Kumasi (Civ6)

Kumasi
Cultural City-state
Introduced in Civilization VI
Color	Purple
Envoy bonuses
1 Envoy	+2 Culture in the Capital. Ethiopia Pack: +1 Culture in the Capital and in every Amphitheater building.
3 Envoys	+2 Culture in every Theater Square district. +2 Culture in every Amphitheater building. Ethiopia Pack: +2 Culture in every Art Museum, Archaeological Museum, and Consulate building.
6 Envoys	+4 Culture in every Theater Square district. +2 Culture in every Art Museum and Archaeological Museum building. Ethiopia Pack: +3 Culture in every Broadcast Center and Chancery building.
Suzerain bonus	Your Trade Routes to any city-state provide +2 Culture and +1 Gold for every specialty district in the origin city.

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Kumasi is a cultural city-state in Civilization VI.

Strategy

Spawning next to Kumasi is the dream of any player, as this is one of the very best city-states in the game. Ignoring the fact that this is a cultural city-state and how valuable Culture is at any point of the game for any victory condition, Kumasi's Suzerain bonus is nothing short of wildly overpowered. It focuses mostly on amassing Culture from city-state Trade Routes, allowing you to gain a massive amount of Culture very quickly and help you race through the civic tree. Just to provide an example, a city with 10 Population can build four specialty districts, which translates to +8 Culture and +4 Gold per turn for each Trade Route that city sends to a city-state.

Culture is in short supply in the early game, as it's very difficult to earn high adjacency bonuses for Theater Squares and Theater Square buildings are very expensive. Even without a wide empire, the Suzerain of Kumasi will have no problem being the one with the most Culture per turn in the game, unlocking wonders, policy cards, and governments they need for any strategy long before anyone else. This bonus has strong synergy with Chinguetti and the Great Merchant Ibn Fadlan, and works well with both a wide empire and a tall one.

For the reasons above, you should send any Envoys you earn to Kumasi whenever it appears in a game, especially if you find it early on. This is one of the powerful city-states that can greatly influence the outcome of the game, so if a diplomatic civilization is beating you out for Suzerainty of Kumasi, think about conquering it to deny them its great bonus.

Civilopedia entry

There is archeological evidence that there has been a settlement at Kumasi since the Neolithic period. But the town wasn't commonly known until 1695 AD when it became the center of the Ashanti Confederation under Osei Tutu. With the 1701 victory over the Denkyira tribes, Kumasi became the cultural as well as the political center of the Ashanti ethnic group. Located astride two Saharan trade routes, it also became quite wealthy … and the discovery of gold in the kingdom didn’t hurt.

No doubt the latter contributed to the legend that the priest and lawgiver Ohomfo Anokye received the Golden Stool from heaven, the embodiment of the spirit of the Ashanti peoples – past, present and future. Except, of course, the slaves; slavery was a historical tradition among the Ashanti, and were often taken in warfare or by raiding nearby tribes. Slaves were occasionally sacrificed, and were expected to follow their masters into the afterlife (usually with a little help). But on the positive side, Ashanti slaves could own other slaves and even request a transfer of ownership if they deemed themselves abused.

Kumasi was doing quite well, an artistic metropolis by all accounts, until the Anglo-Ashanti Wars … five of them between 1824 and 1901. The conflict was triggered by several coastal kingdoms in Ghana threatened by Ashanti expansion which called upon the British for protection; British greed for gold just may have been a factor also. Whatever the reasons, near the end of the Third Anglo-Ashanti War much of Kumasi, including the palace, was destroyed by British forces after their victories at the hard-fought battles of Amoaful and Ordashu. Although two more wars were left, Kumasi never regained its prominence and stature.

It did, however remain the cultural center of the Ashanti; ceremonial control of Kumasi was restored to the Ashanti in 1926. In 1935 the Ashanti Autonomous Region was established in the British territory, with Kumasi as its capital.

Trivia

• Kumasi's city-state symbol is a porcupine, which served as the national emblem of the Ashanti Empire.