[GS] Mali and victory

[Disgustipated]

I've done culture and domination victories with them. Just buy all the great works you want. Eventually they will stop selling as I discovered in my Eleanor England game, but only after you have nearly every great work in the world. Then use your massive faith for rock bands. Despite an above comment, desert is not a good place for national parks since Firaxis thinks deserts are ugly, something I take exception to. Though with Eiffel and city parks maybe you can make something work, but you are better off using that faith for rock bands.

Royal society makes science viable, as mentioned above, you should always be using free inquiry when possible. You'll never be as fast as say Germany because you can only use one builder per turn.

Domination, just buy stuff. 'nuff said.

Religion should be very strong as well.

Diplomatic will be weakest, you can buy favor, but only up to a certain point. Maybe use your military to liberate city states.

I enjoy Mali quite a lot, and they may be my favorite civ. But like the Cree, sometimes I have trouble deciding on a victory type.

 

[Navelgazer]

They can literally go for anything once you get them over the early game production set-backs. Having bottomless money (and a promoted-enough Reyna to purchase districts) makes Science victories simple enough. Culture is a breeze because, as said, you'll only be hard-building a few things and most of them can be wonders. Mandekalu Cavalry don't do a hell of a lot for you for a Dom win aside from being based on an already-good standard unit, but you can buy and levy units easily enough.

 

[ggmoyang]

Discount from Suguba and Holy Order stack additively, right? So you can buy apostles at the half cost... sounds good for religion.

 

[Navelgazer]

Yeah, and I would talk about Diplo victory with them except that that takes so long and Mali is so universally strong from mid-game onwards that your biggest obstacle to Diplo will be inevitably winning another way first.

 

[Weraptor]

Religion > Domination > Diplomacy > Culture > Science imo

 

[Cherenkov]

Religion > Domination > Diplomacy > Culture > Science imo

As I've found out in GotM59 a Diplomatic victory is the most time consuming of them all so I would put that one last. After you survive the early years and the money starts rolling in then you can buy an army and roll over everyone. From that it makes RV, CV, DomV and SV all much easier to obtain than the pain of waiting around for a Diplomatic victory.

 

[Weraptor]

I assumed diplomacy would get tweaked and the free unit exploit fixed.

 

[Sagax]

I assumed diplomacy would get tweaked and the free unit exploit fixed.

Well, it’s not tweaked as of now, and we don’t know how exactly Diplo Victory will be tweaked in the future. As for the free units exploit, it’s not that necessary - you have enough cash anyway. If anything, free units kind of obsolete Mali’s income because you’ll literally have nowhere else to dump your money (you eventually run out of buildings to buy).

 

[Cherenkov]

I assumed diplomacy would get tweaked and the free unit exploit fixed.

There a few problems with diplomatic victory:

• It takes too long to get started on the first vote and you get 2 diplomatic points per 30 turns by passing the vote.
• It's easy enough to build the Statue of Liberty, get the Seasteads Tech and Global Warming Mitigation civic for 3 more diplomatic points as long as you focus on science and culture. Even easier as Mali since you just buy the buildings in poor production cities after the districts are placed.
• Which leaves you at 9/10 points if you play your cards right but... that elusive 1pt is needed and...
• As some of us found out in GotM 59 there is no guarantee that a natural disaster emergency aid request will happen in the game for that missing 1pt. I've seen it in all my other games but not in this map which I played twice

So as you are sitting on a pile of gold and have bought everything you need you just click...click...click... and wait.. oops missed it by 1pt now I have to wait 30 more turns then I will win... oh joy what fun. So you look for entertaining ways to pass time like planting spies and stealing gold from civs which adds about .000001% to your already massive treasury.

