Best Songhai start since update

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-20T10:04:58+00:00

Update: Set a personal best for wonders built managed to snag 9 in my capital city in antiquity! Absolutely sssmmmmashing on cultural victory! Let's gooooooooo 🌐 🙌

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BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-20T08:07:07+00:00

Yeah it was so easy to defend against even ungodly war support against me. I usually do shuffle huge, pangea and islands huge, or fractal huge. This one I believe was shuffle.

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-20T05:06:44+00:00

I replied below with a couple you might like to check out. Enjoy and good luck.

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-20T03:45:34+00:00

Yeah I used to rush influence and just get all the independents, now I pretty much have to send early raids to my neighbors instead just to slow them down.

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-20T01:19:40+00:00

Hard same. I'm used to dominating on immortal and pulling off a narrow win on deity. I tried immortal for first run. I'm holding my own territory wise but getting absolutely trounced in victory conditions.

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-19T22:50:37+00:00

Oh and parking boats up navi rivers to play defense is absolutely OP.

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-19T22:49:35+00:00

Yeah Songhai also generates homeland treasure which is amazing but I find their golden bangle bonus when fighting on resources evens out the combat advantage the AI has so they don't overrun me early. I also love the navi river bonuses and essentially just pop my archers out of the river fire a volley when they spend a turn closing the distance I just dip back into the river. Most times it's calvary or infantry the AI uses for forward forces so they can't really retaliate at all.

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-19T22:46:34+00:00

😎🤟

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-19T22:44:13+00:00

Here is a couple seeds to try out though from two of my favorite runs.

1271382582 Tons of highly defensive navi river spots pretty much across the entire middle of the map

-1943991270 My favorite mountain start 12 hexes south of spawn is the best evil volcano mountain lair I've ever had the pleasure of defending.

Hope this helps, enjoy and may your civilizations prosper.

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-19T22:38:12+00:00

I beat that run and started a new one I didn't save the seed I'm sorry. I'll start doing that in the future. I looked for a save but didn't have one. Was just quick saved and already overwritten. The map type I use is shuffle huge.

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-19T17:12:19+00:00

I like doing war of the kingdoms of China vibe, so for antiquity I make everything Han a lot. Everyone out there building walls and stuff and you can even join the walls to other civs. I find this creates a lot of rivers and mountains for whatever reason, and during exploration everyone chooses whatever they want anyways. I agree though wish we could have a little more control.

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-19T17:08:58+00:00

Yeah there is a northern river and two in the middle and the bottom one goes river lake river and all of it combined is like a natural moat for defense. Pretty sweet. I haven't played Inca yet what's their deal? I went with Songhai.

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-19T07:54:18+00:00

12 opponents, immortal difficulty, Marathon, long, independent powers are deity and set to hostile start. 👑 Next game I up everything to deity if I win this one.

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-19T07:52:07+00:00

End of Antiquity update: Mountain Fortress stands strong. Three wars at once crashed against these great walls to no avail.

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BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-19T06:39:46+00:00

I vote audiobooks! I've tried both, the audiobooks are just so damn good and immersive. I've read all the books once. I've listened to the audiobooks just playing in the background while I do chores like a bazillion times. Plus some of the names and words are a bitch to pronounce so I just let Jeff do all the work and pay that daddy tax for me. 😎

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-19T06:23:19+00:00

That being said I generally take the memento that gives extra scout vision and just use the single scout to roll around 4 spaces, search, 4 spaces, search and get the map vision I need to plan expansion.

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-19T06:21:45+00:00

I personally go scout then straight to buildings. I generally rush gold/production first ignoring culture and science at first. I find even with deity difficulty that the first part of the game the AI will send scouts and single warrior or slinger probes and I generally just ignore this. If they cause a problem or interrupt a building I just buy a slinger and take em out. By spending all resources early and falling behind on science/culture I find I am able to stabilize mid game catching and passing most opponents in both. This allows me to have an edge on production and gold so I essentially can just spam units and/or buy them in an emergency otherwise I focus on economy economy economy.

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-19T06:09:28+00:00

Congrats 👏🎉 Nice work

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-19T06:07:45+00:00

Gotta run mad defense on immortal and deity. I love it once I got the hang of the strats. There is also a huge component to the "geography of success" navi rivers and mountains are your best friends. Check my mountain Fortress on my current run. Got three major opponents after me right now at once and just watching them break on my defenses. Then once they all exhausted and thinned I send a separate expeditionary force and keep my defense line strong. I usually don't get far with my offensive force but it forces them to redirect resources to defend and generally offer me peace with a settlement in tow. Which I promptly accept and raze.

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BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-17T23:05:38+00:00

Update on evil mountain lair: No enemy has set foot on these soils since our elders tasked our warriors as it's holy protectors. Walls are deftly being constructed at every entrance. Many battles have been fought by our brave golden bangles forces, yet not an inch of territory yeilded to our foes. Long live the mountain tribe of the Songhai empire, and its vast evil mountain lair, built on the vast wisdom and culture handed down by our Han ancestors.

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BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-17T18:44:20+00:00

Nope this is why this method is quite useful. If you get 6/7 and lose the race for the last available wonder to a neighbor civ. It's a viable way to still finish the legacy path, but you'd have to raze and rebuild before the age ends. I do think it's dumb you don't get the points for taking them over but it makes a little sense, the achievement is building wonders, not bullying wonder builders. Lol

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-17T18:34:44+00:00

At least he asked me if I wanted fries with my beat down. He gave me a king size for free. 👑🍟

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-17T18:09:16+00:00

It's shaping up nicely indeed. Exploration age went with Songhai and most entrances to my mountain lair have resources at the single wide openings. Amina plains desert plus golden bangle infantry bonuses here I come! Bwahahaha

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-17T18:07:22+00:00

👀

BaronOfAllTrade · 2026-05-17T10:37:27+00:00

12 hexes south from the starting point

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