Following this guide requires the Gathering Storm expansion.

It also assumes you have all other Civ 6 content, listed below, though it is not necessary to have these to utilise the key strategies of each civ.

• Pre-Rise and Fall content packs
  
  • Vikings, Poland, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia
• Rise and Fall Expansion
  
• New Frontier content packs
  
  • Maya/Grand Colombia, Ethiopia, Byzantium/Gauls, Babylon, Vietnam/Kublai Khan, Portugal

These content packs include exclusive civs, city-states, districts, buildings, wonders, natural wonders, resources, and a disaster, but not core game mechanics - all you need is the base game and the Gathering Storm expansion for those.

The Leaders Pass is only relevant when playing as or against leaders released in its content packs; otherwise it makes no difference to the game.

There is no value in material wealth except in what is done with it. My predecessor served a higher purpose in the pursuit of knowledge; and so shall I. As he departed west, I shall journey east to the Holy Cities, so that I may return with a greater knowledge of God's will, and the greatest scholars of the world. This shall be the foundation of a greater centre of learning - where all may forward the cause of faith.


This guide is divided into multiple sections explaining how best to use and play against this specific civ.

• The Outline details the mechanics of how the civilization's unique features work and what their start bias is if they have one.
  
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) is inclined towards particular victory routes. This is not a rating of its power, but an indicator of the most appropriate route to victory.
  
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
  
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, government buildings, policy cards, age bonuses, pantheons, religious beliefs, wonders, city-states and Great People for the civ. Only the ones with the most synergy with the civ's uniques are mentioned - these are not necessarily the "best" choices when playing as the civ for a given victory route.
  
• Finally, the Counter-Strategies discusses how best to play against the civ, including a consideration of leader agendas if the civ is controlled by a computer.

Note that all costs (production, science, etc.) mentioned within the guide assume a game played on the normal speed settings. To modify these values for other game speeds:

• Online: Divide by 2
  
• Quick: Divide by 1.5
  
• Epic: Multiply by 1.5
  
• Marathon: Multiply by 3

Terminology used in this guide and not in-game is explained here.

AoE (Area of Effect) - Bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories (which offer production to cities within a 6 tile radius unless they're within range of another building of the same type) and a negative example is nuclear weapons, which cause devastation over a wide radius.

Beelining - Obtaining a technology or civic quickly by only researching it and its prerequisites. Some deviation is allowed in the event that taking a technology or civic off the main track provides some kind of advantage that makes up for that (either a source of extra science/culture or access to something necessary for a eureka or inspiration boost)

CA (Civ Ability) - The unique ability of a civilization, shared by all its leaders.

Compact empires - Civs with cities close together (typically 3-4 tile gaps between city centres). This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out (typically 5-6 tile gaps between city centres). Civs with unique tile improvements generally favour a more dispersed empire in order to make use of them, as do civs focused on wonder construction.

GPP - Short for Great Person Points. Districts, buildings and wonders generate these points and with enough you can claim a Great Person of the corresponding type.

GWAM - Collective name for Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. All of them can produce Great Works that offer tourism and culture, making them important to anyone seeking a cultural victory.

LA (Leader Ability) - The unique ability of a specific leader. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit or infrastucture.

Prebuilding - Training a unit with the intention of upgrading it to a desired unit later. An example is building Slingers and upgrading them once Archery is unlocked.

Sniping - Targeting a specific city for capture directly, ignoring other enemy cities along the way. Typically used in the context of "capital sniping" - taking a civ's original capital as quickly as possible to contribute towards domination victory without leading to a drawn-out war.

Start bias - The kind of terrain, terrain feature or resource a civilization is more likely to start near. This is typically used for civilizations that have early bonuses dependent on a particular terrain type. There are five tiers of start bias; civs with a tier 1 start bias are placed before civs of tier 2 and so on, increasing their odds of receiving a favourable starting location.

Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others. Examples include India's Varu and Mongolia's Keshigs.

Tall empires - Empires that emphasise city development over expansion, usually resulting in fewer, but bigger, cities.

Uniques - Collective name for civ abilities, leader abilities, unique units, unique buildings, unique districts and unique improvements.

UA (Unique Ability) - A collective name for leader abilities and civ abilities.

UB (Unique Building) - A special building which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal building and offers a special advantage on top.

UD (Unique District) - A special district which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal district, costs half as much to build and offers some unique advantages on top.

UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. "UI" always refers to unique improvements in my guides and not to "user interface" or "unique infrastructure".

UU (Unique Unit) - A special unit that may only be trained by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader.

Wide empires - Empires that emphasise expansion over city development, usually resulting in more, but smaller, cities.

Mali has a tier 1 start bias to desert and desert hills. This is important as both the Malian civ ability and Mansa Musa's leader ability offer bonuses for desert tiles. It also allows you to make effective use of the Desert Folklore pantheon for extra faith adjacency for Holy Sites.

Furthermore, Mali has a tier 5 start bias to all resources that can be improved with a mine, except amber and uranium. Luxury resources in particular will produce very high amounts of gold when improved with a Malian mine.

• City centres receive +1 food and +1 faith for every adjacent flat desert, desert floodplain or desert hills tile.
  
• Mines produce -1 production and +4 gold.
  
• -30% production penalty when training units or constructing buildings.
  
  • This does not affect the construction of wonders or the completion of city projects.
• May purchase Markets, Banks and Stock Exchanges with faith.
  
  • Like other faith purchases, these costs can be reduced with the Theocracy government, on top of the discount offered by the Suguba district itself.

• International trade routes grant +1 gold for every flat desert or desert floodplains tile in the origin city.
  
  • This gold yield is not affected by transportation efficiency and hence won't be improved by the trade route crossing lakes, seas, railroads and mountain tunnels.
• Entering a Golden or Heroic Age permanently increases trade route capacity by 1 each time.

• Patronage of Great People via gold costs 20% less.
  
• Markets built in Mali-founded cities have two slots for Great Works of Writing
  
• Great Works of Writing provide their city with +4 gold and +2 production each.

A medieval-era heavy cavalry unit which replaces the Knight

*Purchasing units with faith requires the Grand Master's Chapel government building, which requires either the medieval-era Divine Right or renaissance-era Exploration civics.

**If you have insufficient iron, you may continue to train Mandekalu Cavalry even after researching Ballistics.

• Costs 10 iron, down from 20 (-50%)
  
• Has 55 strength, up from 50
  
• Owned traders on land within 4 tiles cannot be pillaged.
  
• Gains gold on kills equal to the defeated unit's melee strength.

A classical-era speciality district which replaces the Commercial Hub

*All districts increase in cost based on your technological and civic progress. If you have more or the same number of speciality districts as speciality district types you have unlocked and the former number divided by the latter is bigger than the number of copies of this district you have, you will receive a 40% discount.

**Purchasing districts with gold requires the governor Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion to be present in the city. Purchasing districts with faith requires Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Divine Architect promotion to be present in the city.

• Does not receive +2 gold from adjacent Harbours

• -50% production cost
  
• Receives +2 gold per adjacent Holy Site.
  
• All gold and faith purchases made in this city are 20% cheaper.
  
  • This stacks additively with other cost-reducing bonuses, such as the Theocracy and Democracy governments.
    
  • Costs are always rounded to a multiple of 5.

• Buildings in this district have unique graphics.

In this section, the civ is subjectively graded based on how much it leans towards a specific victory type - not how powerful it is. Scores of 3 or more mean the civ has at least a minor advantage towards the victory route.


A cultural victory as Mali rests on their decent faith output and discount to faith purchases via the Suguba district, including Naturalists and Rock Bands, and, especially for Sundiata Keita, their ability to use their gold and faith for GWAM patronage. The penalty to unit and building production can be a problem when obtaining Theatre Square buildings and Archaeologists, but it can be circumvented by simply purchasing them with gold. While Mali's penalty to unit and building production does not extend to wonders, the penalty to mine production and Mansa Musa's strong incentive to trade externally rather than internally can make it hard to compete in the race for key wonders. Sundiata Keita's extra production from Great Writings and lack of a bonus to external trade makes him better-suited for this task.

Diplomatic victory is an effective route. The sheer amount of gold Mali can produce means dominating aid emergencies is easy, and you can afford to buy diplomatic favour off other civs if need be. Mansa Musa's incentive to trade internationally is good for building up alliances as well. The catch is that his penalty to mine production and skew towards international trade can make it harder to compete at key diplomatic wonders such as the Statue of Liberty.

