Advice for a Mali game

[I am the walrus]

Hello there.

Currently I'm at the beginning of a Mali game I went blind, so while technically I'm still alive I guess I'll have to restart soon enough. So I'd like to know what are the key points for this campaign, the most important do's and don't.

Since I need a lot of conquests to end the disaster, should I conquer as much of those needed provinces asap, regarding any other considerations? Should I rely mostly on loans+mercenaries? Should I core my conquests asap?

Spawning Feudalism and/or Rennaissance cost A TON of money, should I do it asap anyway? In what province/s?

Between spawning institutions, coring new provinces and technology, what are my priorities?

What are the key things to do to prepare for the europeans? When should they begin arriving?

Estates is a part of the game I never knew hot to use efficiently. For this particular campaign, or especifically for the very early game, how should I approach it?

Any other consideration I need to keep in mind and plan ahead in the mid to long term?

Any help will be appreciated.

 

[RCMidas]

Normally I'd try for a full breakdown of these questions, but I'm really running low on time and can only manage a speedy way of clearing a couple of problems for you from the get-go.

1) Assign the advisor-cost-reduction privilege to each of your non-Dhimmi estates. Assign the Amir Primary and Land of Commerce privileges, and sell crownland.

2) Hire Lv2 Advisors across the board. You are now making 6 Adm, 6 Dip, and 6 Mil Mana every month. You can immediately complete the "A Competent Court" and "Gain Estate Favours" missions to reduce the problems of your immediate disaster. Send a diplomat to start a spy network in Kong so that you can forge a claim on one of their provinces, and send another to ally Songhai. You can betray them later.

3) Recruit the Free Company, make Mansa a general. This'll give you plenty of good claims in the area. Increase Autonomy in the province of Segu. Call a Diet and see what the estates want - it might be helpful. Now unpause. On Dec 11, you want to declare war on Jolof to conquer them, rather than subjugate them.

4) Though it's risky, it's probably for the best to disinherit your starting heir and either introduce a new one or hope a better one comes along - also make sure to have Mansa actively leading your troops during a siege or battles once one does so that he can die off quicker. Most of your missions increase Stability during the disaster until it is done so don't worry TOO much about that part of it.

5) Active the Encourage Developer Edict in the Futa Jallon state, and spend the next few months developing your port of Gabu up to 15 - ideally with Mil Mana (spend no Adm Mana, use that exclusively to core Jolof's provinces for now). As soon as it has reached 15 Development and you can promote Senegambian culture to accepted (make Jolof into a state for more Senegambian development, you want that anyway in the long run), do so and complete your mission "Handle the Kaabu People" to prevent separatists from rising up all over the place.

6) Before expanding eastwards, develop Segu in much the same way to 15. This gives you some very nice starting claims to keep pushing eastwards. Change your national focus to Administrative (next to the advisors) because you are going to want a lot of Adm Mana for coring and to raise Stability in the last few years to escape the disaster.

7) Loans and mercenaries are absolutely the way to go initially. Remember to take as much cash as you can in each peace deal so that you can pay off your initial loans, and then - because tl;dr how much a loan gives you is based on your size - you can take out new and bigger loans to finance the next stage of your expansion. Assume that you will not be able to finish the disaster until Timbuktu, Songhai, Jenne, Jolof, Kong, Yatenga and some of their likely neighbouring allies such as Dagbon, Dahomey, Zazzau, Oyo, Wagadugu etc have been completely annexed or vassalised by you. You want to avoid vassalising people in this early part, because they will be EXTREMELY disloyal and likely declare an independence war at the worst possible time.

8) The most important technology for you will be Military Technology. Focus on that first and when developing for new Institutions, do so in a single city that you have made as cheap as possible to develop - almost invariably, this will be your capital (either Joma or Timbuktu) whilst you have the Encourage Development Edict active and the Burghers estate both loyal and influential.

9) If you want to delay reaching North Africa, do not colonise Tuat with your mission-reward decision and hope that Morocco does not manage it for a few decades. The Saharan corridor to Tunis is almost never colonised by Tunis, so don't worry about that. From 1470, usually around 1471 or 1472, the Fulani will emerge as a state in that empty section next to you - I advise being ready to send a diplomat to forge a claim and wipe them out before they became a MAJOR pain in your side.

Start with this, and good luck on your next attempt. Mali is a nasty one even if you are comfortable with the game.

 

[I am the walrus]

Hey thanks so much for such a detailed answer. Let's see what I can do!

 

[Cpt.Cross]

Mali is also a formable so if you find the opening with all the disasters too hard you can just play one of the nations around it. Conquer Mali, switch to Mali culture and reform. Jolof is coastal and its mission tree tailors to taking down and replacing Mali.

 

[Cavalry]

Spawning Feudalism and/or Rennaissance cost A TON of money, should I do it asap anyway? In what province/s?

My favourite way is Quantity aproach, quantity mean manpower, gold (and production in other games like Civ 6). Only after quantity we should get to tech, traditions...
In EU4 current any minors can be double or triple economy just using the free MP to develop provinces. So develop it and get Institution too.

Estates is a part of the game I never knew hot to use efficiently. For this particular campaign, or especifically for the very early game, how should I approach it?

Use them, they are manpower and money. Especially the Religious culture previledge that give +10% manpower and gold for provinces with official religion.

 

[I am the walrus]

Start with this, and good luck on your next attempt. Mali is a nasty one even if you are comfortable with the game.

I did the first step of the plan. I annexed Jolof and their ally Kong, and took Jenne in the same war. I'm coring all provinces and I'll accept senegambian culture as soon as I core the next Jolofian province.

I took 4 automatic loans of 67 and 75, and I ran out of manpower. So this takes me to my next questions:

-I reckon this game, and especially the early phase, I'll enjoy few moments of peace and I should be attacking my next target rather soon. However, I have a high revolt risk in most of my country, low stability, and like I said, 0 manpower... So while I recover for the next war, should I fire the mercenaries? If I do so, how will I fight the revolts I'm gonna be suffering soon enough? What about the level 2 advisors? I haven't fired them yet because I desperately need those monarch points but they're a huge drain of money (my biggest expense in fact), so maybe I should've done it the moment I completed the mission?

Thanks again for your help!

 

[Cavalry]

Value gold more than advice! Problems solved! As a minor I often have only 1 level 1 advisors, and it is almost not worth it to have high level advisors when economy have debt and cannot afford.