This strategy aims to reach the industrial age quickly in order to benefit from all the shadow tech units that Hausa easily get (mostly Akan Ankobia and falconets, but also mercenaries).
It is probably a well known strategy but I'm going to write down what should be the optimal build order for it.
The deck looks like this because it is tailored for another extravagant FI but it works just fine for this strategy too. You can remove some of the funky stuff in favor of some more age3 shipments just in case you decide it's better to give up with the FI idea and stay in age3 for longer or for the rest of the game.
The key cards to have are:
- Palace card, 700c, 5 ankobia
- 1k coin, 1k influence, merc/native combat
- 1.6k influence, 8 lifidi, 6 eso riders
All other cards are optional but since it is an FI, those in age4 are definetely recommended.
The build order
Disclaimer: it's possible to go for a naked age2 FI but all in all making 5 raiders doesn't slow you down by much and it is simply more safe.
Age1
Usual Hausa stuff, get a granary and get the food up. Build a house. Send 3 vills. Age up with 14v with the Songhai option. Prioritize food and coin treasures. XP is also good (especially before first card), wood does not speed up the build in any way but can still be valuable for later on.
Transition to age2
Switch all vills to the coin mine except for 1-2 vills that bring closer additional hunts. Sell one cattle exactly at 200w value and build an university that has to be set immediately on XP production. Leave about 5v on coin while all others are tasked to food. TC rally point is also to food.
Age2
Send the palace card, build a war camp with travois and collect the 200c crates. At 200w trade another cattle, research the 2nd hunt upgrade and build a house. Train 5 raiders.
Palace goes next the university. Get the influence tokens with a vill. Next card is 700c. Collect the crates with exactly 3 vills and age up with the Morocco option.
Transition to age3
At this point there are two variations:
- fast age using the influence collected so far (if not exactly 450 just switch the university for couple seconds). This gives a sub 8 minute semi FF and faster FI too, but with just 5 units until the transition to age4.
- slow age and use the influence in the bank to ship the 5 Akan Ankobia (and research the artillery tech at the palace asap in age3). This is slower but somewhat safer if opponent is already pressuring with his units. In that case training another 5 ankobia from the war camp doesn't slow down the build (will still have 2k food when coin crates arrive).
Either way all vills stay on food and, in case, the coin for the 5 Ankobia comes from a traded cattle (actually you need to trade another one for housing too).
Age3
Collect the XP crates and send 1k coin. Build the mosque. Upon arrival, collect the coin crates with exactly 8 vills, which will then be tasked to the coin mine. Trade a cattle to get the remaining coin to age up.
Age up with the Yoruba option.
Transition to age4
Send 1k influence and research the artillery tech at the palace if not done yet. If aged fast to fortress then ship 5 Ankobia after the 1k influence.
Collect the influence tokens and train 2 falconets. Train Ankobia non stop. Trade a cattle for wood and get more houses and, if possible, the coin upgrade.
Age4
The influence tokens from age up can be used for more falconets or to train emergency Eso Riders (great unit) from the palace.
First shipment is usually 1.6k influence if the idea is to get more artillery (or cav merc). Other good cards to send (in no particular order) are 8 lifidi, 6 Eso Riders (don't count to the build limit) or the merc/native combat card. 1.6k coin is useful to get the heavy cav upgrades (buy wood with that). Big benny + more cows is good for housing and to have a steady influence trickle, speaking of which, university can be toggled to influence at some point when enough good shipments have been sent.
Recorded games vs AI for reference