Domination is another perfectly fine path, despite the harsh penalty to unit production. Mali can afford to buy units in freshly-conquered cities on the front lines, keeping a constant level of pressure on foes. Mali's huge gold output also means maintenance won't be an issue. All that being said, Mali lacks direct combat advantages aside from the five-point strength advantage of Mandekalu Cavalry over their generic equivalents. Furthermore, Mansa Musa's reliance on international trade is vulnerable to pillagers in war-time. If the city-state Ngazargamu is in the game, Mali's domination potential increases considerably due to its huge discount to land military unit purchase costs.

Mali is best at religious victories for two key reasons: The faith bonus from the civ ability and the discount to religious units via the Suguba district. In conjunction with the Desert Folklore pantheon, Mali's early religious game is very strong. The main limitation is Mali's dependence on desert tiles - without them, you'll only have the Suguba district's discount.

Scientific victory is another fine route. A classical or medieval-era Golden or Heroic Age allows use of the Free Inquiry dedication, which allows you to get a lot of science out of Suguba districts. You can cheaply purchase a lot of scientific buildings as well, or even Campuses and Spaceports with help from Governors Reyna and Moksha. All that being said, space race projects cannot be rushed with gold or faith (except indirectly via the Royal Society building), and Mali's penalty to mine production could slow down the road to victory at the crucial final stages.

Mali has a unique game built around gold and faith instant purchases as opposed to production. But before you can reach that point, it's necessary to work your way through Mali's tricky start.


At the start of the game, Mali's start bias will typically place you in desert floodplains, on the edge of a desert, or with desert in range. If you start near but not adjacent to desert, it may be worthwhile to take a turn moving your Settler over - but resist the temptation to spend more than a couple of turns moving or to settle in a spot surrounded by featureless desert tiles. A spot with only desert will lack production, and moving your starting Settler will cost precious time.


Here's an example of a game where I deliberately moved my starting Settler into a desert-heavy area. Yes, I'm generating more food and faith initially, but the scarcity of production will cost me far more than the extra food and faith grants me.

With at least one desert tile adjacent to your capital, you'll start making bonus food and faith right away. Extra food will be useful for growing your city faster - a bigger city can work more production tiles and hence make up for the 30% unit production penalty. Every point of population also means 0.5 science and 0.3 culture, aiding research slightly. The faith bonus means Mali is frequently first to a pantheon, allowing you to reliably pick the Desert Folklore pantheon for a huge faith bonus later, or the Religious Settlements pantheon to speed up early expansion.

If you don't start next to desert, try to make sure your second city has at least some desert adjacent - you can still secure a fairly early pantheon this way.

When playing as Mansa Musa, Mali should aim to have one key desert city with as many flat desert or desert floodplain tiles as possible within a three-tile radius. This will be your key city for sending out trade routes later. It also helps to ensure no other desert cities are within four tiles as tiles adjacent to a city centre cannot be swapped to another city's control. Aside from this special case, however, Mali should aim to position cities close together - it'll help with maximising the number and strength of your Suguba districts later.


Sometimes you won't start near a large desert, and you'll just have to settle for the best one you can find.

Around the time a third city is settled is a good time to start work on a Holy Site district. Position it on or adjacent to a riverside tile so it can boost the Suguba district later. Even though Mali has no bonuses to Great Prophet output, faith from the Malian civ ability combined with the Desert Folklore pantheon is typically sufficient to secure one via patronage. The Work Ethic or Feed the World beliefs can be particularly helpful for supporting the subsequent development of desert cities. For more information on the best choices for religious beliefs, head to the Administration section of this guide.

Once your gold output is strong enough, you can start purchasing Settlers - circumventing the 30% production penalty. Settle extensively in areas with both desert and rivers so you can get both a strong faith yield and powerful Suguba districts. If none are available, favour riverside spots without desert over desert spots without rivers, as the latter is a low priority for other civs to settle and can be taken by you later.



Luxury mines have especially high gold outputs.

Mines can be built on hills, volcanic ash or certain resources for extra production. For Mali, however, they provide gold instead, and won't provide any production until the medieval-era Apprenticeship technology.

The biggest immediate downside of losing production on mines is that the already unproductive desert cities become even weaker, so outside of your key trading city it's best not to settle in the middle of a desert until you have sufficient funds available to buy what you need. Cities in grasslands, plains or tundra regions can make use of lumber mills on woods (and later rainforests) if you need cities with particularly strong production. That'll be particularly useful for city projects and wonders, which can't be bought with gold or faith. Walls cannot be purchased either if the militaristic city-state Valletta isn't in the game. It's also a problem if your districts are pillaged, as they can only be repaired with production.

On the face of it, 4 gold instead of 1 production might sound roughly equivalent for things that can be produced via gold or production (as things cost 4 times as much gold to buy as they do production to make), but there's a few noticeable differences.

• Policy cards exist to boost production towards most kinds of unit (though recon and siege units are notable exceptions), as well as towards Encampment and Harbour districts and their buildings. 1 production typically goes further than 4 gold when producing a specific unit, unless you need the unit at a specific location.
  
• On the other hand, there are bonuses reducing the cost of purchasing things with gold - the Suguba district offers a 20% discount and the Democracy government offers 15% for a combined 35% discount.
  
• Gold is pooled empire-wide allowing strong cities to support weak cities.
  
• Gold can also be accumulated to be spent later - such as to immediately purchase a new kind of building or unit allowing you to enjoy its benefits immediately.

Furthermore, gold has many uses that production does not:

• Covering maintenance costs
  
• Upgrading units
  
• Certain diplomatic interactions, including sending delegations, embassies, trade and aid
  
• Levying city-state units
  
• Enabling changes of policy cards and governments at times other than when you've researched a new civic.
  
• Patronage of Great People

Ultimately, 4 gold from a mine is largely better than 1 production - the main exceptions are in early development, district projects, wonder construction and repairs. Be sure to build up some lumber mills when you need that!

I've already brought up Mali's penalty to unit and building production, but now let's look more closely at these penalties.

Early in the game, the production penalty is only somewhat offset by your food bonus for adjacent desert tiles. You'll need to be careful with what you spend your production on - a Slinger followed by a Settler is a good start to give yourself a basic defence against Barbarians while ensuring you can expand to a second city as soon as possible.

Working towards the Foreign Trade civic will get you a point of trade route capacity and the ability to train Traders. As Mansa Musa, try saving up around 170 gold so you can purchase a Trader as soon as the civic is done, allowing you to form a trade route right away for a good gold bonus. Try to send the route from whichever city you own with the most flat desert tiles to the nearest safe target in another civ (either a full civ less likely to attack you or a city-state is a good choice). Keep the route well-defended as Barbarians could try to pillage it at any time.

Government Plaza buildings cannot be purchased by any means, so it's a good idea to build your Government Plaza in a city with reasonable access to woods and/or rainforest. That way, they can get sufficient production from lumber mills to at least partially overcome the 30% production penalty. Alternatively, a desert-rich city with a Holy Site can produce a lot of production with the Desert Folklore Pantheon and the Work Ethic follower belief, even if it lacks productive tiles.

The production penalties do not extend to districts, so new cities can focus on getting Holy Sites and Sugubas built. Still, early in the game your gold output is likely to be limited, so some direct training of Settlers, military units and/or direct construction of buildings may still be necessary.

Once your gold and faith output is strong enough that most key units and buildings may be purchased, think about what to put your production towards. Districts, wonders and city projects aren't affected by the 30% production penalty, so they're decent options - especially the city projects Commercial Hub Investments and Holy Site Prayers, which provide gold and faith respectively. Buildings that can't typically be purchased like walls are other decent alternatives. You may still want to sometimes use production for things you could otherwise purchase (such as if you're at war and want as many units as possible), so judge the situation carefully.

As Sundiata Keita, spare production can be effectively used on Theater Square Performances projects to help generate more Great Writers sooner.




Mali can uniquely obtain Markets, Banks and Stock Exchanges with faith as an alternative to production and gold. Given the main reason for getting these buildings is to generate more gold, and Mali has a penalty to building them with production, having a third option is very useful.

Faith-purchasing Suguba buildings is very affordable. Faith-purchasing costs half as much as gold-purchasing, and the Suguba district already adds a 20% discount on top. Early on, that'll allow you to get a Market for just 190 faith. That's easily affordable the moment you start completing Suguba districts, ensuring you can maximise your trade route capacity sooner for even more gold.

