[GS] Mali Discussion Thread

[Lord Lakely]

It's basically the same as Money Grubber.

I know. Mansa Musa is the only leader who makes sense to have that agenda, so I'm happy they gave it to him.

 

[BrotherInJah]

I wonder if there's been a leader that's had a bigger transformation over the years.

mansa musa eat

 

[blackcatatonic]

Only issue is the name. I guess it's a lord of the flies/rings reference but it just sounds weird.

Or is it a reference to King Solomon's Mines?

 

[bbbt]

God, the agendas are so stupid.

I feel like just changing the word 'likes' to 'respects' in these things would make the agendas at least sound significantly less stupid (though from a gameplay perspective I'm definitely in the AI flavor not diplomatic opinion camp for agendas).

 

[Stringer1313]

I'm assuming he's either going to love people with a large bank balance or be jealous of them and hate them. I can never quite tell which way they go with agendas.

I actually think he will like you based on how many commercial hubs you have

 

[Giskler]

Gold to production ratio is 6 to 1. However, if you have Carthage then as Mali you can buy all of your military. .

You mean Ngazargamu. Carthage will be a city for Phoenicia

 

[AriochIV]

I feel like just changing the word 'likes' to 'respects' in these things would make the agendas at least sound significantly less stupid (though from a gameplay perspective I'm definitely in the AI flavor not diplomatic opinion camp for agendas).

The behavior aspects of the agenda are fine, but the diplomatic aspects are stupid and pull me out of the immersion of the game; they make the AI seem more mechanical, not less. Oh no, Rome hates me because I'm not as big as them? What?

I especially love the agendas where the leader says something cryptic and there's no explanation for what he/she means. What?

 

[Disgustipated]

Mali doesn't actually need to work desert tiles to benefit from any of its bonuses.

I think the best strat will be to be at the edge of desert, like Canada/Russia should be at the edge of tundra. Enough to get a good food/faith/int. trade route bonus, but close enough to grassland, grassland hills, and forests to still make a somewhat decent city.

There is no way I'm settling in the middle of the Sahara desert. That will never be a good city, other than to generate 6 faith. whoopee.

 

[Archon_Wing]

I like how it's going against the grain a bit, though I expect them to be pretty effective past the ancient era. Will probably be poor at rushing, but then again warriors aren't expensive. Looks like C-hub spam will be a thing with projects.... that you will run anyways.

 

[Steamboat Willem]

I think the best strat will be to be at the edge of desert, like Canada/Russia should be at the edge of tundra. Enough to get a good food/faith/int. trade route bonus, but close enough to grassland, grassland hills, and forests to still make a somewhat decent city.

There is no way I'm settling in the middle of the Sahara desert. That will never be a good city, other than to generate 6 faith. whoopee.

Great place to run your trade routes from that get +1 gold for every flat desert tile in the city.

 

[bbbt]

Great place to run your trade routes from that get +1 gold for every flat desert tile in the city.

This exactly. Have the crazy sahara trade route hub.

 

[UWHabs]

I think the best strat will be to be at the edge of desert, like Canada/Russia should be at the edge of tundra. Enough to get a good food/faith/int. trade route bonus, but close enough to grassland, grassland hills, and forests to still make a somewhat decent city.

There is no way I'm settling in the middle of the Sahara desert. That will never be a good city, other than to generate 6 faith. whoopee.

Nah, as Mali I'm totally settling the horsehockey desert city. Not early - they do still need 2-3 useful cities to get going until they have the governor slots to max out Reyna. But they should totally backfill cities, especially once they have monumentality going, to faith/gold buy settlers.
-6 free faith if surrounded by desert.
-Move Reyna to the city, wait 5 turns, then buy the commerce hub. Buy monument/market/trader. It won't take a long time for that city to be a net positive to the empire.

Basically, they need to settle as many cities as possible, they're perfectly placed for ICS since they get such powerful per-city bonuses.

 

[Alexadamz]

Only issue is the name. I guess it's a lord of the flies/rings reference but it just sounds weird.

Wikipedia says one of his titles was "Lord of the Mines of Wangara". I guess that explains the Agenda Name.

 

[Disgustipated]

This exactly. Have the crazy sahara trade route hub.

Nah, as Mali I'm totally settling the ****** desert city. Not early - they do still need 2-3 useful cities to get going until they have the governor slots to max out Reyna.

Okay, definitely worth it to have 1 city like this. In the video they were getting 18 gold for a trade route to a city state. My ultimate goal in life is to see how much gold yield I can get out of 1 trade route.

Planning: Great zimbabwe with several sheep resources. Maybe I could really get some high numbers.

 

[Tiger Genocide]

The behavior aspects of the agenda are fine, but the diplomatic aspects are stupid and pull me out of the immersion of the game; they make the AI seem more mechanical, not less. Oh no, Rome hates me because I'm not as big as them? What?

I especially love the agendas where the leader says something cryptic and there's no explanation for what he/she means. What?

Well said. It is a massive immersion killer and hurts gameplay. The entire system is junk and was a great majority of the reason why the game was awful at launch (AI issues aside). The one sided denouncements mean we denounced each other are terrible too.

They had a killer system with Civ5, where certain civs, were geared towards various things based upon their personality and their situation on the map. The drama of balancing the popularity contest between everyone was challenging and very interesting at the same time. It almost felt like you were playing against real people at times. Each new game felt like a TV show episode.

This agenda system is just flat, boring, and super predictable. Send an envoy to a city state and wait next turn for Germany or Pericles to get angry and/or denounce you. You literally get punished just for playing the game correctly.

 

[seasnake]

Lord of the Mines? That really tickles my funny bone

 

[RagnorIronpants]

I'm a bit conflicted; I've always enjoyed building up finance but not as much as building up production

Generally though it's a good comeback. Still want to see more African civs tho.

 

[King Rad]

More I think of it, the mines bonus should be +5, nor +4. Since the gold buying ratio is already 4 gold for 1 production from what I read above. So this really isn't a bonus at all, but an even trade. I hope Firaxis realizes this before release.

edit: I see someone say it's 6 to 1, though I could have swore it was 4 to 1. Either way this isn't really a bonus for the Mali, and should be fixed.

It's not actually an even trade if the city has the Suguba, since that offers a purchase discount. It will require less gold than the "equivalent" production to acquire the item purchased. So assuming the gold per turn generated by a mine directly offsets the equivalent production otherwise generated by the mine, the gold necessary to purchase an item will be generated [by the mines, at least] in less time than the production required to produce the item.

 

[Tiger Genocide]

I think the best strat will be to be at the edge of desert, like Canada/Russia should be at the edge of tundra. Enough to get a good food/faith/int. trade route bonus, but close enough to grassland, grassland hills, and forests to still make a somewhat decent city.

There is no way I'm settling in the middle of the Sahara desert. That will never be a good city, other than to generate 6 faith. whoopee.

Exactly. If you play as Mali you want to be half and half. You want to settle on the edges of deserts or spots that have floodplains on one side and grassland/plains hills on the other side. You can have one or two desert only cities, but that would be it. The majority will hybrid ones, with enough just to get your bonuses activated.

 

[bbbt]

Okay, definitely worth it to have 1 city like this. In the video they were getting 18 gold for a trade route to a city state. My ultimate goal in life is to see how much gold yield I can get out of 1 trade route.

Planning: Great zimbabwe with several sheep resources. Maybe I could really get some high numbers.

Yeah I'm absolutely expecting Mali trade route 'porn' posts on reddit with GS.