Dahomey

Primary culture

Fon (West African)

Capital province

Abomey (1140)

Government

Tribal Despotism

State religion

Fetishist

Technology group

West African

Dahomey ideas

Traditions:

+10% Fort defense

+25% Hostile core-creation on us

Children of the Panther

+1 Yearly legitimacy

Slave Hunts

+15% National manpower modifier

Migan and Mehu

−10% Stability cost modifier

Lagredis

+30% Foreign spy detection

The Amazons

+5% Discipline

The Yovogan

+10% Institution spread

Palaces of Abomey

+1 Yearly prestige

Ambition:

+10% Production efficiency

Dahomey is a landlocked one province minor in Niger that borders Dagbon to the North as well as Oyo and Benin to the East. Its only province has a development of 3 and produces slaves.

Strategy[edit]

Dahomey starts in a very bad position surrounded by stronger nation and need to sign alliances to survive. Mossi is a good ally since is the strongest fetishist nation in the area; Zazzau is good too because starts with a three star general; Benin could also be a strong ally if doesn't starts with a hostile attitude towards the player. Dahomey also starts with a 3 dev province so the economy is painful: the player should focus on conquest and developing gold provinces in Kong and Mali and not be afraid to take some debts or debase currency.

Where the heart is[edit]

If the player is going for the Where the heart is achievement the first targets are Dagbon and Oyo, they usually ally each other so both can be beaten in the same war. The player should fully annex Dagbon to open a western route of conquest and also take some Oyo's provinces in order to border with Nupe, that will be a future target.

The first war with Mali is the hardest one: the player should attack before Mali has expanded too much, and maybe when it is engaged in another war. A good ally against Mali is Fulo, this nation doesn't exist at the start of the campaign but appears in 1470 in the provinces of Brakna, Tekrur, Galam and Tagant and has some cores on Mali and Macina.

If Dahomey wins against Mali, the rest of the campaign until 1500 will be a race against time. The player will need to feed Fetishist allies with Sunni lands and maybe take a vassal or two: Kanem Bornu is the best one since it has some cores on Air and Yao and can be fed with their lands, on the other hand Kanem Bornu is Sunni so the player has to manually force religion.

The player must pay attention to the possible conversion of Kano to Islam.

To avoid too much AE the player should: hire the improve relations minister given by the nobility interaction, set the Establish Communities trade policy in both trade nodes and take the Justified wars ability in the Age of Discovery tab.

If the player is struggling with rebels, they should increase autonomy on not-gold-producing provinces and hire the Theologian minister in the clergy interaction tab.

To avoid economic problems the player should develop gold provinces, hire the Inflation reduction minister from the Merchant Guilds and take the Improved war taxes age bonus for the Age of Discovery.

Since Dahomey starts without Feudalism the player must not spend Admin and Diplo points on technologies but keep up with MIL tech.