but I still have the lead. My army need some more ranged units now so Im gonna build some trebuchets. Knights upgraded from ManCav are really good, but they now have penalty attacking cities so I cannot use them alone to take cities with castle.
I made a stop at medieval policy choice. Which tree should I pick?

Since you picked Hero Worship and Mosques, maybe go Artistry? Fealty would go along with Medicancy and Mandirs too, absolute beast food output and internal trade routes.. I think I would ultimately pick Fealty and save authority-artistry for someone with more natural synergy like France or Japan.

On the note of upgrading units.. which UU’s keep their ability on upgrade? I recall reading that the Inca unit keeps their double attack, correct?

Looking forward to more, you are a great study.

 

[Minh Le]

Since you picked Hero Worship and Mosques, maybe go Artistry? Fealty would go along with Medicancy and Mandirs too, absolute beast food output and internal trade routes.. I think I would ultimately pick Fealty and save authority-artistry for someone with more natural synergy like France or Japan.

On the note of upgrading units.. which UU’s keep their ability on upgrade? I recall reading that the Inca unit keeps their double attack, correct?

Looking forward to more, you are a great study.

I think I will go Statecraft, because: 1, I already have huge production and good food output, Statecraft gives me the science and gold which I kinda lack. 2, It open a possibility to win via diplomatic victory. 3, Yield from CS and TRs with them is really good, I like to mix using Internal and External TRs.
You can check which promotion is kept on upgrade in the Civilopedia. The Inca Slinger keeps logistic on upgrade so their are very strong too.

 

[Minh Le]

Hi guys. Part 3 is up. Hope you guys enjoy it .

Not much happen in this part. I took Washington and made America my vassal, without remembering his UA ... Should killed him for good, but I dont like to declare war on my vassal so I guess it cant be helped. I was able to reform and took Crusader Spirit for obvious reason. I positioned my force to prepare my attack on Darius. Bloody war incoming next part .

 

[Minh Le]

Hi guys. Part 4 is up. Hope you guys enjoy it.

The war with Persia started in this part. After 2 quick cities, the war came to a stalemate with a very strong resistance of Persia, as expected. My UA is really shine here when there is a river between our forces. I can move freely while Persia units cannot. I keep killing his troops and keeping my units alive for now.

 

[Minh Le]

Hi guys.
Part 5 is up. Hope you guys enjoy it.

My Cannons and Knights did wonderfully against Persia's Immortals and Pikemen, especially with the river between us. But the ability to recreat troops of Deity AI on Standard is just huge. I can slowly push him back and eventually take Damascus, but then I had to sign a peace treaty because war weariness started kicking in. I will declare war right after the peace deal is expired. One thing I can be sure of is Persia was hurt badly with the war and he will soon can no longer keep up with my force. In the mean time, I slowly building my fleet since the time for naval invasion will soon come.

 

[Minh Le]

Hi guyyyys.
Part 6 and 7 are up. Hope you guys enjoy it.

My war with Persia continued, but now with Lancers and Frigates against his Pikemen, Immortals and Knight. He stood no chance against me. But his ability to recreat troops is incredible. I couldnt take his capital before war weariness kicked in and forced me to sign a peace treaty. However, Persia economy is totally ruined, next time I attack him he will go down!

 

[Minh Le]

Hi guys. Part 8 is up. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Persia still put up quite a fight. My mancavs upgraded to lancers have tons of promotions now and they are destroying Persia's troops. But it seems there are no end to Persia's horde ... My initial plan was force my attack on 2 fronts, but the citadel and the desert in Najran and a massive Persia army make it difficult to advance. I have to make peace again because of war weariness. Next time Im gonna concentrate my force to attack Persepolis.

 

[Minh Le]

Hi guys. Part 9 and 10 are up. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Persia is going down, with Persia gone, I will soon unite my continent. Its time to invade the other continent. The Inca seems doing very well, as usual. He has slightly more tech than me and higher production. Pocatello saves me the trouble of declaring on him by do it for me. Right at the time Im about to have Cruiser. My navy is strong and well promoted now. I can crush The Shoshone's navy very easily. Im big enough and this game is pretty much won. I will continues to play until the end before moving to the lastest patch though.