For a non-religious game, the option to faith-purchase Banks and Stock Exchanges is very helpful - though exercise restraint in a religious game. Faith is a precious resource - the more you spend on Suguba buildings, the less you can spend spreading your religion. While Markets are afforable enough and trade routes can provide bonus religious spread (not to mention the extra Great Writing slots for Sundiata Keita), Banks and Stock Exchanges will aid your religious aims far less than spending that faith on Missionaries or Apostles.

• Resist the temptation to move your starting Settler too much - time is precious and a more desert-heavy spot will be less productive.
  
• Take the Desert Folklore pantheon for lots of faith, or Religious Settlements for faster expansion.
  
• As Mansa Musa, settle one city (not your capital) in an area with lots of nearby flat desert or desert floodplains so you can send trade routes from it later. Otherwise, settle cities close together.
  
• If you want to build a few wonders, look for a woods-heavy spot so you can build lumber mills as they'll provide better production than your mines.
  
• Once your gold output takes off, buy units and buildings rather than producing them where possible.
  
• Markets are reliably worth buying with faith, though religious players might want to use other means of acquiring Banks and Stock Exchanges.

Over half the gold from this route is from Mansa Musa's leader ability alone.

Mali's greatest unique source of gold comes with Mansa Musa's leader ability. Not only will you be able to make trade routes generating vast amounts of gold, but every time you enter a Golden or Heroic Age, you'll be able to create even more!


By carefully positioning a city in the middle of a vast flat desert, you can make it your trade hub. Sending trade routes out from there can generate strong gold yields, but for the best yields you'll need as many flat desert or desert floodplain tiles as possible. Placing Governor Reyna (the Financier) in the city will help it accumulate tiles faster via culture, but otherwise be prepared to invest in directly purchasing tiles so you can get more money in the long-run. The Land Surveyors economic policy card may help. Favour purchasing tiles in the direction of other civs and/or city-states so they don't end up with the tiles before you can get them.

Away from your trade hub, pack cities close together. That allows you to fit in more Sugubas, and hence increase your trade route capacity further.

International trade routes are prone to being pillaged by Barbarians and warmongers, so make sure you know the trade routes' entire journeys are safe. A simple way of doing this early on is to only send trade routes to the nearest foreign cities, and to position military units at regular intervals along the way. This will also create trading posts in those nearby cities once those trade routes are complete - subsequent trade routes to more distant cities will generally travel through those trading posts producing more gold for you.

Once you have access to Mandekalu Cavalry, you can use them to keep land-based Traders safe from being pillaged. Use them to garrison your cities, and enemies will have to commit to taking out your cities to be able to take out your trade routes in your own lands. By the time they obsolete, you can use the Reform the Coinage Golden Age dedication to make all your trade routes immune to pillaging - assuming you can get a Golden or Heroic Age in the renaissance, industrial or modern game eras. By the atomic game era, your gold output will be so high that Traders should be affordable to replace when necessary.

Of course, relying on a single city as the backbone of your economy isn't without risks. Keep your trade hub city well-defended! Walls help early on, and forts are useful as well at strategic locations. Also, once it's possible, keep a Spy protecting the city's Suguba district as enemy Spies will be able to get a lot of gold out of the Siphon Funds mission.


Every time Mansa Musa's Mali enters a Golden or Heroic Age, your trade route capacity permanently increases by 1. Theoretically, that could mean +8 trade route capacity by the end of the game, but that's typically not feasible. After all, the cost of entering a Golden or Heroic Age increases every time you enter one.

Instead, a more reliable strategy to adopt is this: Aim to get a Golden/Heroic Age twice between the classical and industrial eras, and continuously beyond that point.

One strong opening is a classical-era Dark Age followed by a medieval-era Heroic Age. This allows you to use the Monasticism wildcard in the classical era for a massive +75% science bonus in every city with a Holy Site, followed by the Free Inquiry dedication in the medieval-era to add Suguba gold adjacency to science - on top of the Monumentality dedication allowing you to purchase Settlers, Builders and Traders with faith. To achieve this, keep away from strong sources of era score in the ancient era (let other civs take Barbarian Encampments, delay building your first Suguba) and double down in the classical era (seek out and destroy Barbarian Encampments, meet as many civs as possible, build a Suguba district with 4+ adjacency). Even a watered-down version of this (a classical-era Normal Age followed by a medieval-era Golden Age) is still effective.

The reverse also works well (a classical-era Golden Age followed by a medieval-era Dark Age). Taking the Monumentality dedication in the classical era lets you expand quickly with your high faith output, while Monasticism will generate even more science in the medieval game era.

A renaissance, industrial or modern-era Golden or Heroic Age allows you to use the Reform the Coinage dedication granting your Traders immunity to being pillaged as well as even more gold from international trade. To maintain a high era score and keep this bonus going, try building the Taj Mahal wonder and then building additional wonders.

Falling into a Dark Age between the industrial and information eras isn't so bad, as you'll be able to use the Elite Forces and Robber Barons wildcards - both of which Mali can use effectively. Elite Forces grants all military units +100% experience at the cost of increasing their maintenance cost by 2 each, but Mali's huge gold output makes that manageable. Robber Barons increases gold output in cities with Stock Exchanges by a massive 50% at the cost of two amenities. Given you can cheaply buy Stock Exchanges with faith, you can push your immense gold output to even greater heights.

Ultimately, however, this bonus is most useful as an extra little help earlier in the game, where your trade route limit is likely to be low. It's not mandatory to get every Golden Age possible, so don't worry if you miss out on some.

• Build a city in the middle of a vast desert and send as many trade routes as possible from it. Keep other cities at least 5 tiles away to not compete for the same flat desert tiles.
  
• Away from this trade hub, pack cities close together so you can support more Sugubas and hence more trade route capacity.
  
• Getting every Golden Age is usually not feasible - instead, consider opening with a classical-era Dark Age followed by a medieval-era Heroic Age, or alternatively a classical-era Golden Age followed by a medieval-era Dark Age.
  
• Use the Taj Mahal wonder for extra era score later in the game so you can chain Golden Ages together.

Sundiata Keita twists the already-unorthodox Malian game further than Mansa Musa does, with an emphasis on Great Writer generation. As this bonus is slow to take effect, Sundiata Keita has an even weaker early-game, but makes up for it later on as an uncommon civ able to excel in multiple different aspects of the cultural game.


Sundiata Keita's game starts much like Mansa Musa's - settle deserts, get the Desert Folklore pantheon if you can, build Holy Sites and start getting strong Suguba yields. The key distinction early on is that you don't need to dedicate a city to international trade, so you can pack all your cities close together to optimise Suguba yields.

Holy Sites and Suguba districts remain your top priority, but once cities reach size 7 and are able to build a third district, it's a good time to invest in Theatre Squares. Malian cities don't have a penalty to constructing districts, so consider building them with production and buying their buildings with gold - even without Mansa Musa's leader ability Mali is still excellent at accumulating gold.


Usually, Great People are obtained by gradually accumulating the relevant Great Person Points until you reach a threshold. Alternatively, you can use gold and faith to essentially rush the remaining Great Person Points, but this tends to be a very expensive way to obtain Great People. For Sundiata Keita, however, strong gold yields and a discount to gold patronage makes this a more viable strategy.

This isn't to say you should always use your gold for patronage. Patronage is still a very costly way of obtaining Great People and is best-reserved for high-priority targets (see the Great People section of this guide for examples). Although Great Works of Writing will generate you gold, it'll be typically less over the course of the game than the gold it cost to acquire the Great Writer - but the production, culture and especially tourism yields are great to have, and the sooner you get Great Works, the more yields they'll accumulate.

You can also use patronage to deny other civs key Great People, such as denying Babylon or China Great Scientists that offer eureka boosts - though the high cost makes this an emergency measure.

Ultimately, what makes this ability useful is it means you always have something to spend excess gold on, in a more efficient manner than Mansa Musa can manage.



Sundiata Keita's Great Works of Writing always generate 4 gold and 2 production in addition to their regular yields of 2 culture and 2 tourism. These yields complement cultural games by covering some of the problems Sundiata Keita's Mali might otherwise have - the gold partially offsets the cost of patronage, allowing you to purchase more Great Writers, and the production makes up for the reduced mine production Mali has.

