[GS] Lack of Desert in Mali Start

[riddleofsteel]

I'm noticing that even when I do get desert starts, they're like totally barren garbage desert patches surrounded by mediocre plains or tundra. I'm using the detailed worlds map mod, so I'm not sure if that's a factor. Is it okay to settle your subsequent cities on non-desert areas, if not your first city? In many cases I only have enough desert for the first city.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I'm noticing that even when I do get desert starts, they're like totally barren garbage desert patches surrounded by mediocre plains or tundra. I'm using the detailed worlds map mod, so I'm not sure if that's a factor. Is it okay to settle your subsequent cities on non-desert areas, if not your first city? In many cases I only have enough desert for the first city.

As Mali the desert is helpful in getting you a good pantheon and 1 city with lots of flat desert is good for sending caravans from but unless you pick Desert Folklore as your pantheon theres not much reason to stick every city in desert.

 

[Victoria]

All you need is 1 desert city for your trade routes. The rest is not a big deal... you just need to get going quick... hence chopping.

 

[Kwami]

So people dug into the files and figured out that Mali is given Tier 2 desert bias. Who is Tier 1, then?

I assume Nubia, but I am more interested in Arabia. You know, a civ that has NO desert bonuses in its kit in Civ 6.

There are only a few tier 1 biases. The Lisbon and Nan Madol city states have a tier 1 coastal bias. Canada has a tier 1 bias for tundra and tundra hills. Before GS, Nubia had a tier 1 bias for desert and desert hills. In GS, those biases are tier 2. I'm not aware of any other tier 1 biases.

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

If Canada has a tier 1 bias for tundra and tundra hills, it is straight up broken. I restarted about a dozen times trying to get a tundra start with Canada before finally getting one. It's absurd.

 

[godman85]

I have a 0 resource start on the desert as Mali but I can't help but want to keep it because of the wonder next to me and the hills. Like freaking 8 of them. If i get petra, this city is gonna be LIT

 

[Victoria]

OK so Mali does not get -30% for chopping meaning start away from the desert and chop to speed things up a bit perhaps?

 

[Navelgazer]

In my Mali game (in which they performed outstandingly) they started next to a single isolated desert panel, with no other ones anywhere nearby (it ended up being the only one in my empire.) Moreover, I've found "Tier One" bonuses don't mean much. Nubia has a "Tier One" desert start bias and I've never, ever started a game with them where I could settle my capital next to or on desert on turn 1 in the roughly hundred times I've tried. (Thankfully Nubia is still great without that start, but come on.)

 

[Kwami]

As I said previously, Nubia's bias is tier 2 in GS. So, nobody has a tier 1 desert bias anymore.