Does anyone have some starter tips for playing as Mali? Not step-by-step instructions to conquer the world, but a general "this is what you should probably be doing as an African realm in any case" sort of thing. I'm used to playing Europeans.
Also for what it's worth I'm using AGCEEP.
starter tips for playing Mali?
Don´t play Mali. No really. If you are used to playing european nations with their "latin tech" quick research then you will find it a very steep step up the difficulty and a strain on your patience to go directly to Mali. Even nations with "orthodox" technology research faster than Mali.
If you don´t want to resort to exploiting the AI (e.g. by synchronized looting), like someone did in EU2 with some other african state for a world conquest, it will be a slow game with a slow start.
And when you meet europeans they usually will mop the floor with your armies as they will probably be several tech levels advanced compared to your armies.
So my suggestion if you have played only european nations with latin tech until now would be to rather play as
Granada (good tech, still in europe and great cultures), Muscovy (orthodox technology but a great country to play once you turn Russia) or some major muslim nation (e.g. Ottomans or in a later scenario the Mughals)
The tips for Songhai would be fitting for Mali too:
http://www.agceep.net/FAQ.htm#Tips