Because Great Writing slots are extremely plentiful for Sundiata Keita, you'll rarely be in a position where you have more Great Writers than slots for their works. This means unlike many Great Work-based bonuses, you can get the full yields immediately.

Put Great Works of Writing in Markets before you start putting them in Amphitheatres. This is because enemy Spies can target Great Works in your Theatre Squares with the Great Work Heist mission, but cannot do the same for ones stored in the Suguba district.

Perhaps the best use of this bonus is to stack a lot of Great Works of Writing in a single city and start building wonders with the boosted production. You can purchase buildings (or districts with the right Governors) in such a city so it never needs to spend time constructing anything else.

For reference, here's all the sources of Great Writing slots:

• From regular buildings:
  
  • Amphitheatre (Theatre Square building, 2 slots)
    
  • Market (Suguba building, 2 slots)
• From buildings that can only be built in one city:
  
  • Palace (automatically in the capital, 1 slot)
    
  • Bank built via the Renaissance-era Great Merchant Giovanni de Medici (2 slots)
    
  • National History Museum (Government Plaza building, requires a tier 3 government, 4 slots)
• From wonders:
  
  • Apadana (Classical-era wonder, 2 slots)
    
  • Great Library (Classical-era wonder, 2 slots)
    
  • Bolshoi Theatre (Industrial-era wonder, 1 slot)
    
  • Broadway (Modern-era wonder, 1 slot)

Sundiata Keita has a slow start, building up to a strong cultural game. Powerful gold and faith outputs allow you to dedicate cities to building wonders while you purchase necessary buildings along the way. Your faith can be used for cheap Naturalists and Rock Bands later in the game, while gold can be used to acquire further GWAMs for cheaper than normal.

Mali's civ ability generates plenty of faith and gold. Either leader can generate even more gold. And the Suguba grants yet more, in addition to saving you gold and faith on purchases! It's an excellent district which should be built in every city in your empire.


The Suguba district is unlocked at the Currency technology, which requires Pottery and Writing. Writing's eureka only requires you to meet another full civ, while Currency's eureka requires you to have a trade route active (you can grab the Foreign Trade civic for that).

That being said, while you could beeline Sugubas, it's generally better to pick up Astrology before Currency and get a couple of Holy Sites built first. It'll give you a better shot at a religion, and Suguba districts gain a strong adjacency bonus from Holy Sites.


Sugubas gain +2 gold per adjacent Holy Site, and +2 gold if adjacent to a river. By settling cities close together in clusters centred around rivers, you can get Sugubas adjacent to both a river and multiple Holy Sites for huge bonuses.

All this being said, you'll want to also look out for good spots for Holy Site adjacency bonuses. The Desert Folklore pantheon grants +1 faith per adjacent desert tile, making desert rivers excellent spots for each district. Elsewhere, look out for woods, mountains, natural wonders or just be prepared to lose out on a bit of faith adjacency to maximise gold.

Both Holy Sites and Sugubas produce adjacency yields that are pooled empire-wide. As such, it's best to place the districts in a way that maximises your overall yield, rather than the yield in any specific city. There's an exception to that rule if you have the Work Ethic follower belief, which causes Holy Sites to add production based on their faith adjacency, but then again, production doesn't go as far for Mali as it does for other civs so you may want to focus primarily on empire-wide yields anyway.


This is an optimal formation for maximising gold adjacency ignoring Holy Site adjacency, creating a total of 32 gold per turn.


This area has a desert present between cities A, C and D. The Desert Folklore pantheon can generate a lot of faith for Holy Sites, but it may be necessary to compromise on the best Suguba locations. Assuming City A is on a non-desert tile, this formation creates a total of 25 faith and 32 gold per turn.

Finally, note that Sugubas do not gain adjacency bonuses from Harbours, unlike regular Commercial Hubs. This is rarely a problem as you usually won't want to build both districts in the same city.


Sugubas can achieve very impressive gold yields, and that gold yield can be added to science if you achieve a classical or medieval-era Golden or Heroic Age and choose the Free Inquiry dedication. Position Governor Reyna (the Financier) in whichever city has the strongest Suguba and give her the Harbourmaster promotion for double Suguba adjacency so you can get even more science.

With the medieval-era Guilds civic, you can use the Town Charters economic policy card for +100% adjacency bonuses in all Suguba districts, and therefore a huge boost to science with Free Inquiry. Getting to here in time can be tricky - be prepared to purchase a lot of Monuments in your cities for extra culture.



Sugubas are already great districts, but the 20% purchase discount is crucial to Mali's game, allowing gold and faith to go much further. After the Suguba district is unlocked, all new cities should seek to obtain it as when finished, you will be able to cheaply bring the city up to par.

Remember to make good use of Governors Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion, and/or Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Divine Architect promotion. They allow you to purchase districts with gold and faith respectively. You can purchase a Suguba in a new city, then buy a Market, Granary, Monument, Water Mill or anything else you might need. With enough saved up gold, you can give any city a decent infrastructure just five turns after its founding.

Sugubas give a 20% discount to all gold and faith purchases, but it's worth remembering what you can actually purchase. The following table shows things you can produce in a city, and what out of production, gold and faith you can use to obtain them.


While gold can't be used for everything production can, it still tends to be more versatile than faith. However, only faith can be used for Naturalists, Rock Bands and religious units.


A simple way to get a lot out of the Suguba district is to rapidly develop new cities by purchasing key buildings in them like Markets and Granaries. If you have spare gold and don't know what to do with it, that's a reliably good option.

If you're about to research a key building, it's worth saving up gold and/or faith so you can obtain it immediately. For example, saving up gold ahead of the Industrialisation technology will let you immediately purchase Factories, improving your empire's production.

Being able to cheaply purchase military units allows you to bring them to the front lines immediately, rather than needing to move a freshly-trained unit over from the other side of your empire. This allows you to place more immediate pressure on civs you're fighting against.

The 20% discount for faith purchases combined with the Malian civ ability and the Desert Folklore Pantheon gives Mali a very powerful religious potential, albeit restrained by the need to find deserts to settle in.


You can make purchases even cheaper with the right bonuses. Here's a list of them in roughly chronological order:

• Ngazargamu (Militaristic city-state) - 20% gold discount for land military units per Encampment building present in the city, up to a total of 60% with a Military Academy.
  
• Valletta (Militaristic city-state) - 30% faith discount for all walls
  
• Monumentality (Golden Age dedication, classical to renaissance eras) - 30% gold and faith discount for Settlers and Builders
  
• Holy Order (Enhancer belief) - 30% reduced faith cost to purchase Missionaries and Apostles.
  
• Mercenary Companies (World Congress resolution) - Can reduce gold or faith costs for purchasing military units by 50% until the next World Congress session - or increase them by 100%. Note that this is applied separately and prior to other modifiers, so you can't make a unit free to purchase.
  
• Meenakshi Temple (Wonder, requires the medieval-era Civil Service civic) - 30% discount for Guru units.
  
• Theocracy (Tier two Government, requires the renaissance-era Reformed Church civic) - 15% faith discount for all purchases
  
• Nobel Prize in Literature (World Congress scored competition, must be in at least the industrial game era and Sweden must be in the game) - First prize offers a permanent 20% reduction to Rock Band costs
  
• Democracy (Tier three Government, requires the modern-era Suffrage civic) - 15% gold discount for all purchases

Here's a couple of powerful combinations you can create:

• A Suguba, Theocracy and Holy Order together creates a 65% discount for Missionaries and Apostles.
  
• If Ngazargamu is in the game, being suzerain over it and adopting the Democracy government will provide a 95% discount when purchasing land military units in a city with a Suguba and Military Academy. Adding the Mercenary Companies resolution could bring that up to a 97.5% discount.

• Use Governor Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion or Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Divine Architect promotion to buy Sugubas in new cities.
  
• To maximise Suguba adjancy, create a zigzag of river-adjacent Sugubas with Holy Sites either side. However, you sometimes may need to break that pattern to improve Holy Site adjacency.
  
• Sugubas allow you to cheaply develop cities up to a high standard, bring new units immediately to the front lines and cut the cost of expanding your religion.

Mandekalu Cavalry offer a supportive role, helping to defend your trade routes from being pillaged as you build up Sugubas and start purchasing Markets. If you can research Stirrups fast enough, they can also be useful in offensive wars with their extra strength.


Mandekalu Cavalry are unlocked at the late-medieval Stirrups technology. Stirrups is a prerequisite for Banking, needed for the second Suguba building, so even if you don't intend to use the unit much they're worth unlocking reasonably early.

