Songhai

[Thalassicus]

Several interesting things to point out about Askia...

Mud Pyramid Mosque

• Costs less to build than Temples.
• Costs no maintenance
• Does not require a Monument in the city!
• Provides 2 more than a Temple. This is the same size culture bonus per city as Napoleon's trait. It's available a little later than his trait, but lasts the whole game.
• Provides extra culture if near any clothing-based resources for the imams to wear (cotton, fur, silk, dye).

Askia's trait tripling gold from barbarian camps is more valuable now that the number of barb camps is doubled in TBC.

A Songhai army needs few or zero siege units since Mandekalu Cavalry start with the Siege promotion. This makes him a highly mobile city-capturing force like Mongolia. I find Mandekalu more valuable than both of Napoleon's UUs combined... available earlier than Musketeers and useful longer, and Foreign Legion appear too late in the game to be significant. It's also easier to beeline to Mandekalu in TBC than vanilla, because Chivalry does not require Currency in TBC.

Some food for thought.

 

[mitsho]

- Compared to France's UA, the Mud Pyramid costs production however.
- With the puppet nerf, the Puppet-Master Askia is not viable anymore. Before, every puppet city would build a temple rather soon, thus increasing policy output.
- The extra culture from clothes has been added to the temple in TBC, right? If you want to balance it, I guess you could remove the extra culture, thus moving the culture from the temple to a general buff, not ressource related.
- The no-maintenance is found in all the UB's, so it would not be good to remove it.

 

[Txurce]

Several interesting things to point out about Askia...

Mud Pyramid Mosque

[*]Does not require a Monument in the city!

Do you know if the Tradition SP would give the Songhai a Mosque or a monument, assuming the Mosque has been researched?

 

[Busdriver]

It gives a Mosque. I love taking aristocracy with askia because then new cities you build start with mosques.

 

[Txurce]

It gives a Mosque. I love taking aristocracy with askia because then new cities you build start with mosques.

Excellent!

 

[Thalassicus]

@mitsho
I actually feel both France and the Songhai are equally valuable, but noticed Askia isn't nearly as popular, so I was pointing out his strengths.