I must say... Sundiata (I probably mean more MALI as a civ) is simply too vulnerable until around turn 100... As soon as you have the badluck of having close neighbors, they'll just jump you... and even if you manage to survive, you'll be so crippled it'll be very
hard to come back into the game... Maybe Immortal and Diety is simply too hard for this civ, unless it has a starting location that protects them for a while ? Or I just don't play them the right way ? But my experience with Sundiata in 3 games so far is that
your extremely hard pressed to survive until you start to make serious money with your sugubas.... I know you're supposed to buy all your buildings and all, but there are things that you CAN'T buy... walls for example, if your attacked in the early game... and
you can't also buy Gov plaza buildings...