A Guide to Playing Mvemba a Nzinga of the Kongolese in Civilization 6

Mvemba a Nzinga was a leader of the Kingdom of Kongo during the 16th century. He spread Christianity throughout Kongo after Portuguese explorers discovered that African kingdom. Mvemba is the leader you can select to play as in Civilization 6. He’s one of two Kongolese leaders in Civilization 6, but Nzinga Mbande is only available in the Great Negotiators DLC. Mvemba a Nzinga of the Kongolese in Civilization 6 offers some decent cultural and economic bonuses for players.

Mvemba’s Religious Convert Leader Bonus

Mvemba’s Religious Convert leader bonus enables the Kongolese in Civilization 6 to receive all the beliefs of any majority religion established in Kongo. Beliefs received from a majority religion are restricted to Follower, but that’s not the case when you’re playing as Mvemba. This leader bonus also grants you free Apostle units for building Theater Square and Mbanza districts.

An important thing to note about this leader bonus is that it disables the building of Holy Sites, which is a disadvantage. You can’t establish a religion because of this leader’s bonus. Thus, you can’t play for the Religious victory condition when playing as Mvemba a Nzinga of the Kongolese in Civilization 6.

The Kongolese Nkisi Ability

Nkisi is the Kongolese civ ability that gives you yield bonuses for relics, artifacts, and sculptures when playing Mvemba a Nzinga. Each artifact, relic, and sculpture in your museums, capital city, and galleries will generate +2 food, +4 gold, +1 faith, and +2 production yields. For example, a non-themed archeological gallery with three artifacts in it will generate +6, +12 gold, +3 faith, and +6 production.

The Kkisi ability also grants you more great person points for great artists, musicians, and merchants. The Kongolese in Civilization 6 amass +50% more points for those great persons thanks to the Kkisi civ ability.

The Kongolese Unique Unit and Infrastructure

Mbanz is a unique district you can build when playing as a Nzinga of Kongolese in Civilization 6. This unique district is a replacement for the Neighborhood, with half the production cost. It provides +4 gold and +2 food yields for the city it’s built at, along with a fixed +5 housing. Unlike the standard Neighborhood, the amount of housing in the Mbanz district is not affected by tile appeal.

Ngao Mbeba is a unique Kongolese Classical Era unit that replaces the Swordsman. This unit has a melee attack of 38, which is three higher than the Swordsman’s attack. Ngao Mbeba also has a significant +10 combat strength bonus when fighting against range units. Nor do you need to obtain iron to recruit Ngao Mbeba in the vanilla Civilization 6 game (iron is needed in Gathering Storm).

Strategy and Tips for Winning When Playing as Mvemba a Nzinga

The Kongolese civilization in Civ 6 is best suited for the cultural victory path, primarily because of its Nkisi ability. To make the most of that ability, build numerous Theater Square districts and archaeology museums. Then, recruit archaeologists to fill your museums with artifacts that will increase your gold, production, faith, and food yields. Invest your gold and faith in recruiting cultural great people faster with patronage.

Building more Theater Square districts, galleries, and broadcast centers will also enable you to amass many more great musician and artist points when playing Mvemba a Nzinga in Civilization 6. The Kongolese Nkisi ability will inflate the musician and artist points generated by 50%, which is a considerable bonus. You can easily attract more artists and musicians than most other civilizations by exploiting the Nkisi ability.

To further increase your great person points advantage when playing as the Kongolese in Civilization 6, select the Divine Spark pantheon and Classical Republic governments when you can. The Divine Spark pantheon will give you a +1 great people points from Theater Square and Campus districts throughout a game. Classical Republic will increase the great people points amassed by 15% when selected as the government.

Mvemba a Nzinga’s Religious Convert leader bonus isn’t one you can do much to exploit. Except that you shouldn’t try to block the establishment of a majority religion in your civilization when playing as Mvemba. Let another country establish a religion in your Kongolese civilization so that you can reap the benefits of all its beliefs.

If you don’t play for a cultural triumph, a military (Domination) victory is the next best one to go for with Mvemba a Nzinga. Gold is important for military unit maintenance and upgrades, and the unique Mbanza district can provide a good economic boost. For example, building four Mbanza districts will increase your overall gold per turn by 16, with which you could add two additional Stealth Bomber units to your military. So, build more Mbanza districts to boost gold for your army when going for the Domination victory condition.

Although Ngao Mbeba isn’t among the very best unique units in the game, it can come in handy for winning early-game wars. It’s somewhat easier to roll out this unit than the Swordsman when you don’t need to find any iron for it. So, try to unlock Ngao Mbeba during the early game ASAP to win one or maybe even two wars with it.

Although Mvemba a Nzinga of the Kongolese in Civilization 6 isn’t among the best all-round leaders in the game, he is a good one to play as for securing cultural victories. The Kongolese Kkisi ability can give you a good advantage against other civilizations when playing for that victory condition. He doesn’t offer huge military benefits, but the Kongolese Mbanza district is useful for increasing gold with which to further military expansion in pursuit of a Domination victory.