Civ 5 Songhai Civilization

Civ Bonuses, AI Info, Strategies, Unique Units and Buildings

Updated for Gods and Kings and Brave New World DLCs

Civilization's Leader: Askia

Civ Bonus: River Warlord
All of Askia's military units gain the Amphibious and War Canoes promotion. This gives them better defense while embarked in the Ocean and eliminates penalties for attacking from their boats or over a river. Additionally, Askia will receive triple gold from Pillaging Barbarian Encampments (75g) and Cities, providing an economic boost when conquering.

Unique Unit: Mandekalu Cavalry
Requires Chivalry
This great unit replaces the Knight and ditches the -33% Combat Strength penalty for attacking Cities. They are some of the best hit and run raiders in the game, particularly when you can bring them into a game early. They will upgrade later to Cavalry, so there is a period where they will not be very strong compared to other units unless heavily upgraded. During this time, use them wisely to help other, stronger troops like Riflemen and Cannons to clear enemy units and help you push to conquer that next City. When upgraded to Cavalry, they will again have that penalty for attacking Cities.

Unique Building: Mud Pyramid Mosque
Requires Philosophy
This building replaces the Temple and requires no Gold to maintain. It provides an additional +2 Culture along with the +2 Faith of a Temple. This will help City borders expand while also aiding your ability to purchase Buildings/Units/Great people with Faith. It seems like a small bonus, but when you are going about conquering many Cities, it will help to fill in the gaps so other Civs cannot settle within your lands.

Strategies/Ideas for playing Askia of Songhai:
Given Askia's bonuses, you will certainly want to go with a Domination victory type, or at least display early agression and transition into another style of play. I played a successful game starting with Liberty and the first 2 Policies to get a free Settler, then tagging Honor for Culture from Barbarian kills and notifications of new encampments. I then went back to Liberty to finish it, and moved back to Honor to finish it as well. Use Horsemen in the early game, as you can start promotions toward some very powerful Cavalry when you unlock Chivalry. The triple Pillaging bonus of River Warlord gives you an economic edge when you are actively removing Barbarians (ideally waiting for City-State quests) and hopefully taking some Capitals on your continent.

The Mud Pyramid Mosque is an excellent building, though some are better. The benefit here is the Culture for tile expansion, and all the gold you'll save with Temples in every City across a wide empire, particularly in the early game. This means you'll really want to take advantage of Religion and try to found your own. Going Libery will free up some build time in your Capital in the first 30 turns, so try to get out a Shrine and go toward Philosophy to unlock this building, then move on to Chivalry to get your Unique Unit.

Early aggression is your best bet, and the Holy Warriors Follower Belief, which allows you to buy units with Faith can help with that although it's not essential. I used that along with Pagodas, with Tithe as a Founder Belief to help my Gold per turn. If you start with Luxuries that require calendar, you may even want to build Stonehenge to boost Faith output and give you Great Engineer points early in the game.

I used Swordsmen, Horsemen, and Archers/Composite Bowmen in my first conquests and tried to start bringing down Civs on my Continent by turn 100. Taking over Cities and usually getting 500+ Gold, I was able to buy buildings and City-State allies to help with any happiness/culture problems created by being so warlike. I suggest you Puppet any conquered Cities (and raze those in bad spots) so that your Capital is able to build National Wonders, then Annex those Cities later on to avoid the happiness hit. When Mandekalu Cavalry were available after beelining for Chivalry, I want on a rampage and conquered 4-5 Cities, which thankfully had diverse Luxuries to keep such a large population in the early game happy. I made sure to build Trading Posts and improve Food output in Puppeted Cities with my workers, to help income due to Puppet Cities' default focus being on Gold.

Coastal Cities are easier to take with Askia as your melee units are able to attack Cities from the ocean with no penalty, while not suffering a defensive penalty for being in the water when Cities counter attack. This Civ Bonus comes in handy another way, as there are usually several river tiles around a City that would give a penalty for Melee attacks. Use your Cavalry to attack, then flee to 3 tiles away to prevent them being able to counter attack. You could even let them suffer one round after attacking, pillage and run away so that your ranged are protected and begin the process of healing up. The defending AI City will usually choose to attack a wounded melee unit over your ranged.

Warring with Askia is really a simple affair thanks to the removal of these penalties, from the early-game to late-game when you are using Infantry and Tanks. If you are aggressive enough, you may never even see a tank as crossing Ocean with Askia's units is much safer than it is for other Civs thanks to War Canoes. Note that embarked melee cannot attack Naval units, so if you plan to sink enemy Ships you will need at least a small Navy to aid in that - else, you will find the War Canoes are quite defensible when crossing Ocean. This is particularly helpful early-game against Barbarian Triremes.

After Libery and Honor, I would probably go with at least a few Policies in Commerce with Askia. It will help with road upkeep and happiness, though Rationalism will certainly be helpful if you are behind Scientifically and can get Universities up in all your Cities. You can also use your Gold to buy off City-States, so that you can attempt to get the Scholars in Residence proposal passed, which will boost research by 20% for things other Civs already know. You may end up behind, but will be capable of catching up or at least having a large/strong enough Military to finish a Domination win.

Naturally, Autocracy or Order are probably the best two choices for Askia when it comes to Ideology. Autocracy is particularly handy, though if you are aggressive enough you are not likely to make it far down the Ideology tree. You should play this Civ just as you would any other Warmonger. You can do otherwise with him, but there are better Civs to pursue other Victories. Everything he gets bonus-wise is built around Conquest and claiming territory for your own. I really enjoyed my game with him, and found it an easy play, particularly as other large Civs on other continents did not know of my early conquest to be wary of my military and were easly dominated thanks to the ease with which Askia's troops can make landfall on another Continent and do what they do best - wage war.

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Bill W says...

Great walk through, I had exactly the same experience playing Askia on Deity - marathon. Easy domination game, finished by turn 450. As you said the big thing is clearing barb camps for gold, getting city states allied to offset happiness problems. Only thing to add is the Patronage policy tree is really helpful, especially the policies that give + science for each CS ally and + happiness for each luxury. I think this guy is the easiest civ to win with on domination.

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4th September 2014 9:37am

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