 

[Minh Le]

Hi guys. The game is finished, you can find the rest here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTAlaagbhfa9YgavGkWx_lg2cbySbniF0
Some thoughts after the game:
- Hero Worship is... strange. While the Golden Age is nice to have, it doesnt help warmongering too much (unless youre Persia). The faith is unneccessary too. I wouldnt pick that again, there are many Founder Beliefs which suit a warmonger better than this.
- The most interesting part of the game is from ancient to renaissance era. Later the game is pretty much won or lost. Warmongering always has very boring late game.
Thank you guys for watching this, and happy lunar new year .

 

[soupwithsauce]

Hi guys. The game is finished, you can find the rest here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTAlaagbhfa9YgavGkWx_lg2cbySbniF0
Some thoughts after the game:
- Hero Worship is... strange. While the Golden Age is nice to have, it doesnt help warmongering too much (unless youre Persia). The faith is unneccessary too. I wouldnt pick that again, there are many Founder Beliefs which suit a warmonger better than this.
- The most interesting part of the game is from ancient to renaissance era. Later the game is pretty much won or lost. Warmongering always has very boring late game.
Thank you guys for watching this, and happy lunar new year .

I agree with warmongering being exciting early game and boring late game. Lots of fun early units such as mancavs, legions, hoplites, slingers, Jaguars, but there’s not a lot in the late game. The only one that comes to mind is the Panzer. I have been looking into 3/4UC, do you have any experience with it?

 

[Minh Le]

I agree with warmongering being exciting early game and boring late game. Lots of fun early units such as mancavs, legions, hoplites, slingers, Jaguars, but there’s not a lot in the late game. The only one that comes to mind is the Panzer. I have been looking into 3/4UC, do you have any experience with it?

I tried a few games with 3/4UC but it still feels really imbalance, so Im gonna wait for the dev team to balance it first before trying it again. The base mod is in a very balance spot right now, its hard to find a modmod which alter gameplay but doesnt break balance.

 

[MorphBer]

This playthrough inspied me to try Songhai for the fist time. Somehow I found them not so appealing but boy was I wrong. The UU is jsut crazy cool for warmongering while the gold and UB help you keep your economy up.

 

[Minh Le]

This playthrough inspied me to try Songhai for the fist time. Somehow I found them not so appealing but boy was I wrong. The UU is jsut crazy cool for warmongering while the gold and UB help you keep your economy up.

Yeah the UU is crazy cool, because of the UA. Biggest enemy of a basic horseman is river, but river is actually ally of the Songhai. That makes Mancav a crazy cool unit with tons of movement, very hard hitting force if you do it right and GOLD. You cannot expect more from a single unit.

 

[John.B.C]

@Minh Le I hope that you will produce more of these playthroughs, I really appreciate them and have learned a great deal from them (Currently watching your Korea game). You play a bit fast so I'm amazed that you managed to handle that so well without making a lot of misstakes.

 

[Minh Le]

@Minh Le I hope that you will produce more of these playthroughs, I really appreciate them and have learned a great deal from them (Currently watching your Korea game). You play a bit fast so I'm amazed that you managed to handle that so well without making a lot of misstakes.

Thanks . I'd love to share more with you but Im taking a break at the moment because of real life stuffs. I also dont know what civ I should do next. Maybe I will do something more unique.

 

[MorphBer]

Thanks . I'd love to share more with you but Im taking a break at the moment because of real life stuffs. I also dont know what civ I should do next. Maybe I will do something more unique.

I would enjoy a civ which has very different possible playstyles. I kinda do ok with civs where I know what to do beforhand (like you played shonhai-> war or ottomans/korea -> tall) But struggle to make the right choice when given more opportunities.