Hey I can’t be stopped! Even if I fall into the void, I’ve got at least 2 dozen more civs. So let’s get into it!
Courtesy of this place, go praise it!: New Civ Icon Idea
Big shtick here: a civ without Chemistry!
The Songhai help round out the Sahel area of Africa just a bit more with one of Mali and Berber’s enemies. The Songhai, or Gao, were a peoples along Lake Chad, who grew into power starting at the first millennium, although it didn’t really take off until the 1300s, and before all of this by perhaps 300 years, there was certainly Gao culture alive and distinct. So much like how the Briton timeline is 500 on even though it probably would be more sensible as 1066 onwards.
The story of Songhay peoples begins before the Songhai with the Gao (or sometimes Gow) and the Sorko lake fishermen. Different than the Soninke lineage that is the Malians, it is unknown when the Gao Empire began, but it is known to have existed before 872. When the Malians took to power, the Gao were weakened until the Songhay Empire took off. While they didn’t rise to bring Mali into decline until the 1400s, they did become a dominant force in West Africa. That is, until gunpowder was introduced. With lower troop numbers and fancy technology, the Songhai Empire fell in 1591 to Berbers with guns although that was because the guns scared a stampede into an army of Songhai infantry. The Battle of Tondibi saw Berbers with a force of 5000 men and a few cannons defeat a force of Songhai numbering 3-4 times that number of troops, mostly INFANTRY! Thus game play and story match well. Unlike Europe vs. America, there was no disease cheat. Pure cannon micro won the day as guns dropped the infantry like flies (history matches game play for once).
So this civ has the pleasure of being the civ that is, more than any other (even civs like Aztecs), gonna struggle with gunpowder.
Why Songhai? Fill up some Africa. New Imperial camel civ!
Songhay(700s-1591) - A Camel and Infantry civ.
- Swordsmen half gold.
The use of infantry was strong in Songhai forces. While I’m not sure they mastered swords, especially not sure if 2H swords, the footman was a valuable soldier. It differentiates itself from the Goths in a few ways. First, it’s available in full in Dark, second, they get full Armor tech, and lastly, it saves more gold when gold saving matters most. Compared to Malay, you get the Champion tech. Whether lacking Arson will bite back or not is yet to be determined, but I get the feeling 40 of these slicing your TC will be just as dangerous as any champions. Unlike the Goths, the Songhai don’t also save 21f per soldier or save on spear men in any capacity. Unless they should NOT get supplies but I’m unsure about this as thios discount is literally their ONLY infantry bonus.
- Fishing Boats don’t need to return to dock and automatically gather but gather 25/20/15/10% slower.
The Fish from waters like Lake Chad were bountiful. Disputes with the Kanem and Bornu of Niger were not unheard of between all the tribes in the area. Definitely no Gill Nets, but the question is, is it too strong at full gather speed?
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Start +50f/75w/25s
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Just some extra goodies. These numbers can be finagled with if they’re too good.*
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Gains 100/250/450g when aging up.
Gold in Sahara Africa? Yes! -
Heavy/Imp Camel tech 50% cheaper and faster to research.
Camels were kinda a big deal. Used by the Sanjara traders to reach Morocco and even as far as the Middle East. Oh yea, they have Imp Camels if I haven’t waxed on about that! It’s technically not a UU as samurai and any other anti-UU attacks don’t do extra damage to them.
- Team Bonus: Gold Mines revealed on map
The wealth cannot be understated of West Africans to know where to find salt GOLD. Well it could, and probably should be, as they do start with -20 gold.
Missing Techs:
- Barracks: Eagle Scout, Arson
- Archery Range: Hand Cannoneer, Parthian Tactics, Elephant Archer
- Stable: Hussar, Battle Elephant, Steppe Lancer
- Siege: Bombard Cannon, Siege Ram, Siege Elephant
- Dock: Cannon Galley, Gill Nets, Heavy Demo Ship
- Blacksmith: Bracer
- Economy: Two Man Saw, Town Patrol
- University: Bombard Tower, Heated Shot, Chemistry, Keep, Arrow Slits
- Monastery: Illumination, Heresy
- Castle: Sappers
You are seeing correctly. This civ has no Chemistry, let alone gunpowder. Although, their UU could help circumvent that a little bit. They have a great melee force and Siege Onagers who do 75 damage instead of 76, the horror. Arbalests, discounted Champions, Imperial Camels and Siege Onagers are nothing to sneeze at!
It also has Paladins. It makes absolute sense as more than most Africans and even some Euros, heavy cavalry was key to Songhai success. Now this is literally the civ with ZERO bonuses for their otherwise FU Paladins, in fact -20g towards it, so whether that’s enough to incentivize them over Imperial Camels and infantry is yet to be determined, though they’re probably your best hope against Archer swarms if Onagers don’t have enough range!
