From now on, same continent as Shaka = Reroll for me.

I have found that Shaka can be a royal pain in the butt, or a great asset. Try this: Before attacking you (at least if he has other options), he will usually ask for your help against another civ. Agree to do so. Once you have fought on the same side of a war, he will remain loyal for a long time. Periodically gift him some coin or a unit. Trade with him. Open borders. **Build City Walls.** Most of the time, you can keep peace with him for a long time - while he wrecks havoc on all your other neighbors (whom you are also helping....). By the time he gets around to dealing with his "friend" (you), you should have vastly superior technology and be able to deal with him. (If you can't out-tech Shaka, you are likely playing at the wrong level.)

Or, you could take him out before he has those *?@! impis.

Don Matt said:

I have found that Shaka can be a royal pain in the butt, or a great asset. Try this: Before attacking you (at least if he has other options), he will usually ask for your help against another civ. Agree to do so. Once you have fought on the same side of a war, he will remain loyal for a long time. Periodically gift him some coin or a unit. Trade with him. Open borders. **Build City Walls.** Most of the time, you can keep peace with him for a long time - while he wrecks havoc on all your other neighbors (whom you are also helping....). By the time he gets around to dealing with his "friend" (you), you should have vastly superior technology and be able to deal with him. (If you can't out-tech Shaka, you are likely playing at the wrong level.)

Or, you could take him out before he has those *?@! impis.

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I agree - Shaka can be very useful. You can reliably sick him on other players for a little coin (e.g., 5 gold / turn). Monty and a few others are also like this. This poisons the diplo well to your advantage.

best way to assure him as an ally is as follows:

1) bribe him to attack everyone near him. civs, city states, everyone within trade route distance
2) build a city within trade route distance
3) he will need a trading partner, but what's this, he's at war with everyone else and your his only option. soon you see his caravan in your city.
4) his high loyalty rating and not wanting to break trade routes should ensure solid friendship until ideologies are chosen, by which time impis are not a threat.

easy peasy.

An aggressive neighbor like Shaka requires an adjustment to your strategy OP. I used to rail right along with your earlier posts until I watched Beyond the Monument (w/ MadDjinn) and learned how the AI comes to hate me and how to manage my Warmonger Diplomacy Penalties. Please watch at the link below and you may come through your frustration with Shaka...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjVwsi4kD_Q

CivAddict, get better at the game. Watch some civ videos. Build a military. Make warmongers friendly. I have played this game for 2 years, for the first few months, i felt the same way. this game is too hard. but i watched some videos, played it a bit more, and now i know how to deal with aggressive AI's. also, keep your rage inside.

Shaka is not a big problem if you know how to approach him properly. You've been given some advice already but other commentators do not go far enough imo.

Shaka's strength lies in melee units. Melee units can be killed from afar. Especially before they can get good bonuses. Ergo, build 3-4 archers and even before that, attack him. Steal his workers, kill off his units, make it impossible for him to settle new cities.

If Shaka is very close to you, it's the best possible option because you will meet and DoW him before you meet other civs and you will also have guaranteed lebensraum. You're killing off his settlers, remember? Your goal is to leave him with only one city, without any units and with land scorched. He will be harmless.

The disadvantage is that you may not be able to trade with anyone for science for some time.

If Shaka is farther away, do the same but also try to get allies who could aid you in battle.

In my latest multiplayer game, a friend of mine spawned just next to Shaka and for some strange reason decided to wait for medieval era to attack. That was one easy victory for me.

The real problem occurs when Shaka spawns on a big continent far away from you. It's usually indicated by msgs about civs losing their capitals and an unknown player with score 200% of yours.

Oh and if you are playing on deity, don;t waste your time and reload the game when Shaka is anywhere near you.

Funny thing is I usually never had any problems while near Shaka. He would usually DOW some poor schmo, piss the rest of the world off (I usually play a Huge 22/41 Terra map), and ended up getting steamrolled by allies and eliminated by the late Renaissance/early Industrial era.

Shaka is ridiculously easy to bribe to DOW someone else, which is what I do all game long

You guys so lucky, I've yet to experience the wrath of his impis. Im sad. Cuz everytime I meet shaka, the time period of impis has passed and they're getting blown up by my gatling guns and frigates.

asura_ said:

This problem can be solved by selecting a low difficulty level and your own opponents when you set up in advanced start, I think.

I have only had problems with Shaka once, but my entire strategy was weak, so of course he won easily.

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That doesn't really solve any problems, it just means that you're a crappy player. Of course if you play on Settler where the AI refuses to ever attack you you'll win every time. Every time you can win a difficulty level you should be trying to move up next time.

Yeah, re rolling is something I would do too but vnot only when I'm on an island alone with Shaka but with any other we'll known warmongering civilizations particularly at the Deity level when the ai is most op.

Trackmaster said:

That doesn't really solve any problems, it just means that you're a crappy player.

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...hence the validity of the suggestion...

It depends on what motivates him the original poster to play. If he wants most/all of the Steam achievements, he might want to consider lowering the difficulty.

I dont know what difficulty hes playing at but on anything near prince, the AI is incredibly easy to win wars with. They just throw units into the meatgrinder and lose them. It just gets annoying when he has a city in the middle of a forest and you dont have indirect fire yet...and on higher difficulties they just throw more units at you faster. I think one thing civ type games really need is some sort of unhappiness modifier for doing badly in a war...losing millions of soldiers should make people unhappy.

Impis are brutal though, i totally destroyed greece with impis, the spear throw makes a huge difference to melee outcomes. I still relied on ranged unit spam to take down cities though.

Shaka was tough on me until I bee-lined to Artillery in my current game, then he sued for peace. Once I finish off Persia, who is between the two of us, then I will do some paybacks on ol' Shaka.

Or if you want a different game. Set up a new game. Go into the advanced screen, move the City State number settings to zero, then pick Venice as your only opponent. (I have thought of this, but never tried it yet).

From now on, if I find any other civs on the map it's re-roll for me...

Personally I love starting near to Shaka. It makes for great fun, because he usually launches an attack on me at some point. Admittedly sometimes he sends a massive wave of Impi warriors at me, and if I have neglected my military he trounces me. This is my own fault, though. I just accept being defeated and start a new game (usually with Shaka included, to get my revenge)

Haha Shaka! Your Impi will never beat my Musketmen you mad tribals!

Musketmen. Oh, right. Dat bonus the Impi get.

All Shaka cares about is gaining territory. I think his units usually get happiness problems.