You'll need iron to train Mandekalu Cavalry, which requires the Mining and Bronze Working technologies to reveal. The boost to Bronze Working (kill three Barbarians) is easy enough to achieve.

From Currency, you'll need the following technologies to reach Stirrups:

• Animal Husbandry
  
• Archery (Boost: Kill a unit with a Slinger) - Training a Slinger first in your capital is a good idea to aid with defence against Barbarians, so this eureka isn't too hard to achieve.
  
• Horseback Riding (Boost: Build a Pasture) - Sheep can appear in desert tiles, and the other pasture resources are reasonably common, so you can usually secure this boost.
  
• Apprenticeship (Boost: Build three mines) - Mining is a great source of gold for Mali, and this boost isn't too hard to achieve.
  
• Stirrups (Boost: Research the Feudalism civic) - Can be difficult to achieve in time without buying plenty of Monuments in your cities and/or using the Choral Music follower belief.

Getting the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication should speed up research, allowing you to put Mandekalu Cavalry to use before other civs build up too many city walls.

Mandekalu Cavalry cost 220 production to train - but with Mali's 30% increase in production cost, that rises to the equivalent of 314. Purchasing them in a city with a Suguba, however, costs 705 gold - it might sound like a lot, but given Mali's huge gold generation, it's pretty reasonable. You can alternatively train Heavy Chariots ahead of the Stirrups technology and then upgrade them for 320 gold each.


The main advantage of Mandekalu Cavalry is that they can prevent your precious Traders being pillaged (at least, on land tiles). Position them at regular intervals at the borders of your land and incoming Barbarians won't cause you so much trouble. Even after Cuirassiers enter the game rendering Mandekalu Cavalry obsolete in combat, you can position them in city centres and on Encampment tiles so they can provide their pillage-immunity bonus without the risk of being killed. That's especially useful if enemy civs start using Spec Ops units or the Recruit Partisans Spy mission against you, as both of those can otherwise lead to trade routes being pillaged before you have a chance to respond.

To obtain Mandekalu Cavalry beyond researching the Ballistics technology (so you can keep using the Trader protection bonus), spend or sell enough iron to have 10 or more, but less than 20 in your stockpile.


Mandekalu Cavalry grant gold on kills based on the killed unit's melee strength. This helps you to partially cover their cost while their halved iron cost allows you to produce them in reasonable numbers.

More significantly, they have 55 strength over the regular Knights' 50. Against foes which have neglected to build city walls, this strength advantage can be substantial, and any unit you capture with a Commercial Hub district can simply cheaply buy more copies of the unit.

However, if you can't unlock Mandekalu Cavalry fast enough, you'll most likely need siege support to deal with enemy city walls, such as Trebuchets. That extra cost to support warfare could be used instead to develop your cities' infrastructure, so consider carefully if it's a worthwhile pursuit.


Mandekalu Cavalry don't offer a huge military edge, but their ability to protect your trade routes from being pillaged is useful long after their combat ability becomes irrelevant. As such, it's always helpful to keep a few around.

Note that the Administration sections strictly cover the options that have particularly good synergy with the civ's uniques. These are not necessarily the best choices, but rather options you should consider more than usual if playing this civ relative to others.



Classical Republic is a reliable choice. You'll most likely need all those economic policy cards to support early expansion, as well as to boost Holy Site and Suguba adjacency bonuses later. Furthermore, extra housing and an amenity for cities with a district present helps you get more out of the food bonus Mali's civ ability offers.

The Audience Chamber is a good choice for Government Plaza building as it helps you get even more out of the food bonus present in Mali's civ ability.


Theocracy is an excellent option even for non-religious games, as the reduction to faith purchase costs stacks well with the reduction from the Suguba district. Still, Merchant Republic isn't bad for non-religious games thanks to its modest gold bonus and its reasonable array of policy card slots.

Taking the Grand Master's Chapel lets you purchase military units with faith - very affordable with the Theocracy government and a Suguba district. If you want to save your faith for other purposes such as buying religious units, consider taking the Foreign Ministry building instead. Levying armies is a cheap means of providing defence, and Mali's strong gold output means it'll usually be an available option to you.


Democracy is your best option. The bonus from trading with an ally means all that lucrative international trade will make your cities grow faster and be more productive. Cheaper gold purchasing means your money will go even further. And there's plenty of economic policy card slots as well.

The Royal Society is a useful Government Plaza building to have for either leader. You can't purchase city projects, but you can purchase Builders to help rush them. Still, Sundiata Keita may instead wish to use the National History Museum to stack extra Great Works of Writing, and therefore production, in a city.


Synthetic Technocracy is good for non-cultural victories, as the bonus to city project production stacks nicely with the Royal Society, the power bonus means you can get powered Stock Exchanges without needing to pollute and lose diplomatic favour, and extra economic policy card slots helps you maximise Holy Site and Suguba yields. For a cultural path, try Digital Democracy.



Caravansaries (Economic, requires Foreign Trade) - A handy gold bonus for your early trade routes.

Colonisation (Economic, requires Early Empire) - While eventually you'll be able to purchase all your Settlers, initially you'll have to suffer your way though the 30% production penalty. This policy card more than cancels that out.

Corvée (Economic, requires State Workforce) - For Mansa Musa, wonder construction is one of the best sources of era score, which you need for Golden Ages and their permanent extra trade route capacity. For Sundiata Keita, once you have a few Great Works of Writing you can get a reasonable edge at wonder construction.

Ilkum (Economic, requires Craftsmanship) - Cancels out the production penalty for Builders - handy in the turns before you can afford to buy them with gold.

(Mansa Musa) Land Surveyors (Economic, requires Early Empire) - Mansa Musa's key trading city should have as many flat desert or desert floodplain cities within its range as possible. Cutting the cost of purchasing tiles means you can boost their trade route yields faster.

Urban Planning (Economic, requires Code of Laws) - Early in the game, production can be a struggle for Mali so this policy card is useful to have around.


(Sundiata Keita) Literary Tradition (Wildcard, requires Drama and Poetry) - Useful for extra Great Writer Points.

Scripture (Economic, requires Theology) - For the best Suguba bonuses, you need plenty of Holy Sites. This policy card will help you maximise their faith outputs.


Gothic Architecture (Economic, requires Divine Right) - Aids with wonder construction up to and including the renaissance era, helping you get more era score and tourism.

Town Charters (Economic, requires Guilds) - Doubles Suguba adjacency bonuses. Extremely powerful in conjunction with the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication.

(Mansa Musa) Trade Confederation (Economic, requires Mercenaries) - Your international trade routes can now generate a little science and culture.


Free Market (Economic, requires The Enlightenment) - Suguba district buildings can now produce even more gold.

Simultaneum (Economic, requires Reformed Church) - If you take the Desert Folklore pantheon, it's easy to meet the adjacency requirements for this policy card, granting a large bonus to Holy Site building yield.

Triangular Trade (Economic, requires Mercantilism) - Extra gold and faith for all trade routes.

(Mansa Musa) Wisselbanken (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - Food and production for trade with allies, in addition to all that gold you'll be getting. Also makes alliance points grow faster - useful for a diplomatic game.


Colonial Taxes (Diplomatic, requires Colonialism) - Any city on a foreign continent will make even more money.

Skyscrapers (Economic, requires Civil Engineering) - Aids you when building any wonder, helping you secure more era score and tourism.


Economic Union (Economic, requires Ideology) - Doubles Suguba adjacency bonuses.

Market Economy (Economic, requires Capitalism) - Get even more gold out of international trading, as well as culture and science.


Ecommerce (Economic, requires Globalisation) - More gold and some production out of your trade routes.

(Cultural) Online Communities (Economic, requires Social Media) - All your trade routes will help boost your tourism even more now.

Only bonuses with notable synergy with the civ's uniques are covered here.

Exodus of the Evangelists (Dedication, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Mali's huge early faith output means you can spread your religion to a lot of cities for the first time, making this an excellent source of era score.

(Religious) Exodus of the Evangelists (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Mali can already produce high quantities of Missionaries and Apostles, but now they can be substantially more powerful.

Free Inquiry (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - An excellent choice of Golden Age dedication as your strong Suguba adjacency bonuses will be added to science.

Monumentality (Dedication, Classical to Renaissance eras) - The Suguba district is cheap, and you have an incentive to build lots of Holy Sites as well, so this is a reasonably good source of era score.