- UU: Gao Huntsman – A camel who throws hunting spears. Acts like an Arambai but sacrifices some of that unit’s raw power for a bonus against gunpowder units and huntables, as well as a minor bonus vs. UUs. Damage/Range doesn’t increase with smithing. Thumb ring doesn’t work either for its ■■■■ accuracy.
| Gao Huntsman | Stats | Elite |
|---|---|---|
| Hit Points | 55 | 60 |
| Armor | 0/1 (-3 Cav Archer) | 0/2 (-3 Cav Archer) |
| Armor Types: | Camel, Cavalry Archer, UU | |
| Attack | 9 (+3 vs UU, +5 vs Huntables, +10 vs Gunpowder, +3 vs cavalry) | 12 (+4 vs UU, +8 vs Huntables, +13 vs Gunpowder, +5 vs cavalry) |
| Range | 4 | 5 |
| Line of Sight | 8 | 8 |
| Accuracy | 40% | 45% |
| Rate of Fire | 2.1 | 2.1 |
| Movement | 1.35 | 1.35 |
| Cost | 70w,80g | |
| Train Time | 23s | 22s |
| Elite Upgrade | 1000w,750g | 45s |
Compared to the Arambai, it will win cost effectively, as well as vs. most UUs, and probably trades well vs. Camel Archers. Conqs, Jannisaries and Organ Guns are obliterated. Longer ranged archer UUs need to kite them, although the bonus is not on par with Samurai, which doesn’t contribute much vs a target that was already dying to fire from 3 units anyway. They cost a pretty penny though.
Castle UT: Salt Trade - Teamwide Stone Trickle. Numbers yet determined.
Cost: 400f/450s. 30s
The idea is a simple stone tech. A bit filler, but teamwide Trickle might be too much?
Imperial Age UT: Tuareg - Camels and Gao hunters take -33% damage from anti-camel attacks.
The implication is that anti-camelry is less powerful here. The Tuareg were Berber but had much interaction and camel trade with the people of Saharan Africa.
Gameplay: The Songhai start is certainly interesting. You can do a 5 Militia drush without mining.
On water, their fishing bonus is nice. If you can defend your water position, you can fish further fish spots first and then tuck your fishing ships away in an isolated patch away from as much naval confrontation as possible. Granted, this is their only naval bonus. As the one civ without Chemistry (not that they’d have any gunpowder anyway) and no bracer either, their Galleons are weaker as is their archery and a lack of CGs doesn’t help you breach the shoreline.
You’re going to need ESkirms to deal with all the Spears and archers you will see. Not to mention the gunpowder units. There are bullet wounds all over this civ, even with Gao Huntsman spam! If your enemy has guns, he will blast you with them. Sure, Arbalest (even without Bracer), Paladins and Camels are scary, but it’s incredibly gold expensive, and if you didn’t pressure your enemy off his gold, you might run out early.
If you make it to the trash wars however, the Songhai could easily live on half-gold Champions, despite full food costs (might change this) who, unlike the Malay, lack Arson instead of the Champion upgrade. They’ll need them as this civ lacks Chemistry, Bracer and Hussar, leaving their trash as rather low tier… that is to say, other than fairly good Halbs and cheap champs they don’t do well and a Goth cost and time effective swarm can compete.
Faster armies with lots of range to hit and run with will be nasty to these guys. Even the Gao Hunter, who enjoy more resistance than Arambai, including not having the archer armor (might change this) won’t do super well against units with 8 or more range. They need to likely risk a lot to take down Hand and Bombard Cannons. Counter them like you would Arambai but remember to exploit their reduced cav archer armor as they aren’t true ‘archers’
If water is available, fish! Always fish… do it by boat! You don’t even need to redock closer to the fish. Just FISH and hide your boats away in an obscure location away from all the conflict! If you don’t fish you’re wasting the most valuable eco bonus if the fishing spots are deep. Fish in obscure locations that naval battles will never take place in, you can do it more safely, after all. Fish in the deepest waters!! Fish on your enemy’s dock in the Dark Age to deny him his closest food! Keep in mind, this is NOT a naval civ. A civ can be a fishing bonus civ and not have a naval powerhouse status. The lack of Chemistry (including CGs) hurts here for end game navies.
The monks are decent, but can you really Monk rush as a civ who starts with less Gold? Sure, it’s only 20 and all the mines are revealed, so you know where to go to attack or even starve your enemy’s mines if you got moxie to try and starve him.
So grab your armies and don’t let them gun you down!
Any balance advice welcomed! Numbers probably need a few tweaks.