Civilization 6has been around for years, and the developers have released a considerable amount of DLC for the game at this point. The last piece of purchasable content is the Leader Pass. With it, players received three new leaders or personas monthly. The fourth wave of leaders was named the Rulers of the Sahara pack, and with it players got to see Ramses II make a return. They also received a new persona for the Cleopatra leader, and got a new ruler for Mali.
This guide will talk about Sundiata Keita, the newest leader of the Mali Civilization. Here, players will learn everything they need to know about this ruler, including his unique abilities.
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Features & Abilities
What differentiates Sundiata Keita from Mansa Musa, the first Mali leader inCivilization 6, is his Leader Ability,Sogolon. Mansa Musa’s abilities made him entirely focused on Trade Routes and increasing his Gold output. Sundiata Keita, on the other hand, uses his money to acquire Great Works of Writing; he can do this more easily and more efficiently, especially if he establishes his Markets early on.
How it works
Songs of the Jeli
How To Play As Sundiata Keita
Sundiata Keita still shares most of his unique traits with his Mali leader counterpart. Apart from the Sologon ability, they are quite alike; however, having this ability actually makes a huge difference. This new leader of the Mali Civilization can recruit any type of Great Person at a discount price of 20% less Gold, and since Mali’s abilities allow him to acquire Gold more frequently, he can start recruiting Great People pretty early on in the game.
The most important yields for Sundiata Keita will be Gold and Faith,as he can mix the two together to build and strengthen his empire. Of course, he won’t want to fall behind on Culture and Science, but he can use his Gold and Faith output to reach other goals and increase his other yields.
With the Songs of the Jeli ability, Mali will definitely want to settle near Desert tiles. Due to random map generation, players will never know whether they’ll get an optimal starting location. They can influence it by changing the Rainfall option to Arid whensetting up theirCivilization 6game. It can be tough to live in a city with mostly Desert tiles, so gamers should attempt to settle cities that are only partially in the Desert. This way, they can take advantage of Songs of the Jeli while making it easier to grow their empire with good Food and Production yields.
Before recruiting Great Writers, there’s some setting up that Sundiata Keita must do, such as generating a decent amount of Gold and Faith per turn. Gamers will want to plan out theoptimal placement for the Districts in theirCivilization 6citiesbefore committing to them until the rest of the game.The Suguba, Mali’s unique District that replaces the Commercial Hub, gets +2 Gold adjacency from Holy Site districts.Therefore, it’s best to try and get as much as possible out of this bonus. If the player has two cities that are close together, he might just be able to get two Holy Sites adjacent to a Suguba or two.
TheDesert Folklore Pantheonis perfectly paired with the Song of the Jeli ability. Mali will want to settle somewhere near or in the Desert, and this Pantheon gives Holy Site districts +1 Faith for each adjacent Desert tile. In Gathering Storm, adding the Work Ethic belief when a religion is created, makes it so the Faith adjacency bonus of a Holy Site provides the same amount of Production to the city. On top of this, the player can also plug in the Scripture Economic Policy Card to receive an additional +100 percent Holy Site adjacency bonus.
Once Holy Sites and Sugubas have been built, it’s important tofocus on getting the Market building up,since this iswhere most Great Works of Writing will be kept. Thankfully, building Production cost is 30% lower for Mali, and Markets can be purchased instantly with Faith or Gold at a lower price.
The Market is an extremely powerful building for Mali because it increases the player’s Gold per turn and gives them access to a place to store Great Works of Writing, allowing them to delay the construction of Theater Square districts.The Great Works of Writing will contribute towards a Culture Victorydue to the Culture and Tourism they generate. On top of this, they also provide Mali with anextra +4 Gold and +2 Production. This is an effortless income for Mali because no citizens need to work to keep generating these yields.
Sundiata Keita is more inclined towards attempting a Culture Victory due to his Sogolon leader ability. However, his easy access to massive Gold yields, make him a somewhat versatile leader, meaning that the player can mold their strategy and goal according to the randomness of the map they receive and the leaders they find themselves up against.
Civilization 6is available for iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