This needs some serious fixing. You shouldn't have to wait for a random event for that 1pt.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

There a few problems with diplomatic victory:

• It takes too long to get started on the first vote and you get 2 diplomatic points per 30 turns by passing the vote.
• It's easy enough to build the Statue of Liberty, get the Seasteads Tech and Global Warming Mitigation civic for 3 more diplomatic points as long as you focus on science and culture. Even easier as Mali since you just buy the buildings in poor production cities after the districts are placed.
• Which leaves you at 9/10 points if you play your cards right but... that elusive 1pt is needed and...
• As some of us found out in GotM 59 there is no guarantee that a natural disaster emergency aid request will happen in the game for that missing 1pt. I've seen it in all my other games but not in this map which I played twice

So as you are sitting on a pile of gold and have bought everything you need you just click...click...click... and wait.. oops missed it by 1pt now I have to wait 30 more turns then I will win... oh joy what fun. So you look for entertaining ways to pass time like planting spies and stealing gold from civs which adds about .000001% to your already massive treasury.

This needs some serious fixing. You shouldn't have to wait for a random event for that 1pt.

The Climate Accords competition can get you a DVP too.

 

[Abaxial]

Once you capture a city on another continent you can buy a stream of units there. It's like being able to teleport an army into your bridgehead.

 

[Socrates99]

They can win any victory because of gold's flexibility. The one VC I think they have a clear advantage in is religious. They're almost guaranteed the first or second pantheon so getting Earth Goddes or desert folklore is easy. The faith generation makes buying your GP easy after running prayers a couple times. The discount from the suguba paired with the encouragement to build HSs means you can buy religous units cheaply with massive faith generation. Spamming missionaries and apostles is just too easy.

In my game with Mali I decided to go science and I got control of Fez which encouraged me to convert like crazy. Now I may actually win a RV on a huge map before I finish my SV. It's crazy.

 

[Victoria]

This needs some serious fixing. You shouldn't have to wait for a random event for that 1p

I did try and warn you, what shocks me is you tried it twice!
You have gone down in my estimation

 

[Cherenkov]

I did try and warn you, what shocks me is you tried it twice!
You have gone down in my estimation

But it is such a fun map and civ so I had to play it again

I should have done what DanQ did and just finished it through a DomV. In the first game I had my continent under control by T125. Had I known about the diplomatic victory issues I would have just kept going and finished the other continent with my veteran army and any additional troops needed from gold.

The Climate Accords competition can get you a DVP too.

Never saw one of those either. I think the map was cursed in some way

 

[Victoria]

But it is such a fun map and civ so I had to play it again

Not had the time yet, probably will not GOTM this one.

 

[Aristos]

Not if you build the Royal Society and buy workers to rush the projects.

and if you buy the key GPs...

 

[Disgustipated]

I'm finding Earth Goddess more useful with them than desert folklore. Provided you get a desert start, you should have that choice. I prefer only 2 or 3 desert tiles next to my capital. I really can't see settling more than 2 or 3 cities next to the desert. Just pick Earth Goddess and you have the flexibility to settle anywhere. Sure you won't get those big numbers on your holy sites, but you have more flexibility getting big numbers on your Sugubas. And honestly, my very first GS game was nothing but dust storms wiping out my districts. It's not worth it.

 

[Brutus2]

I'm finding Earth Goddess more useful with them than desert folklore. Provided you get a desert start, you should have that choice. I prefer only 2 or 3 desert tiles next to my capital. I really can't see settling more than 2 or 3 cities next to the desert. Just pick Earth Goddess and you have the flexibility to settle anywhere. Sure you won't get those big numbers on your holy sites, but you have more flexibility getting big numbers on your Sugubas. And honestly, my very first GS game was nothing but dust storms wiping out my districts. It's not worth it.

Earth Goddess is just so much better than all other choices in almost any situation. It can completely change your strategy if you manage to get it.

 

[Tuvok694]

Since Gathering Storm was released I was able to win with each new civ at least once on level emperor. EXCEPT Mali. Must have tried several dozen times by now with different map types, different strategies. If I would not have SEEN Mali videos on youtube I would assume it is simply impossible to win with them above level king. Even Canada was easy compared to Mali. Seems they are the once civ that is only for the most capable players in the world.

 

[Caprikel]

For a science victory you can easily get enough production using international trade routes, assuming you have allies to get the proper bonuses from.
+10 production trade routes are pretty handy, and those bonus Mali trade routes are very helpful with that.