Songhai (Civ5)

The Songhai people represent a civilization in Civilization V.
* Symbol: Traditional pattern used on mud cloth
* Musical Theme: Gambia Folk Song (composed by Michael Curran using a YouTube soundtrack as a basis, orchestrated by Geoff Knorr)
* Music Set: Middle Eastern
* Architecture: Middle Eastern
* Spy Names: Ahmadou, Ayub, Badru, Bokhari, Guedado, Adhiambo, Chinaka, Laila, Mariama, Oni
* Preferred Religion: Islam
* Preferred Ideology: Autocracy
== Strategy ==
The unique ability and unit of the Songhai provide a strong incentive to play aggressively. The War Canoes and Amphibious promotions will give your military units a distinct advantage on island maps, as they will be able to stand up to enemy naval forces while embarked. The Mandekalu Cavalry, which replaces the Knight, takes less time to produce and does not receive a penalty when attacking cities, making it better suited for sieges in wartime. If you can acquire lots of , you'll be well-prepared to launch a fast and powerful offensive against your neighbors once you research Chivalry. You can then use the that you pillage to rapidly develop captured cities, or to purchase new units and maintain your army's momentum.
The Mud Pyramid Mosque can also be a great asset when playing as the Songhai. It costs no upkeep and also generates more than the Temple it replaces, allowing you to work your way through the social policy trees while simultaneously increasing your generation. Build it in new cities as quickly as possible to ensure that you will found a religion early on. If you're going for a domination victory, adding beliefs like Just War will make it much easier for your forces to capture enemy cities and city-states that adopt your religion. Be sure to build the Statue of Zeus and adopt all the policies in the Honor tree to further increase your army's prowess and earn additional by defeating enemy units.
Although a domination victory is the most obvious choice for the Songhai, they can potentially pursue a cultural victory or even a diplomatic victory by adding beliefs like Religious Art or Papal Primacy to their religion. If you choose one of the latter options, you should focus on attacking other civilizations and spending the that you earn by conquering their cities to buy with city-states. This, in turn, will further boost your and output, allowing you to adopt new policies and impress and befriend other city-states more easily. Depending on the map type and what kind of victory you're trying to win, filling out some combination of the Aesthetics, Patronage, and Piety trees early on will help you along, and completing the Commerce or Exploration tree later on will keep your empire's economy strong.
== Civilopedia entry ==
== Cities ==
== Gallery ==
File:Songhai map (Civ5).png|Map of Songhai Empire
== Related achievements ==
== See also ==
* Songhai in other games
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ru:Сонгай (Civ5)
Category:Songhai