Monumentality (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Allows you to funnel your strong faith advantage into expansion. Monumentality is typically better than Free Inquiry if you secure a classical-era Golden Age.

Hic Sunt Dracones (Golden Age, Renaissance to Industrial eras) - The main attraction here is the +3 population in new cities. This is enough for the city to support two speciality districts - such as a Holy Site and a Suguba. Move in Governor Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion, or Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Divine Architect promotion so you can purchase both districts - be sure to purchase the Suguba first to get the Holy Site for cheaper.

Reform the Coinage (Dedication, Renaissance to Modern eras) - You'll have plenty of trade routes, so this is a great reliable source of era score.

(Mansa Musa) Reform the Coinage (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - A perfect Golden Age dedication for Mali - your trade routes will be completely safe from pillaging and make even more money.

Robber Barons (Dark Age, Industrial to Information eras) - The amenity penalty is harsh, but getting +50% gold in any city with a Stock Exchange (which you can cheaply purchase with faith) is powerful.


How you should vote in the World Congress will often be specific to your game - if you have a strong rival, for example, it might be better to vote to hurt them than to help yourself. Furthermore, there may be general bonuses to your chosen victory route or gameplay which are more relevant than ones that have stronger synergy with civ-specific bonuses. Otherwise, here's a list of key votes that have high relevance for this civ relative to other civs.

Aid Request - Always vote in favour.

Other civs can't compete with Mali's ability to produce gold, making this an easy source of diplomatic victory points.

(Mansa Musa) Border Control Treaty - Effect A (New districts built by this player act as culture bombs) on yourself if another civ/city-state is too close to your key trading city.

Another city taking flat desert or desert floodplain that by all rights should be yours? Pass this resolution and culture-bomb it off them.

Espionage Pact - Effect B (The chosen Spy operation is unavailable) on Siphon Funds

Prevents rival civs leeching your strong gold output.

(Sundiata Keita) Heritage Organisation - Effect A (Tourism from Great Works of this type is doubled) on Great Works of Writing

Build on your advantages to generating and storing Great Writings.

Mercenary Companies - Effect A (Producing, or purchasing military units using the chosen currency type costs 100% more until the next World Congress) on production, or effect B (Producing, or purchasing military units using the chosen currency type, is -50% of the cost until the next World Congress) on gold or faith.

Mali relies heavily on gold or faith purchasing relative to other civs, so any of these three options will either hurt other civs more than you, or help you more than other civs.

Military Aid - Always vote in favour.

Another way to get easy diplomatic victory points with help from your strong gold output.

Nobel Prize in Literature - Vote in favour if you're playing a cultural game.

Winning the Nobel Prize in Literature makes Rock Bands 20% cheaper. Stack that with Suguba districts and the Theocracy government, and that's a 65% cost reduction.

(Sundiata Keita) Patronage - Effect A (Earn double points towards Great People of this class) on Great Writers

Although this doesn't affect rush-buying Great People with gold or faith, regular accumulation of Great Person Points is still the primary means of obtaining Great People.

Sovereignity - Effect A (+100% of the city-states' yield type when sending trade routes to a city-state of this type) on a city-state type you're trading with - assuming you are.

Provides a little more for trading with city-states. Particularly helpful early in the game when trading with Trade city-states.

(Mansa Musa) Trade Policy - Effect A (Trade routes sent to the chosen player provide +4 gold to the sender. The chosen player receives +1 trade route capacity) on yourself or your main trading partner.

Either way, it's a great source of additional gold. Spend plenty of diplomatic favour on this resolution - you won't want Effect B (Cancels any international trade routes between other civilizations and the chosen player, and embargoes any new ones from starting) to target you.

If you start next to at least one desert tile, you'll usually be one of the first civs to unlock a pantheon. This means Mali can fairly consistently pick the best bonuses.

City Patron Goddess - Getting a Suguba up quickly in a new city can then lead into a massive purchasing spree.

Desert Folklore - Typically the strongest overall pantheon choice for Mali. The best spots for Holy Sites typically aren't in the riverside locations that are good for Sugubas, but desert river areas with this pantheon can be great for both. Desert cities with Holy Sites can produce +12 faith per turn before even taking into account policy cards or additional Holy Site buildings. That huge faith output means that even with just a couple of Holy Sites, you can afford to obtain a Great Prophet via faith patronage. Nonetheless, there's three occasions you might want to pick a different pantheon - if you need a stronger start, if there's very little or no desert around, or if someone else has taken this pantheon first.

God of Craftsmen - Mines on strategic resources will be as strong as anyone else's, with faith as well as Mali's gold bonus on top.

Goddess of the Hunt - Helps account for Mali's low production.

Lady of the Reeds and Marshes - Helps desert regions in particular become more productive. If you have a desert floodplain start, this is one of the most useful pantheons to choose to strengthen your early-game.

Religious Idols - Mines on luxury and bonus resources now create faith on top of the usual gold.

Religious Settlements - While it lacks the sheer potential of Desert Folklore, Religious Settlements is nonetheless an excellent pantheon for Mali as it allows you to get a bonus Settler early in the game for no production cost, speeding up Mali's otherwise slow start. It also helps cities to expand their borders faster, meaning your key trade city can achieve its maximum potential sooner.

River Goddess - A helpful backup pantheon. Sugubas are most effective adjacent to both rivers and Holy Sites. By placing those Holy Sites along the course of the same river, they can still provide the useful adjacency bonus while also granting a handy +2 housing and +2 amenities.


You can have one founder, one follower, one enhancer and one worship belief.

Choral Music (Follower) - You'll need a decent culture output if you want to get to the Guilds civic and its very useful Town Charters policy card quickly. This belief allows you to get culture out of Holy Site buildings, meaning you don't need to spend precious district capacity on Theatre Squares.

Dar-e Mehr (Worship) - This worship building has the highest potential faith output, helping you purchase even more things later in the game. It also can't be pillaged by dust storms nor flooding, so typical places Mali positions Holy Sites will be safer than normal.

Defender of the Faith (Enhancer) - Mali's relatively slow start makes them vulnerable to invasion. This belief offers a powerful +5 strength bonus to help keep those would-be invaders away.

Feed the World (Follower) - For cities in very desert-heavy areas, growth can be a concern once the initial rush of the Malian civ ability wears off. This belief allows you to get even more food without needing a single farm.

Gurdwara (Worship) - Helps you grow desert cities.

Holy Order (Enhancer) - Get Missionaries and Apostles for 50% cheaper when combined with the Suguba district's discount. This combination is extremely powerful if you want to win an early religious victory.

Jesuit Education (Follower) - You can now spend faith on Campus and Theatre Square district buildings! Sugubas will apply the 20% discount to these purchases, so you can enjoy their bonuses for a low cost.

Meeting House (Worship) - Can help make up for Mali's poor production.

Pagoda (Worship) - Excellent if you want to use Mali's huge gold or decent faith output to help with the diplomatic game, as you can now get a direct source of bonus diplomatic favour as well.

Pilgrimage (Founder) - Mali's big early faith advantage can snowball into something huge with this belief as you spread your religion. That faith will go further with the Suguba district.

(Mansa Musa) Religious Community (Follower) - More gold from international trading.

Religious Unity (Founder) - A helpful way to tie Mali's religious and diplomatic advantages closer together.

Stewardship (Founder) - A bit more gold for Suguba districts - though not a lot.

Synagogue (Worship) - A worship building with a good faith output, which will go further in conjunction with the Suguba district.

Tithe (Founder) - An additional source of gold you can spend on whatever you like.

Warrior Monks (Follower) - Mali's strong faith output and the Suguba discount to faith purchasing makes Warrior Monks a more effective option than they would be for many other civs. While initially not especially strong, they can gain a lot of power with promotions. Furthermore, your Holy Sites will now produce culture bombs - a great way for Mansa Musa to get desert tiles faster.

Work Ethic (Follower) - Very powerful in conjunction with the Desert Folklore pantheon, as now your desert-surrounded Holy Sites can be a huge source of production.

(Sundiata Keita) Anshan (Scientific) - A very powerful city-state for Sundiata Keita as it makes every single Great Work of Writing worth an extra +2 science on top of the culture, tourism, gold and production!

(Sundiata Keita) Antananarivo (Cultural) - Sundiata Keita's incentive to engage in Great Person patronage, in addition to the incentive to collect a lot of Great Works, allows this city-state to provide you a lot of culture.

