The Ngao Mbeba is Surprisingly Good

[MarigoldRan]

Obviously not OP like Chandy buffed Varus or Surprise Attack immortals. But its a mobile, flexible swordsman that's effectively immune to archers. With Oligarchy and their inherent bonuses archers do like 10 damage to them. On a wooded map, with hit and run, they're devastating.

Thanks to Magnus Chops Kongo is actually pretty powerful since you're guaranteed crap tons of forests and rainforests.

 

[beorn]

Agreed. No one around here talks up Kongo or its Ngao Mbeba, but I find them to be one of the more difficult AI neighbors to deal with early on, especially since I build a few slingers/archers and expect that to take care of me for some time. And the time I played as Kongo I found them almost as easy as Germany.

 

[MarigoldRan]

When an archer is on a wooded tile, a melee unit normally can't get there in 1 turn. Not so with the Mbeba. The ability to move onto a plain tile and a forest tile in 1 turn is very powerful.

And Kongo's UB makes its tall empire arguably even stronger than Germany's because their cities can get more pop.