I think people are often a little absorbed with raw yield boosts in vacuum forgetting that you actually need to leverage them to win, and in practice victory conditions matter far more than that 1:1. It's why I dislike the concept of comparing uniques without the proper context. Yield boosts aren't everything.
Mali is definitely powerful, but it is not any stronger than any other civilization. Mali itself has a lot of yields, but they have a significant production malus which reduces the effective benefit. They are greatly dependent on hills and their optimal settling spots are very prone to droughts. Mali can get a very big boost from desert tiles, but desert tiles are also very weak outside of one Petra city. Mali will want to settle some cities near coast to leverage the doubled trade route bonuses, but they have a desert requirement to make use of their abilities so they are very dependent on RNG to make use of both. In the average case, the gold output benefit from all those deserts and hills won't make up for the loss from the naval trade routes. Even if they settle just far enough to get that Harbor later in the game, they would still have to maintain a navy which will put a strain on their resources. It might not be worth it.
And Mali is unquestionably very weak in the early game when gold is minimal and production is paramount. They are very slow to roll out cities, and absolutely NEED Monumentalism while having zero golden age potential in the ancient era. On deity, they'll fall over pretty quickly if not played really well. Kill on sight on multiplayer.
Still played properly they are very potent. That gold doesn't necessarily help you towards any victory, but it can be used to aid you in other victory conditions.
Now look at Canada. Canada doesn't have any direct yield bonuses to regular gameplay, so on first glance they may seem weaker than Mali. However they gain a massive amount of diplomatic favor for completing emergencies which as we've seen occur quite often. They can gain even more favor by trading tundra resource yields. They can gain even more favor on top of that through sheer tourism. All that favor can then be used to sway the world congress in your favor. You can then support or yourself effectively increasing your yields OR put a dent in someone else. We've seen a world congress session which can massively reduce gold and/or faith purchase costs. That would really make Mali hurt in a way no other civ would.
Now look at Phoenicia, another civ without raw yield boosts. They get some trade route bonuses that are guaranteed from their unique, although Mali can potentially gain more from theirs much later in the game. However Phoenicia can really suppress Mali in the early game by having far more efficient settling (they have a malus, Phoenicia has a bonus), settling virtually anywhere and deny settling spots to Mali through their own pressure. A Mali that tries to make use of naval trade routes to double their trade route yields may find themselves overwhelmed by Phoenicia's navy, their trade routes constantly plundered. Modifier bonuses from colonial policies and wonders may overshadow the benefit gained from Mali's core cities, as modifiers become more potent than scalar values as the game progresses.
So no I wouldn't say Mali is OP or stronger than any other civilization in practice. Neither is Canada underpowered. This thread is fun, but ultimately pointless.