(Mansa Musa) Bandar Brunei (Trade) - Boosts gold from international trade.

(Sundiata Keita) Bologna (Scientific) - Get extra Great Writer Points out of your Amphitheatres.

(Cultural) Brussels (Industrial) - Mali doesn't have a production disadvantage towards wonders - especially when playing as Sundiata Keita with a lumber mill-heavy city and a bunch of Great Writings.

(Mansa Musa) Chinguetti (Religious) - Get some bonus faith out of your international trading.

Jerusalem (Religious) - Your incentive to build a lot of Holy Sites means you can exert a lot of religious pressure when suzerain of Jerusalem.

(Mansa Musa) Kumasi (Cultural) - Boosts culture and gold from trading with city-states.

(Mansa Musa) Hunza (Trade) - Long-distance trade routes will now create even more money!

Lahore (Militaristic) - The Suguba UD allows Mali to purchase the special Nihang unit for a lower cost than other civs.

(Mansa Musa) Mogadishu (Trade) - Mandekalu Cavalry can't protect your embarked Traders, but being suzerain over Mogadishu will.

Mohenjo Daro (Cultural) - Sometimes, maximising Suguba adjacency requires positioning some cities away from sources of fresh water. Being suzerain over Mohenjo Daro means those cities can still get plenty of housing.

Muscat (Trade) - All Sugubas now provide their cities with an amenity.

Nazca (Religious) - Although Mali has a big incentive to settle desert regions, such tiles produce little or no yields. Becoming suzerain over Nazca allows the construction of Nazca Lines - multiple around a single desert tile can make it quite a useful tile to work.

Ngazargamu (Militaristic) - An extremely powerful city-state for Mali to become suzerain over, and it alone can radically alter the course of Mali's game. With it, cities can purchase military units for a lower cost the more Encampment district buildings are present in the city. With a Military Academy and Suguba, that's a massive 80% discount. Add the Democracy government on top for a 95% discount! The main issue will be securing strategic resources, so consider purchasing armies of anti-cavalry units and recon units to get around that.

(Mansa Musa) Samarkand (Trade) - Get more gold out of your international trading!

(Mansa Musa) Singapore (Industrial) - International trading can offer a little production, helping you use a strength to cover a weakness.

Valletta (Militaristic) - Allows faith-purchasing of city centre buildings - including Walls and Flood Barriers, which cannot be purchased with gold. Also allows faith-purchasing of Encampment buildings. Furthermore, Valletta applies a 30% discount to the purchases of walls, which stacks with the Suguba district to provide a 50% discount. Taking Mali's civ ability into account, you'll need less faith than production to acquire walls in a Suguba city.

(Mansa Musa) Venice (Trade) - Also helps boost gold from international trade.

Mali doesn't have a penalty to wonder construction aside from the loss of production from mines, which Sundiata Keita's leader ability offsets. Consider favouring cities with lots of lumber mills for wonder construction where possible.

Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - Allows your faith bonus to go even further when engaging with Great Person patronage. The discount is slightly higher than Sundiata Keita's discount on gold.

Pyramids (Ancient era, Masonry technology) - You have a penalty when training Builders, but not to building wonders. That, coupled with Mali's incentive to settle in deserts, makes the Pyramids a pretty lucrative wonder to aid with early development. Even when you have enough money to buy all the Builders you need, you can use the extra build charges for extra mines.

(Sundiata Keira) Apadana (Classical era, Political Philosophy civic) - Useful if you want to stack Great Works of Writing in your capital for constructing wonders, and even gives you extra envoys for building additional wonders in the city.

(Mansa Musa) Colossus (Classical era, Shipbuilding technology) - Allows you to form an extra trade route.

Jebel Barkal (Classical era, Iron Working technology) - Mansa Musa's Mali perhaps gets more out of this wonder than any other civ. You already have an incentive to settle in deserts and pack cities close together, the faith bonus will go further with the Suguba district, and the iron can be used to produce Mandekalu Cavalry.

Petra (Classical era, Mathematics technology) - Mansa Musa's leader ability is strongest when you have a key trading city in the middle of a desert able to acquire as many desert tiles as possible. That also is an excellent city for the Petra wonder. Malian mines on desert hills enhanced by Petra will produce 6 gold, 2 food and 2 production - not a bad yield at all! If the city has a river, build an Industrial Zone next to it so you can go for the Ruhr Valley wonder later for even greater yields. Even as Sundiata Keita, getting more out of a desert city is very helpful.

Angkor Wat (Medieval era, Medieval Faires civic) - The extra housing is great when developing new desert cities as Mali's food bonus will quickly push them into a higher population.

Kotoko-In (Medieval era, Divine Right civic) - Mali can make a strong religious city with the combination of the Malian civ ability and the Desert Folklore pantheon. Kotoko-In provides an extra +20% faith bonus on top of that.

Meenakshi Temple (Medieval era, Civil Service civic) - With the Theocracy government and the Suguba district, you can get Gurus at an impressive 65% discount. Gurus will also now make your other religious units faster and stronger, so it's worth making that cheap investment.

Forbidden City (Renaissance era, Printing technology) - It's tricky to fit in trade bonuses as well as boosting your Sugubas and Holy Sites, so an extra wildcard slot will help.

(Mansa Musa) Great Zimbabwe (Renaissance era, Banking technology) - Get extra gold from trading out of this city. Build it in a city with lots of desert if possible.

Taj Mahal (Renaissance era, Humanism civic) - The more Golden Ages you can secure, the more trade routes you can support. The Taj Mahal makes it easier to gain lots of era score, making it easier to chain together Golden Ages.

(Mansa Musa) Torre de Belém (Renaissance era, Mercantilism civic) - Extra gold from trading from this city. There's the catch you need a Harbour to use it, but at least the gold yield is based on the destination city unlike Great Zimbabwe.

Big Ben (Industrial era, Economics technology) - Save up your gold prior to completing this wonder for a huge bonus. The economic policy card is even more useful, as it helps you support an extra bonus to trade, Sugubas or Holy Sites.

Ruhr Valley (Industrial era, Scientific Theory technology) - Ruhr Valley cancels out Mali's penalties to mines in a city and cancels out most of the penalty to units and buildings. But in conjunction with Petra, you can make some incredibly strong mines.


Great Generals and Admirals are only mentioned if their retirement bonuses have specific synergy with the civ; not merely for providing a strength bonus to a unique unit. All Great Writers are useful for Sundiata Keita, but it would be redundant to list them all.


(Mansa Musa) Marcus Lacinius Crassus (Great Merchant) - Retire him on a flat desert or desert floodplain tile to boost your trade route yields.

(Mansa Musa) Zhang Qian (Great Merchant) - An extra trade route, meaning more gold.


Hildegard of Bingen (Great Scientist) - In conjunction with Desert Folklore, you can easily produce an extra +6 science per turn.

(Mansa Musa) Ibn Fadlan (Great Merchant) - Extra trade route capacity, and get more faith from trading with city-states.

Imhotep (Great Engineer) - Can help you secure some powerful wonders like Petra while circumventing Mali's typically poor production.

Isidore of Miletus (Great Engineer) - Wonders are one of the best sources of era score. Isidore of Miletus helps you to rush one or two, aiding you on the way to another Golden Age and another point of trade route capacity.

James of St. George (Great Engineer) - Walls can't be purchased and are slow for Mali to build, so getting them for free is useful for providing a defence at key locations.

(Mansa Musa) Marco Polo (Great Merchant) - An extra trade route.

(Mansa Musa) Zheng He (Great Admiral) - An extra trade route.


Filippo Brunelleschi (Great Engineer) - Helps you rush a wonder.

(Sundiata Keita) Giovanni de Medici (Great Merchant) - Two extra Great Work slots in a single city makes it easy to stack a lot of Great Works of Writing in one space, resulting in a high-production city ready to build wonders.


Gustave Eiffel (Great Engineer) - Helps you rush a wonder.


(Sundiata Keita) Alfred Nobel (Great Scientist) - Engaging in a lot of patronage? After purchasing Great People you'll immediately start on 100 Great Person Points, making the next purchase cheaper.

(Mansa Musa) John Rockefeller (Great Merchant) - Adds more gold to trade routes.

(Cultural) Sarah Breedlove (Great Merchant) - Extra tourism for trading with other civs.

Shah Jahān (Great Engineer) - Essentially allows you to buy a wonder with gold, or two if you have the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.


