A new video about Civilization VI: Gathering Storm shared via the game’s YouTube showcases one of the new civs that are going to be added to the game: the Mali and their leader Mansa Masu, who is said to be one of the wealthiest people to have ever ruled.
As you could probably imagine, the bonuses and perks associated with Mali and Mansa Masu are geared towards obtaining lots of gold, and using it to help benefit the growth of your civ. In the case of Mali, it’s geared more towards aiding with a religious win.
What is most noteworthy to us are the changes to mines (less production but + gold), extra trade routes during golden ages, and extra gold obtained from desert tiles while playing as Mansa Masu.
Having a large gold reserves is extremely powerful in Civilization VI. While gold itself doesn’t contribute to any specific victory, it makes all conditions way easier to obtain.
For example, if you’re going for a peaceful win, like Culture or Science, you would like to usually avoid spending production building a military. However, defensive wars are inevitable.
Being able to just buy a quick defensive military via gold when needed saves you a ton of time that can be used to be building wonders and building up other districts instead.
And speaking of which, if you do like to play aggressively, its unique calvary unit for Mali available during the Medieval era provides gold on kill as well and can defend trader units. Using that window of opportunity to attack could help you build up a huge bank to play it more safe later on.
The only thing Mansa Masu appears to be lacking is any kind of unique abilities that have something to do with the new disaster mechanics that are going to be present in Gathering Storm. Usually new Civs like to play with these new features, but it’s not always the case clearly.
Civilization VI: Gathering Storm is due out on Feb. 14.
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