Kenzo Tange (Great Engineer) - Going for a cultural victory? Mali's strong Suguba adjacency (and Holy Sites with Desert Folklore) could translate to a strong tourism output for a city.

Melitta Bentz (Great Merchant) - An extra trade route, and extra tourism for trading with other civs.

Mali is rich - extremely so from around the mid-classical era onwards. But they have a weak start, poor production and a high reliance on trade routes or specific districts - which can be pillaged.



Mali's desert cities will be able to grow large enough to support a second district even with no food tiles to speak of in range. While this aids the Malian empire overall, individual desert cities still aren't especially strong and are vulnerable to attack.

A more pressing concern is the faith bonus. Mali will often get the first pick of pantheons, so beating them to Desert Folklore to deny them another huge faith boost isn't really an option. Mali can get an immense faith advantage early in the game, which could be funneled into Missionaries. Fortunately, Mali is not especially strong at warfare early in the game, so you can simply declare war on Mali to condemn the Missionaries.

One option is to take desert spots for yourself to deny Mali them, though make sure you're not curtailing your own development that way. Another more reliable option is the reverse - take non-desert spots around Mali so Mali is stuck with a lack of food and production.


Malian mines create a lot of gold, but little in the way of production. Lumber mills are an alternative for Mali, but only if they can settle wooded areas. Take those wooded areas for yourself and Mali can't have them. Even if Mali is likely to capture the city, you can use Builders to chop the woods down.

Mali's lower production can make it harder for them to compete in wonders and in scored competitions based around city projects.


This is a notable penalty for Mali in the earliest turns of the game, as they won't have the funds to buy anything yet. Mali is incredibly vulnerable to early rushes - they'll be slow to train units and slow to build walls.

The penalty becomes less impactful as Mali becomes richer, but there are still a few occasions where it'll slow them down. Government Plaza buildings cannot be purchased, so Mali will take longer than other civs. More notably, Flood Barrier buildings cannot be purchased, so Mali may struggle to successfully defend coastal cities from rising seas.


Mali's strong faith output will allow them to quickly develop their Suguba districts. While this will mean they'll receive more money sooner, it also offers up a few opportunities for you. For one, it provides more targets to pillage - both with the buildings and the Traders. Alternatively, Mali will have more Traders to send out to you - you could make some good yields with an alliance or the University of Sankore wonder.



Mansa Musa's Mali needs a city with a particularly high number of desert tiles to get the best gold yields. Settling close to such a city and buying tiles or culture-bombing it can deny Mali some potential. Alternatively, those trade routes can be pillaged if they're in water or in land and not within four tiles of a Mandekalu Cavalry unit.


Two good sources of era score are removing Barbarian encampments earlier in the game, and building wonders at any time. By keeping a small force near Malian lands, you can pick off the Barbarian encampments before Mali has a chance. Mali's inferior mine production means they may struggle to compete on wonders - especially if they're also behind on culture or science.


Mansa Musa is particularly focused on generating a lot of gold. He'll like you if you generate a relatively high amount of gold compared to other civs in the game, and dislike you if you generate a relatively low amount.

Mansa Musa will never have the Money Grubber hidden agenda as the effect is essentially the same as his main agenda.

Civs with direct gold bonuses or trade advantages such as the Cree or England can find Mansa Musa to be an excellent potential ally. A restrained warmonger might be able to partially mitigate the diplomatic penalties of warfare by ensuring they have plenty of gold for unit maintenance and upgrade costs.

Civs that are likely to struggle are those seeking victory routes less dependent on gold - especially religious civs.

Sundiata Keita has an even weaker start than Mansa Musa as his bonuses to Great Works of Writing take longer to become relevant than Mansa Musa's gold trading bonuses. This makes him even more vulnerable to an early rush.

For Sundiata Keita to properly use all his bonuses, he'll need at least three districts in most cities - Theatre Squares, Sugubas and Holy Sites. That leaves little room for Campuses, Industrial Zones, Encampments and so forth. A lack of Campuses will leave him with a relatively low science output meaning even if you can't initiate a quick rush, you can still attack later with a technological advantage.

Don't trade Sundiata Keita Great Works of Writing where possible. If he has any placed in Theatre Squares instead of elsewhere, you can try stealing them with Spies, setting back not only his culture and tourism outputs, but also gold and production.


An AI-controlled Sundiata Keita tries to build a strong tourism output and dislikes other civs that do the same. He likes civs with a low tourism output. He will never have the Destination Civ hidden agenda as it overlaps with his main agenda.

The only civs likely to have a high tourism output are cultural civs, warmongers who take a lot of high-tourism locations and Canada, which can use tourism in diplomatic games. This means for everyone else, it's easy to meet this agenda. Unlike Mansa Musa, Sundiata Keita doesn't get a direct bonus for international trading, but will still tend to have a high trade route capacity, so you can consider forming an alliance to get extra yields from incoming trade routes.


Mandekalu Cavalry are strong enough to match Pikemen in direct combat, though the lower cost of Pikemen makes them an ideal option to counter them.

What makes Mandekalu Cavalry a bigger issue is the way they cover up one of Mali's key weaknesses - the vulnerability of their trade routes to being pillaged. Mandekalu Cavalry can garrison Mali's cities and Encampments, forcing you to siege down their cities just to take out their Traders - but there is another way around that. As Mali has to send Traders to other civs in order to receive Mansa Musa's gold bonus, you can simply follow the Traders out of range of Mali's cities meaning you can either directly pillage the trade routes or force the Mandekalu Cavalry out of Mali's cities.

Mandekalu Cavalry don't affect Traders on water, so once Mali starts sending routes overseas you can intercept them easily enough.


The Suguba district is a mighty Commercial Hub replacement with three key advantages: it's cheap to build, it can get some very powerful adjacency bonuses, and it cuts the cost of purchases in the city.

When sieging stronger Malian cities, it's a good idea to pillage their Suguba district. That will cut off Mali's discount to purchasing in the city, making it more expensive for them to rush a defence. Consider using light cavalry units with the Depredation promotion to be able to pillage it faster.

Sugubas are excellent targets for Spies. The Siphon Funds mission has a high chance of success and will produce quite a lot of gold for you. Mali will have a lot of Suguba districts, so if one is too well-defended with counter-Spies, you can always find another.

When playing a religious game, Mali's high early faith output combined with the Suguba district's discount can make them a scary opponent. If defending against Mali's religious units, consider using Inquisitors or declare a war and condemn the religious units before they can do too much trouble.

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• Civ summaries (Start here for an introduction for all civs)
  
• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications (Ideal for more experienced players)

• America - with persona packs* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• America - without persona packs* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Arabia (Religious/Scientific)
  
• Australia (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Aztecs (Domination)
  
• Babylon (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Brazil (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Byzantium (Domination/Religious)
  
• Canada (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• China (Cultural/Scientific)
  
• Cree (Diplomatic)
  
• Egypt (Cultural/Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• England (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Ethiopia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• France* (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Gaul (Domination)
  
• Georgia (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Germany (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Gran Colombia (Domination)
  
• Greece (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Hungary (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Inca (Religious/Scientific)
  
• India (Domination/Religious)
  
• Indonesia (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Japan (All)
  
• Khmer (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Kongo (Cultural)
  
• Korea (Scientific)
  
• Macedon (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Mali (Cultural/Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Māori (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Mapuche (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Maya (Scientific)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Netherlands (Scientific)
  
• Norway (Domination)
  
• Nubia (Domination)
  
• Ottomans (Domination)
  
• Persia (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Phoenicia (Domination)
  
• Poland (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Portugal (Diplomatic/Scientific)
  
• Rome (Domination)
  
• Russia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Scotland (Scientific)
  
• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
• Spain (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Sumeria (Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Sweden (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• Vietnam (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Zulus (Domination)

*The Teddy Roosevelt Persona Pack splits Roosevelt's leader ability in two, meaning the game with it is substantially different from without - hence two different versions of the America guide.

The guide to France does not have two different versions because the Catherine de' Medici Persona Pack only adds an extra optional leader ability and does not change the existing gameplay - as such the guide is perfectly usable by players without it. "Black Queen Catherine" with the Persona Pack is identical to Catherine de' Medici without it.

These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm. They are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Gathering Storm. To look at them, click here to open the Rise and Fall Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Rise and Fall guide has links to every other Rise and Fall guide.


The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Rise and Fall. To look at them, click here to open the Vanilla Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.